Was this local film the worst in history? – Valley Roadrunner

The poster for one of the worst movies of all time, Frankenstein Island.

Is a horror movie produced in Valley Center by a local resident the worst movie ever made?

Thats a question being asked by a national film society which is compiling a roster of motion pictures that fit that description.

Under consideration is Frankenstein Island which one critic called absolutely the worst movie Ive ever seen. And he was being kind.

Another critic added, You must see this movie to appreciate how truly bad it is while another added, It is hard to think of any filmmaker who made movies as cheap or as ridiculous as Jerry Warren.

So, who was Jerry Warren? We know he lived in Valley Center and that he died in 1988 at a hospital in Escondido at the age of 63 from lung cancer. His wife Gloria, who died that same year, had earlier spoken with two members of the Local History Committee, now known as the Valley Center Historical Society.

Warren, a bit actor in the 1940s, decided to produce films in 1956 with Man Beast. Before he died, Warren had released 15 horror films, almost all of which used either stock footage or existing foreign horror films, most of them Mexican, which he re-edited and added sequences with English-speaking actors.

A story in the Valley Roadrunner in 1986 reported that Warren was shooting a new horror film with local residents in Valley Center titled Alienoids of Fright Island. There is no evidence that the film was ever released.

Frankenstein Island, Warrens final film, was released in 1981. In 2019, a video collection of films was released under the title Best of the Worst and includes that film. An on-line Website called Rotten Tomatoes, which is a compilation of reviews from multiple film critics across America, calls Frankenstein Island an uproariously bad film.

In California, one public library in Calaveras County is known to have a boxed collection of horror films which includes Warrens 1958 movie Teenage Zombies. It can be requested through San Diego County Library, but will not be delivered locally until the COVID-19 closure ban is lifted.

The Valley Center History Museum, which maintains a file on Warren, is temporarily closed, but can be reached by sending an email to museum@vchistory.org or by calling (760) 749-2993.

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Was this local film the worst in history? - Valley Roadrunner