Zyzzyx Road is a 2006 American film written, produced and directed by John Penney. It stars Leo Grillo, Katherine Heigl, and Tom Sizemore. The film involves Grant, a philandering accountant who goes to Las Vegas on a business trip, where he encounters the seductive Marissa and her jealous ex-boyfriend Joey. The former pair kill and bury the latter along the eponymous Zzyzzx Road, a rural road off of Interstate 15 in California's Mojave Desert. However, things go From Bad to Worse when they realize Joey may not actually be dead.
It's perhaps best known for being the lowest-grossing film in US history, earning just $30 at the box office - and two of those tickets were refunded. (However, the circumstances must be taken into account - the film was shown once at one theater because it had to be screened domestically to secure its distribution rights.)
Tropes:
- Disposing of a Body: After killing Joey in self-defence, Grant and Marissa roll his corpse up in a quilt, put him in the boot of their car and drive him out to the titular road to bury him and avoid going to jail. But then Joey's body disappears.
- My Nayme Is: Although the town in the Mojave desert is spelt Zzyzx, the spelling in Zyzzyx Rd is perfectly acceptable
. Zyzzyx is also the name of a genus of sand wasp. - Not Quite Dead: Joey and Marissa accidentally kill Joey in self-defence...only when they drive him out to the desert to bury him, his body has vanished and they realize he may only have been stunned.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Grant got a big bump on the head early in the movie and starts hallucinating, so we cannot be certain if all the movie's events are actually happening. Yep, Grant really is completely crazy and ends up threatening Marissa in the third act.
- Yandere: Joey is a male version of this. He's obsessed with Marissa to the point that even after she broke up with him, he hunts her down and tries to kill her and her new lover from jealousy.
