Zyzzyx Road
directed by John Penney
starring Katherine Heigl, Tom Sizemore
Dark Arts Entertainment
Zyzzyx Road has the dubious distinction of holding the record for the lowest domestic box office gross in history. Based on reactions to this factoid around the internet (many without the benefit of actually seeing the film) one might be led to believe Zyzzyx Road is some kind of cinematic atrocity, but it is in fact a fairly interesting neo-noir thriller that is getting a shot at redemption via a 4k UHD release from Dark Arts Entertainment.
Written and directed by journeyman screenwriter John Penney, who got his start writing some interesting horror films in the 1980s (The Power and The Kindred) before turning to working on low-budget films aimed solely at the European market, Zyzzyx Road was never intended for theatrical release in the States. Due to the Screen Actors Guild, the film had to have a qualifying US release before it could be sold overseas, so Penney rented a theater screen in Dallas, presented the film with no advertising, and grossed $30. This bit of trivia piqued a lot of interest in the film online, with rampant and spurious claims of the film being one of the worst movies of all time when the truth is that is is a solid basic-cable type thriller that would be otherwise forgotten if not for the box office stats.
The film opens on a lonely desert highway as Grant (Leo Grillo) and Marissa (Katherine Heigl) head west from Las Vegas with the dead body of Marissa’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Joey (Tom Sizemore), in the trunk. They turn off on the oddly named Zyzzyx Road to look for a spot to bury Joey’s body in the desert. A married tax accountant and a ring-pop-slurping Vegas party girl, Grant and Marissa are an unlikely pair, and utterly inept at disposing of a body. When they realize that Joey’s body is no longer in the trunk, panic sets in, and they go in search of him in the darkness. With morning light, Grant leaves Marissa at his now wrecked rental car, and he catches up with Joey in an abandoned silver mine. Grant and Joey’s meeting makes Grant question everything he knows about Marissa and the events of the previous night, and as Grant’s psyche shatters, Marissa must use her wits to survive and get out of the desert alive.
Made just before she achieved superstar status in Grey’s Anatomy, Katherine Heigl is the soul of the film. She is radiant in the film that sees her go from precocious sex kitten in Grant’s twisted vision of her, to the strong, if less idealized, survivor she is in the stark reality of the light of day. Tom Sizemore does Tom Sizemore things and Leo Grillo holds his own as the hapless Grant, whose faithless weekend in Vegas destroys both his manicured life and his sanity. There is also an unlikely cameo late in the film by Rickey Medlocke from Lynyrd Skynyrd as a desert rat meth cooker.
The film, shot on high-def video, looks surprisingly good, and the actors are clearly having a blast with the concept and zippy dialog. It also doesn’t hurt that the whole affair clocks in under 90 minutes. For the curious, ignore the garbage reviews on Letterboxd and YouTube and enjoy this curious and compelling little thriller.
