In order to reach Zzyzx, get on Interstate 15 & take Exit 239 to Zzyzx Road, a 4.5-mile paved/dirt road that leads to the abandoned-Army-post-turned-spa-turned-research-center; the sign is apparently a bit of a landmark for those driving between Los Angeles & Las Vegas. What's the point of this bizarrely-worded history? Well, with a name like that, it's only natural that there'd be people who would tell stories taking place in (or at least named after) the United States Board on Geographic Names' lexicographically greatest place name (i.e. it's the very last one, alphabetically); special props to 1982 arcade game Zzyzzyxx, if only for taking the zany name to an even crazier extreme.
In particular for this piece are a pair of films with almost exactly the same name that came out in the exact same month & year as each other, had extremely similar budgets, are nearly the same length, & are both in the "thriller" genre. Up first was Zzyzx, also known as Burned in some places, which saw release on February 4, 2006. Produced by Yarble.com on a budget of just $1,000,000 & filmed in just nine days, this 80-minute movie directed & produced by Richard Halpern (W.M.D., Suburban Nightmare) & starring Kenny Johnson (Det. Curtis Lemansky in The Shield), Ryan Fox, & Robyn Cohen (Anne-Marie Sakowitz in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) would go on to receive a little bit of praise in the few reviews given for it, especially considering its indie status. This includes apparently winning Best Picture at the Miami Film & Music Festival & First Runner Up at the final Nashville Fylmz Film Festival in 2007. Three weeks later a film titled Zyzzyx Road, also known as Dead Ahead: Zyzzyx Road in some places (like the back cover of the DVD), would see release in a theater on February 25, 2006. If I had to guess, the seemingly misspelled title was likely a mistake confusing the road with a genus of sand wasp (Halpern's film apparently also had this spelling initially, but managed to fix it before release), that name actually predating Springer's gibberish by seven years! Produced by Zyzzyx LLC on a budget of $1,200,000 & filmed in just 20 days, this 86 minute movie directed, written, & produced by John Penney (Return of the Living Dead III, Hellgate) & starring Leo Grillo (who was also co-producer), Katherine Heigl (Dr. Izzie Stevens in Grey's Anatomy), & the late Tom Sizemore (who actually got arrested during filming for failing drug tests during probation, but was allowed to finish his scenes) would go on to achieve notoriety for one reason alone: Its box office.
No, I didn't mistype when I wrote that "Zyzzyx Road would see release in a theater", because it only saw release in the (now shuttered) Highland Park Village Theater in Dallas, Texas for nine days, where it only managed to earn $30 in total from six patrons; in reality, it only actually earned $20, as two tickets were later refunded due to them being bought by the film's makeup artist & a friend. The reason for the limited theatrical release was because of a requirement by the Screen Actors Guild, and when it finally saw international release on DVD it managed to earn ~$368,000. Ironically enough, Zyzzyx Road wouldn't even manage to hold on to its "Lowest-Grossing Film of All Time" moniker, as 2011 comedy The Worst Movie Ever! would actually dethrone it, earning just $11 from literally one patron during its two-day run in the (former) Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles. Personally, I'm amazed neither film went with the ultimate gimmick & tried getting a special one-night screening at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA itself; sure, it's an absurd idea, but these are both films literally named after a nonsense word coined by a notorious 20th century huckster.
So, considering it's April Fool's Day, let's pit Zzyzx & Zyzzyx Road against each other & see which one comes out on top!
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| "Consistent Movie Titles"? What's that?! |
Story:
As is usual for a "Vs. Battle" of this ilk, we start off with a basic synopsis of each film's general story & see which one has the more appealing/interesting concept. Zzyzx tells the tale of Lou & Ryan, two buds who are taking a car trip to Las Vegas. Before heading there, though, the two decide to go on Zzyzx Rd. for a short detour, as Ryan once read an old article from the 60s about a couple who allegedly did all sorts of atrocities in Zzyzx, CA and he was curious about seeing it for himself. While on the road, Lou brings up the idea that the middle of Zzyzx Rd. is so isolated from humanity that it'd be possible to kill someone & get away with it, as a sort of dark humor to mess with Ryan. All of a sudden, the two come across a random man walking on Zzyzx Rd., and while Lou passes by him rather close to play a prank on Ryan, when they decide to turn about & finally just head to Vegas, they wind up actually running over the man. While Lou was behind the wheel, Ryan's worries that Lou might actually go through with his idea made him panic & grab the wheel at the last minute, so it's impossible to tell who's really at fault. The two check to see if the man survived, only to see him die shortly after... and right as they were about to just leave the body alone, they notice someone else walking down the road from afar, so they hide the man in their car. The person they saw is Candice, the newlywed wife of the man they just killed, and now they have to somehow manage to keep her from finding out what happened to her husband Manny, even when he's covered up in the back seat of Lou & Ryan's car.
Meanwhile, Zyzzyx Road is about Grant, a married accountant with a daughter who's spent the past week having an extramarital affair in Las Vegas with a young woman named Marissa, with the two getting along very well. Unfortunately, their week of bliss comes to an end when Joey, Marissa's ex, finds the two of them together & tries killing them with a knife. Grant manages to seemingly kill Joey in self-defense with a back vibrator, and in a panic the two lovers take Joey's body to Zyzzyx Rd. so that he can be buried in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, while Grant tries to dig a hole, Joey comes to, escapes, & wants to kill the two even more, and an attempted escape by Marissa leaves the car they were in stuck in a ditch. Now Grant & Marissa are effectively trapped in their car, hoping to be able to wait until daybreak so that they can finish the job & kill Joey.... but who REALLY is the villain in all of this: Joey, Marissa, or even Grant?
Winner: Draw
So, not only do these films have similar names, lengths, release dates, budgets, & genre, they're also shockingly similar in terms of plot! Thankfully, though, they're just different enough to not be anything close to downright "clones", because then things would be almost as bizarre as the history of Zzyzx, CA itself. In all honesty, I have no choice but to award both films a point here & call it a draw, as both are interesting little concepts in & of themselves, showing how a bizarrely similar concept (two characters having to deal with a dead body that was of their own making in the middle of nowhere) can be executed in two unique ways.
Characters:
Interestingly enough, another similarity between these films is the fact that they both have very small casts to them, with only three characters making up the primary cast in each. For Zzyzx we have Lou, played by Kenny Johnson, Ryan, played by Ryan Fox, & Candice, played by Robyn Cohen; I guess you can also count Manny, a role for which Kayo Zepeda mostly had to act dead. Simply put, none of our main trio are good people. Lou is an Iraq War veteran who has a mighty ego & has no problem being a pushy & manipulative "bro", especially when it comes to Ryan, who he even tends to call "Mitch" simply because it rhymes with "bitch". Meanwhile, though Ryan is probably the closest thing to an "innocent" in this entire story, his own neurotic behavior & lack of backbone makes him easy to manipulate & be taken advantage of, but even by the climax he gives into his own carnal urges when given the chance. One could argue that Ryan might be somewhere on the neurodivergent spectrum, but I kind of doubt that was intentional here; I think he was just meant to be really weird. Finally, while Candice is introduced as a completely innocent figure just getting caught up in a mess she knows nothing about, she is quickly shown as knowing more than she lets on, and as the story advances she pretty much becomes the most conniving & manipulative of them all; while Lou & Ryan are arguably pushed into being their worst selves, Candice was always there. Then there's Manny, who really is the true innocent in all of this... but he's dead for the large majority of the film, aside from a handful of very quick flashbacks seen throughout. Simply put, Zzyzx is a film best described as "Terrible people find themselves in a dangerous game of psychological one-upmanship, even if they don't realize it at first".
For Zyzzyx Road we have Grant, played by Leo Grillo, Marissa, played by Katherine Heigl, & Joey, played by Tom Sizemore, and that's really it. Grant claims to have nothing but love for his wife & daughter, especially the latter, but at the same time his love for Marissa is indeed true, and if all things were ideal he'd want to be with Marissa but still have his daughter. Marissa is interesting because she likewise does love Grant, but it's not long until it's revealed that she has a history of faking her age with all kinds of various fake IDs she has in her bag, and when Grant asks for her age she refuses to give more than a month & date, so it's possible that she might only be 17, which freaks Grant out; Heigl does try her best to portray Marissa as being rather young, but she was ~28 for this movie. Finally, Joey is easily the most complicated character, at least in retrospect after watching the entire movie, because there's an element of who Joey really is, in the long run. To keep things from becoming too spoilery, he's initially almost like a stalker villain in the first half, as he's constantly able to watch Grant & Marissa from afar before sneaking up on them here & there for a quick encounter. However, in the second half he becomes more of a manipulative conniver, as he tries to fool Grant into trying to kill Marissa, convincing him that she's actually a master manipulator herself.
Again, though, things aren't quite what they seem with Joey, so take this description with a purposeful grain of salt. Beyond them there's the occasional bit where Grant hears the voice of his wife Brenda in his head, as a form of self-guilt regarding his infidelity, as well as "Truck Driver Bob", who gets involved during Grant's hunting of Marissa during the climax for a short bit; Grant's daughter is also played in short flashbacks by Leo Grillo's own daughter, which is nice.
Winner: Zyzzyx Road
Once again, we have a situation where the two similarly named films are more & more similar, with the finer details being what separates them. In this case, we have main trios who are all flawed, if not downright "bad", people who find themselves in some sort of psychological conflict that eventually turns physical. In Zzyzx it's a game of one-upmanship & in Zyzzyx Road it's more of a cat-&-mouse situation, so in the end this battle is really more a case of personal taste, at least in terms of which cast & "game" one prefers. In that regard, I have to give the point to Zyzzyx Road, mainly because while I found the cast & "game" in Zzyzx very engaging in their own rights, I still wound up enjoying the cast & "game" of Zyzzyx Road more interesting, personally. Plus, it's hard to really top a cast that includes Tom Sizemore, and that's just a matter of fact.
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| Going with "90s FMV game on Sega CD" is certainly a visual choice to go with for a dream sequence, Zzyzx. |
Visuals:
It's actually kind of rare that I get to pit two similarly named products that are actually the same kind of product, in this case live-action films, so in this case "Visuals" would come down to things like cinematography, use of color, etc. In Zzyzx's case, this is a lower budget film (at least, a solid million is that when compared to Hollywood films), and director Richard Halpern took full advantage of that. It has a very gritty & rough visual look to it, as though it was filmed with old cameras, and the entire thing is meant to look hot & a bit hazy, fitting for the desert environment it's set in. The closest thing to an exception would be scenes happening in the mobile home, which looks a little more "comfortable", but even then it's only so much so. Then there are a few moments in the second half which feature a bit more trippy & surreal effects, which naturally happen when everyone gets high on "super shrooms" (as Lou calls them), and for those instances they work well. The entire sequence where Lou is going on a shroom trip & has all manner of dreams (being chased by his car driven by Ryan, running for his life during his time in Iraq, having sex with Candice, etc.) is handled in a very good fashion, at least in terms of it being very wild & purposefully spotty. As long as you can get around the seeming focus on looking very rough in terms of a literal film sense, which I'm sure was intentional, Zzyzx is very fitting with its visuals.
In comparison, Zyzzyx Road is mostly a much more straightforward film, visually, at least in the first half. Everything looks much "cleaner", though with the first half of the film being told during night that's honestly for the better. That being said, though, you sometimes to do lose just a little bit of suspension of disbelief at points, as there is a surprising amount of natural light for many of the nighttime shots; sure, for some shots the car's headlights are the cause, but I doubt the Moon is THAT good of a natural lighting rig. However, things get very interesting in the second half, during the daytime shots, as director John Penney went with a very cool concept: Contrasting color grades. In short, the way color is utilized differs depending on whose perspective a shot is being framed from, so one shot can be shown with a muted & drabber grade to it, while another shot can be shown with a more vibrant & colorful grade. I don't want to reveal whose perspectives these altering color grades are used for, as doing so would require spoiling things & ruin the fun of it, but it results in a really cool style for the second half of the film, and matches the tone used there perfectly. However, I will make note of one set of shots in the middle of the film, where it looks like Leo Grillo was filmed in front of a green screen, and the edges of his head really give it away, since the compositing wasn't perfectly done; they were likely pick up shots filmed way later, but it's still worth pointing out.
Winner: Zzyzx
While I will state that I think Zyzzyx Road's use of contrasting color grades in the second half is my personal favorite use of visuals across both films, I think it wouldn't be fair that it alone would be enough to put that entire film above Zzyzx's overall visual tone. Richard Halpern & his crew went with a distinctly dirty look for the entire film on purpose, which really does match the story it tells, and overall there is just a stronger focus on taking advantage of the fact that this is a visual medium here than with John Penney's film.
Music:
A musical score definitely can help with setting the mood of a thriller, so how does each film's score work? For Zzyzx we have composer Kays Al-Atrakchi (Battle of Los Angeles, Midnight Son), simply credited as just "Kays" here, who goes for a mostly amelodic score to help maintain the uncomfortable atmosphere throughout the film. Not just that, but there are many scenes that play out without any musical score at all, instead letting the natural ambience & conversations carry everything along. To be fair, this does result in the score being one that didn't really stick in my head after watching the movie, but it most certainly helped keep everything feel uncertain & uneasy all throughout, which is key. In some ways, Kays' score was just as important in not being used as it was in actually being heard, so it is a tad tricky to really judge it, personally. Amelodic scores are not the kinds of things known for being instantly memorable or stuff that you'd listen to in isolation, they're precisely for accentuating mood & atmosphere, so while I can't recall much of the score itself after the fact, I do know that it did its job very well.
As for Zyzzyx Road, we have Ryan Beveridge (Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf, Bees Make Honey), who in comparison goes for a much more traditionally dramatic score. That being said, however, this film also only makes sparing use of its score, resulting in giving the quiet moments more weight to them, such as when Joey is stalking Grant & Marissa from the shadows, with the only major sound being a quick stinger when Joey blitzes across the screen or goes for the strike. Still, there's no doubt that Beveridge made a much more "traditonal" score in comparison to what Kays did, so when the score does play it can feel much more like a normal movie when compared to the more experimental Zzyzx. However, while there is a quick moment or two of Beveridge's score that I can vaguely recall, his overall score is still a bit unmemorable, which one can argue is more egregious, as this was a more standard style musical score; that, however, is 100% up to personal opinion & interpretation, though.
Winner: Zzyzx
When it comes to musical scores, I tend to follow a simple rule as to whether or not it truly is something remarkable for me, personally: Does it have at least one song that will truly stay in my head? In the case of either of these two movies, neither of them fulfills that rule, and yet I'm still giving the point to Kays' score for Zzyzx; why is that? Again, it's because Kays went for a mostly amelodic score that went more for mood than individual memorability. For example, I can certainly remember specific songs from Bobby Prince's scores to Doom I & II, but I can't remember a specific song from Aubrey Hodges' scores to Doom 64 & the PS1 version of Doom. However, since Hodges composed amelodic scores meant to instill mood & feel, I can absolutely remember how those scores helped elevate how it feels to play those specific games. It's the same thing with Kays' score for Zzyzx, because while I won't remember a specific song from that score, I will remember how it accentuated the uncomfortable mood of that film.
Execution:
Arguably the most important element to consider would be the overall effectiveness of everything previously covered, so which film executes everything featured, respectively, best? In short, it's the battle between Richard Halpern & John Penney. After the initial setup of Manny's death is all established & Candice joins Lou & Ryan, Zzyxz takes place in & around Candice & Manny's mobile home, where the three stay at for the time being for Candice's sake, under the assumption that Manny might just come back to it. From there the film takes a real slow burn execution to it, relying mostly on everything that everyone says, with only a few moments until the climax for actions to really play a major factor, and even then the actions are more along the lines of interpretation than directly showing the viewer. The film is really a case where simply describing moments would make it sound rather boring, but actually seeing them for yourself would show how engaging it actually can be. This is truly a movie carried by the personalities of the characters themselves, and the actors all do a great job. The power dynamic of the trio slowly swaps around throughout the story, though it's mainly between Lou & Candice in subtle ways, with Ryan being manipulated by both at different times. This is especially true in retrospect with some quick shots revisited during the climax, as it helps explain some of the odder bits early on, namely in how Lou & Ryan managed to somehow hide Manny's body in the back seat of their car, rather than the trunk, even when Candice sat in the front passenger seat to head back to the mobile home. As the film continues on, & the mind-altering drugs come into play (& it's not just the "super shrooms"), the visuals do mix things up, with quick cuts & various visual filters coming into play to keep things purposefully uncomfortable. The film claims to be a partial homage to Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, and that really seems to come into play with both the drug-induced visuals & the notably violent climax. Also worth noting is the occasional cut to scenes involving a Hispanic family coming across a skeleton in the desert, with it being indicated that it's the body of one of our cast being found long after the fact; however, these scenes aren't exactly necessary, to be honest.
As for Zyzzyx Road, it truly is a tale of two halves. The first half takes place during the night & focuses mainly on Grant & Marissa freaking out over the situation they find themselves in, whether it's trying to search for Joey before he finds them, attempting to barricade themselves in the car in an attempt to keep themselves safe, or even dealing with nature around them, like when a snake manages to sneak into the car & bite Marissa's wrist; the occasional flash of dry lightning really helps set the mood well, too. The second half, then, takes place during the following day... and very quickly things get flipped completely around. After daybreak comes, Grant follows a blood trail into an abandoned mine, upon which the movie changes around who the stalker is, who the victim is, & who Joey has been the whole time (or, at least, after a certain point in the set up). To really get into details would require ruining the entire twist, which I'd rather not do, but needless to say I was absolutely taken aback by the change & it made the second half rather engaging; the first half was good, but the second was even better. The back cover of the DVD case for Zyzzyx Road claims that it's a mixture of Death of a Salesman & Lolita, and while I haven't seen either production a quick online check into either does show some elements that are reflected in this film, which is neat. When combined with the contrasting color grades depending on whose perspective it is & very solid performances from Grillo, Heigl, & Sizemore, the end result is a film that really does surprise you as you continue watching, right until the very end.
Winner: Zyzzyx Road
Both films are very good for what they each set out to do, that's for sure. However, and this is purely down to personal preference (which is really what any of these Vs. Battles come down to, in the end), I came out of Zyzzyx Road with a much better impression than I did with Zzyzx. Halpern's film is really good & earned the praise that it received, but in the end I just wound up having a better time with Penney's film, and that change up in the second half is the main factor in that. Still, seeing as this is only worth one point, like any category, this has resulted in a 3-3 draw... so let's have ourselves a tie breaker!
Usage of Zzyzx:
Finally, as a fun little bonus round, how does each film actually utilize the titular Zzyzx (Rd) itself? After all, what's the point of either film naming themselves after this location if neither of them actually take advantage of it? Well, I am a little sad to report that despite using the proper spelling of the town & road itself, Zzyzx's usage of the nonsense word is really just for the sake of having a memorable title, and even goes as far as actually getting the actual history behind it 100% wrong. Instead, it goes with a completely made up fictional history in which a married couple in the 60s wound up getting a bunch of people killed in Zzyzx, before they fled & were never seen again. Reporters then headed over to Zzyzx to find out more about what happened, like the one that Ryan read the report about, only for no one to ever return from Zzyzx. Yes, the film Zzyzx turned the town of Zzyzx, CA into a mysterious place you'd see be the main location of some horror story involving ghosts or a seemingly-unkillable stalker, only for the town itself to never actually be seen in the film itself! In fact, this entire fake backstory doesn't even play much into the plot, outside of it being an excuse for Lou & Ryan to even go there & a vague allusion that the seeming curse left behind by the couple in the 60s is the reason why all this horrible stuff even happens to our main cast trio (sorry, Manny). Not just that, but the spine of the DVD case for this movie even has the gall to say "Inspired by Real Life Events", and while that could be in reference to the actual plot of the movie & not the fake backstory made for Zzyzx, it definitely doesn't help matters. This movie is just so far off base from the real history of Zzyzx that I almost feel like deducting a point! Still, before I do anything rash, let's see how the other film handled things, in this final regard.
As for Zyzzyx Road, there really isn't much of any actual usage of the titular location at all. Aside from a road sign seen once early on (matching the incorrect spelling, at that), the location is never referenced at all beyond it leading to "nowhere", the road itself kind of becomes an afterthought after the initial setup, and much like Zzyzx it's really obvious that the the titular location was used simply in an attempt to give the movie a memorable title, which makes it all the more hilarious that two different films had the same idea at essentially the same exact time. Still, beyond the misspelling itself (which can even be explained away using the film's plot, if you really want to be pedantic), at least Zyzzyx Road doesn't create its own 100% fictional history & lore behind the location that doesn't even really play any major factor in the plot of the film itself. In comparison to what Zzyzx did, Zyzzyx Road's lack of any real usage comes off as just lazy. However, I shouldn't award a point for pretty much doing nothing, so...
Loser: Zzyzx
I'm going to break tradition here & instead of awarding a "Winner", I am instead awarding a "Loser" to this category, which would be Zzyzx. I can't in any good conscience state that Zyzzyx Road actually "wins" this category, simply because it doesn't actually do anything with the actual location of Zzyzx, CA or Zzyzx Rd. However, the Zzyzx film's decision to outright make crap up, combined with the fact that said made up crap barely plays any importance to the overall plot of the film itself, is amazing in how much of a failure it is. Therefore, instead of giving Zyzzyx Road an easy point, or even awarding neither film a point & ask that God have mercy on their souls, I am actually going to DEDUCT a point from Zzyzx, the first time I have ever done so in a Vs. Battle!
Overall Winner: Zyzzyx Road
With a final score of 2 to 3, the winner is John Penney's Zyzzyx Road!
First off, let me just state that I actually wound up enjoying both films more than I thought I would. I honestly went into this whole Vs. Battle expecting, at best, a bit of an artsy indie film going up against a film buoyed by nothing more than two of its cast being notable actors at the time (Heigl & Sizemore). Instead, I had a purposefully uncomfortable psychological thriller starring a trio of people who you're not really supposed to get behind in any major way & a stalker-based thriller that actually wound up flipping the script in the second half in a way that I absolutely did not expect. That is reflected in the pre-bonus round, as the two films wound up coming to a draw, because both films are indeed very good.
However, the entire origin of this Vs. Battle is because they were both films named after the "unincorporated community" of Zzyzx, CA, & the titular road that leads to it, and I just thought that'd make for an amusing little piece to write about; the fact that they wound up having so many more similarities beyond name was just pure serendipity. Therefore, it only made sense to include a bonus round where the actual location itself would be taken into consideration, and while I'm not surprised that neither film actually paid proper attention/respect/homage/etc. to the location itself, the fact that Richard Halpern's film not only made things up wholesale but also had none of it really matter in the grand scheme of things kind of ticked me off. Sure, this is an extremely minor nitpick to have determine a winner... but this is an April Fool's Day Vs. Battle, and since both of these films are generally very serious thrillers (with only moments of actual humor), something silly had to be involved, right?
Regardless, both of these films are definitely worth a watch if you get the chance, & while Penney's film won out in my book, it's Halpern's film that can still claim the title of "The Very Last Movie (Alphabetically)".
Zzyzx © Yarble.com, LLC
Zyzzyx Road © Regent Entertainment
George, this is a great piece . . . that needed to be done! I bow to your having the courage to take a deep "VS" dive with these films. You're the first to do it. At least, now, the 2023-public can watch Grillo's film on The Internet Archive and find Halpern's on Tubi!
ReplyDeleteYou should link your review on the IMDb so fans of the films can discover it.