Fandom In Context: The So Bad It's Good World of Neil Breen Fans

If you've never heard of Neil Breen, you're not alone. Despite having made five independently shot and financed feature films, and one confusingly-titled six-hour "retrospective," Neil Breen is far from a household name. He's a one-person film studio making the strangest movies in America, and to date, he's made five certified cult classics: Double Down, I Am Here….Now, Fateful Findings, Pass Thru and Twisted Pair. His work, lumped into the "so bad it's good" category of low-budget, cheapo cinema, does have its strengths. He makes incredibly ambitious movies that touch on topics like cybersecurity, religion, suicide, political corruption and laptop ownership. His films have a frank, and annoying, libertarian perspective, but at least he has a point of view that is thematically consistent--many bad movies do not. He also has a hand in nearly every aspect of the filmmaking process, crediting himself as director, actor, producer, writer, cinematographer, makeup artist, set designer, caterer and more. As I said, he's ambitious.

All that sounds impressive, but there's no getting around the fact that his movies, well, they're not good. While rarely boring, Breen's oeuvre lacks any of the film school finesse, acting prowess or narrative cohesion audiences expect. His movies are painfully vague, stoically acted and look like a camera tripod directed them, with actors falling in and out of the frame when Breen's not there to shoot (which is frequently the case, since he's in the scene, too). It's no surprise that he gets tossed into conversations about cult movie auteurs like The Room's Tommy Wiseau. However, he doesn't belong there. Unlike Wiseau, who clings close to irony by saying his film was always meant to be a comedy, Breen is an artist, who is sincere about the work he produces.

This explains the loyal following he's amassed over the last 15 years. YouTubers like PewDiePie and RedLetterMedia helped Breen earn that fanbase by making fun of his movies, but if you ask his followers, there's more to it than that. Breen, the person, is as mysterious, confusing and meme-able as his work. His earnestness and effort endear him to fans. Since coming to online prominence in 2015, he and his films have inspired numerous meme groups, including Facebook's Real Human Breens and the Instagram page @NeilBreenFanClub, which turn clips, images and catchphrases from his movies into in-jokes for those who love him. These groups are small, yet passionate, and are filled with memes, fan art and expressions of appreciation for the director. That's what most bad movie groups have in common: An appreciation for effort, especially those working on a shoestring budget. Nigel, a moderator for /r/BadMovies, believes that's what separates the movies like the ones Neil Breen makes from Halle Berry's high-budget Catwoman, "Sure, the movies are awful, but that's because they never really cared about being good," he says. "They're not trying to tell a story, they're trying to appease shareholders. They have no soul." Enjoying Breen is a shot of irony with a chaser of genuine enjoyment.

"Neil Breen has definitely been one of the most interesting and fulfilling recent discoveries of my life," writes James Hartman, an admin for the Real Human Breens Facebook group. "I attended a screening of Twisted Pair when it came out in October 2018, and while it was a small theater, it was packed full of people, and everyone was cheering and laughing throughout. It felt just like the group because they obviously found the film funny but in an endearing way. You could feel the positivity and excitement in the atmosphere, and it was great."

Irony is a tricky thing in these communities. There's no shortage of sarcasm online, but when it comes to Neil, there's a push-pull between laughing at his work and enjoying it. His movies are by no means good, but there's enough weirdness, originality and gusto to make them appealing and watchable. Aomaris, the founder of @NeilBreenFanClub, says there's an even split between irony and sincerity in the fandom, but the discussion of his work, sincere or ironic, keeps the community active. "Every fanart, every movie clip and every person talking about it keeps it alive," he says. "About what drives it is unclear. It could be people like bad movies or because people actually enjoy his movies. Everyone has their own reason."

The work they make is sometimes more carefully detailed and better produced than Breen's. YouTuber Benjamin Liska's animated remake of ‌I Am Here….Now's best moment is among the most intricate and labored pieces of fan art you'll find for a bad movie, or any movie for that matter. That dedication is infectious, inspiring and driving the community to continue to produce and enjoy. YouTube has become a repository of Breen related edits, with many fans putting together "Super Fan Cuts" of his films, whittling his movies down to their bare essentials of about 30-40 minutes. One edit of Double Down clocks in at under seven.

The fanbase has grown exponentially over the last five years, and Breen has gone international. At a Paris screening of Twisted Pair, he was met with a standing ovation at a Le Grand Rex, an 88-year-old French theater that's one of the largest in Europe. Even still, Breen's perspective is wholly American. Like a super-low budget Clint Eastwood, he crafts stories about "suave" outsiders railroaded by corrupt government systems. As such, phrases like "isn't that corrupt" or a clip where an actor reads the line "I resign, today, as president of the bank" like he's suppressing in a burp have become popular meme-fodder stateside.

Bad movies are great for small groups, hence the term "cult movie." Mainstream releases like The Avengers are designed to appeal to as many people as possible. But for Fateful Findings, one of Neil's most discussed and meme'd film, for all its weirdo logic and non-specific talk of cyber espionage, the audience pool is much smaller. Meeting a fan is rare--not everyone is sold on "you've gotta watch this, it sucks." However, trying to make sense of his work is part of the fun for the rare Breen fan, according to /u/th3dynospectrum, moderator of the /r/NeilBreen subreddit. "I couldn't quite make out if his movies were purposefully made to be bad or if he was that sincere at trying to make his magnum opus."

In addition to being incredibly niche, Breen's movies are difficult to see. Portions of his filmography are available on his website or through the normal streaming channels, but there are gaps. The split has made for some confrontations between the 61-year-old filmmaker and his fandom. Neil tends to fight his audience, accusing them of pirating his work. In December of last year, Breen attempted to shut down Real Human Breens for "impersonating" him and for pirating his movies.

"The group admin tried to explain to Breen it was a fan page and was not meant as an insult," Hartman says, "but rather, an homage of sorts and that many of the people on the group (near 4k members at the time) were genuine fans of his work."

Breen relented on the condition that the group properly labeled itself as a "fan page" and included a purchase link for his latest film, Twisted Pair. "Some of us think he may secretly be a member of the group, but we have no proof, of course. We all thought it might be the end of the group, but luckily we were spared, so to speak. Just the fact that so many were fearing this loss shows it is more of a legitimate love for the filmmaker and not just an elaborate meme page."

Which is why meme groups surrounding him have been so successful. Breen is a fascinating character with a mysterious past. Throughout his six-hour-long five-film retrospective (a clip show hosted by Breen, seated on a couch in his Nevada homestead), he claims that he is a licensed architect, which supplied him with the funds necessary to break into indie filmmaking. If you look online, though, you'll find numerous memes alleging that he was a real estate broker with a business card to prove it. On screen, he's something to behold. "As an actor," writes Alan Jones for The Dissolve, "he saunters through the movie with the confidence of a bonafide movie star, but the cadence of a nursing-home volunteer who reads to the elderly. As others have noted, he resembles an older Keanu Reeves, with a lumpy middle-aged body he isn't afraid to show off."

His work is genuinely unlike anything else, a weird mix of David Lynch and an orientation video for a job at a bank. It's that uncanniness that drives the fandom. "We're always eager to see what Picasso-form of vomit Neil Breen is going to spew to the world," writes /u/th3dynospectrum. "With each new film that releases, a new level (or depth depending on who you ask) of the human psyche is discovered. Each film finds a way to one-up the next in terms of technicality and craziness." His is the type of work that makes some of the strangest memes online. Not just because the work his fans produce is so alien but because they're starting from such a bizarre baseline.