The "Saturday Night Live" alum and director of the new horror-comedy movie "Y2K" talks yacht rock, Cheez-Its and "cat" videos.

For years, Kyle Mooney has had a low-key fixation on Y2K because as a 15-year-old he found it such a letdown.

Then on Jan. 1, 2019, he awoke with the seed of an idea: a movie about teens at a New Year's Eve party where, at midnight, a computer-coding glitch fills VCRs, remote-controlled cars, Tamagotchis and other electronics with blood lust. He texted his writer friend Evan Winter and within a week they had the building blocks of a horror-comedy overrun with retro vibes.

"Y2K," now in theaters, is Mooney's directorial debut. But the hardest part for the "Saturday Night Live" veteran may have been relinquishing control over how to deliver a line with a punch.

"Do I want to try to convey to the actor, like, 'Oh, I think this is a good approach,' or do I want to just encourage them to interpret and take it their own way?" he said. "But ultimately, pretty much all the actors were down to mess around and try to get the best sound bite." (In his review for The Times, Calum Marsh called Mooney "the film's dopey MVP.")

In a video call from Los Angeles, Mooney mused on his nostalgia for Bill LaBounty's yacht rock, VH1's "Bands Reunited" and Ludwig Bemelmans's "Madeline." These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden

When I was in New York working on "Saturday Night Live," it pretty much became an annual thing for my wife -- then girlfriend -- and I. We would go up to the Bronx, go hit up Arthur Avenue, get some red-sauce Italian, and then go to the botanical gardens, drink some spiked cider and admire the trains. It is incredibly cozy and sweet and it feels like such a specific tradition, and one that I had never experienced before.

Baseball Card Unboxing Videos

I'm from San Diego, so I'm a big Padres fan. The algorithm on my Facebook or Instagram gives me these videos or TikToks of people opening up vintage packs of baseball cards, oftentimes looking for a rookie card. The thrill of the hunt is really awesome. In fact, yesterday I opened up a Don Mattingly rookie card and it was a pretty incredible feeling.

Bill LaBounty

There's a really good podcast called "Yacht or Nyacht?" where listeners submit songs and the hosts determine whether they are legitimately yacht rock or not. One of the main elements is that a lot of the same studio musicians are playing on the records -- Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers and Kenny Loggins and Steely Dan. Bill LaBounty is definitely a yacht rock artist. You could refer to it as divorced-guy dad music.

Cheez-Its

I've liked Cheez-Its since I was 2 or 3. They created something very special when they composed that cracker.

Jack Knife Cocktails

It's essentially half Jack Daniel's, half Bailey's. And I've got to say it's close to perfect if you're looking for a little seasonal buzz.

Ludwig Bemelmans's 'Madeline'

Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle was another place I always loved to go when I was working at the show. It feels so New York and that mural is rad. It is so wonderful that it is kept feeling as fresh as it did whenever it was painted. This book was a gift to us before our baby came, and when you look at the pictures, you sort of can be transported back to that bar. It makes me psyched to take my daughter, Beatrice, there at some point.

Skin-Contact Wine

My understanding is that they leave the skins in to make the wine, and the skins allow it to sometimes take on this very funky taste. Some people hate it. I can gargle it down like Sprite.

'Bad Boy' by Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine

The video feels like it's going to be like Michael Jackson's "Thriller." It's a normal human couple on a date, and then she splits off to go hang with a bunch of cats in an alley. This is, I guess, peak "Cats the Musical" being a part of the culture because it's an incredibly bizarre choice. It's very sexy.

VH1's 'Bands Reunited'

Essentially the host shows up at these former band members' homes or places of work and is like, "Do you want to reunite?" When we hold onto something for a decade or 15 years, you get in a fight with your friend or your co-worker, and it's just never been dissected or unraveled or confronted -- that's what this show does.

'Encore!'

Kristen Bell gets together a group of former high school students who put together a musical when they were teens -- some of whom were in love with each other and maybe had some sort of awkward breakup or just generally stopped talking, the way that people do when they age. Truly, sometimes it would affect me emotionally. In a perfect world, I would love for people to be able to solve their problems and get back into each other's good graces.