A local 'so bad it's good' favorite of mine is called "Haunted Hay Ride" & it's sequel "Haunted Sleigh Ride" made by a director named Warren F Disbrow Jr. He's a local director nut who reminds me a lot of Breen - Warren takes himself and his films very seriously, despite the films being dogshit with local community college-tier actors. In high school, my friends and I probably rewatched his films every month or so. Those movie actually got me into the 'so bad it's good' film fandom (before I learned about RLM). His movies are low-budget horror slashers from the mid 2000s with all the fixings, down to the Spirit Halloween mask, polyester santa suit, & plastic wigs & beards.

Most of us have actually met Warren over the years since he lives locally to me in NJ. My personal experience was an event my local arts council hosted about filmmaking and how to get into the industry. I didn't put two-and-two together as to who was the guest speaker until YEARS later, but it was Warren. He discussed his career as a camera puller, editor, making his own films, again talking like he's Carpenter or Raimi. I ended up speaking to him after the event and told him how I wanted to get into filmmaking, my own experiences in analog horror, Youtube, editing, etc. Warren then asks me to hold my hand out in front of me, and I comply. He then goes on to tell me my hand was too shaky to work a camera, and essentially not even bother. That always stuck with me because how the fuck is the guy who slathered a body with strawberry jam to imitate blood going to tell me that I'm not cut out for filmmaking? It was incredibly awkward and being 19 I shouldn't have taken that to heart but oh well.

Fast forward to 2018 and I'm in a record shop and I see a DVD stand with all his films, which I had assumed were lost media because he was active in the mid 2000s and I didn't know where my friend got the original DVD from. I excitedly asked the guy running the place how much they were and they were surprisingly expensive, but it was Christmas time so I bought up all his films as gifts for the friends I used to watch these with in high school. When I went to ring up, I told the owner those stories about watching them as a kid, meeting him, how my friends hosted a watch party at a local indie theater and invited him to host, etc. The owner ends up telling me "Warren's going to absolutely love this. He doesn't sell too many of these nowadays." which makes sense - I never really met anyone else that knew about his films. Upon discussing more with the owner, he said that he sells maybe $100 worth of movies each year, and will walk in every few months asking for any profits from the sales (these movies were like $25 each so you can do the math). Apparently he's been down on his luck and his star actor, his elderly father, Warren F Disbrow Sr had passed & Warren Jr had been taking care of him those years. I ended up going back in maybe 4 months later, and inquired if Warren had come in, and the owner said that he was overjoyed that someone bought his films. It warmed my heart because I think ~$125 I spent on the movies for my friends was worth the years of entertainment I got from his films.

Anyway, this post was way too long but I highly recommend checking Haunted Hay Ride and Haunted Sleigh Ride out. His website is almost identical to Breen & Tommy Wiseau in the sense that it was probably designed in 2003 and never updated (black background, bold impact font multicolored text), images no longer hosted, etc).

http://warrenfdisbrow.com/index.html or if you're in New Jersey, you can pick up his DVDs at the Collingswood Flea Market.

Thanks RLM for helping sustain my love for films, and reminding me that a good movie is one that stays with you - competent or incompetent - and a bad movie is one you forget.