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Even some gravid directors have terrible debut motion picture , as prove by a look back at the less telling films of a few notable filmmakers . Everyone has to start somewhere . Even future Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone get his career with a persona in the adult movieThe Party at Kitty and Stud’s . At the same time , directors can often have an even more ambitious time breaking into the manufacture . Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham , who eventually helped fabricate the slasher sub - genre withA Nightmare On Elm StreetandFriday the 13th , first encounter while work together on an grownup movie .
However , while these inauspicious launching might have been less than category - friendly , they were n’t necessarily bad movies . The same can not be said for the first onscreen efforts of many great managing director . While some filmmakers get strong , plenty of great directors have made dread debut movies . Likemovie role player who star in forgotten boob tube display , these directors went on to big and good things later in their careers . However , anyone who does a inscrutable dive into their filmography might be surprised to find that their debut picture have been forgotten for a good reason .
10Sam Peckinpah—The Deadly Companions
Sam Peckinpah became celebrated for his violent , grim westerns . Peckinpah ’s later gritty movies , such asThe Wild BunchandBring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia , reinvented the musical genre , do the West a harsh place free of heroism and aristocracy . However , his 1961 debut , The Deadly Companions , didn’t sell much of his later career ’s promise . Maureen O’Hara was mischievously miscast in a major role and clashed with the conductor , while a grindingly slow pace and clear-cut lack of action made the bareness ofThe Deadly Companionsfeel less groundbreaking and more oscitance - inducing .
9Phil Tippett—Starship Troopers 2: Hero Of The Federation
Phil Tippett is perhaps best sleep with for his visual effects form in theStar Warstrilogy , Robocop , andJurassic Park . More late , his sinful horror epicMad God ’s 30 - year product processmade headlines when the film was loose in 2022 . A gruesome , unremittingly bleak larger-than-life , Mad Godwas worth the wait for aficionados of Tippett ’s creepy creations . However , it ’s not the first film he direct . That would beStarship Troopers 2 : Hero of the Federation , a forgettable straight - to - video sequel that squandered the subtle satire of Paul Verhoeven ’s original movie . Even Tippett ’s ordinarily impressive ocular effects could n’t save this dud .
8Stereo—David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg ’s movies , fromThe FlytoVideodrome , often engage with the human resolution of scientific experimentation in a way that feels alternately playful and horrifying . However , 1969’sStereo ( Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic)takes the sterility of the theater director ’s manner to new , unwished heights . Cronenberg ’s worst movietells the story of students undergoing a revolutionary treatment to induce telepathy . Unfortunately , this early try is more likely to cause insomnia sinceStereois too trippy and offbeat to work as a sci - fi thriller but nowhere near psychedelic enough to engage as an experimental travail .
7Joel Schumacher—The Incredible Shrinking Woman
Joel Schumacher made some forged moving-picture show in his calling , from the infamously campyBatman and Robinto 2004 ’s misjudgedThe Phantom of the Opera . However , the director also has some grand underrated movies , such asTigerland,8MM , andFalling Down . Schumacher also had a couple of classical guilty delight on his CV , such asSt Elmo ’s FireandThe Lost Boys . That said , none of this change that his debut , The Incredible Shrinking Woman , was a dull , un - funny movement that rot a great premise and a biz lead performance from Lily Tomlin .
6David Fincher—Alien 3
WhileAlien 3 ’s deadly Xenomorphmight be the most dangerous freak in the dealership , this did not elevate the weakest movie in the series . David Fincher was infamously dysphoric with the studio apartment ’s cuts toAlien 3,and the director ’s subsequent piece of work makes it soft to see why . Fincher modernise a well - earned reputation as a master of benighted stories as his career progressed , but even theSe7endirector could n’t salvageAlien 3 ’s excessively grim plot . WhileAlien 3sent the franchise into a spin from which it arguably still has n’t go back , Fincher ’s work essay the theater director had much more to proffer .
5Oliver Stone—Seizure
1974’sSeizuresees a repulsion writer watch helplessly as his family and friends are killed by a trio of nightmarish fibre that step out of his incubus and into realness . This premiss might voice solid , but the psychological horror is a fateful mess in practice . While manager Oliver Stone ’s laterPlatoonturned the filmmaker ’s tragical experiences in Vietnam into adevastating , great war film , Seizureproved that the filmmaker could n’t save an already - uncomprehensible secret plan with telling visuals . Even these are disappointing thanks toSeizure ’s limited budget , which adept Mary Woronov after aver was partially provide by a mobster ’s money laundering .
4Martin Campbell—The Sex Thief
Martin Campbell make out the impressive achievement of take not one but two classical James Bond entry . The British director helmed the playful , self - awareGoldeneye , introducing viewers to Pierce Brosnan ’s campy Bond in 1995 . Then , just over a decade by and by , Campbell change pace completely with Daniel Craig ’s brutal , acute 007 debutCasino Royale . Despite bringing two telling Bond debuts to life , though , Campbell ’s own debut was a lot less boasting - desirable . Ostensibly the chronicle of a gem thief and the man attempting to hunt him down , 1973’sThe Sex Thiefwas a thinly - mask softcore movie , and not a particularly good one .
3M. Night Shyamalan—Praying With Anger
It feels mean to criticize M. Night Shyamalan ’s directorial debut since the dissentious film producer was only 22 years old when he completed the ego - serious dramaPraying With Anger . However , time has yield him plenty of fourth dimension to testify his potential , and nowShyamalan ’s wild plot twistsare the stuff of Hollywood legend . As such , the fact that his debut movie did n’t work is n’t potential to cause much embarrassment . A glum drama about an Indian - American student return to his aboriginal area , pray With Angeris painfully businesslike and dull , lacking any of the vitality , invention , and humor that later on made Shyamalan famous .
2Edgar Wright—A Fistful of Fingers
While Shyamalan ’s debut movie is miss in humour and self - awareness , Shaun of the Deaddirector Edgar Wright’sA Fistful of Fingershas the paired trouble . Before he was create Hollywood smash hit , Wright cobble together a bare $ 15,000 to make a westerly sendup in his native England . unluckily , Wright ’s evident enthusiasm is the only expert thing about the movie . Wright himself hold that he realized his introduction movie was n’t suspect while he was editing the finished product , which is whyA Fistful of Fingerswas never released . Since Wright was only 20 , he had pile of time left to better his slyness .
1James Cameron—Piranha 2: The Spawning
James Cameron is one of the most successful director in Hollywood history . As the managing director ofAliensandThe Terminator , he was instrumental in creating some of sci - fi ’s braggart enfranchisement . As the film maker behindTitanicand theAvatarfranchise , he was a trailblazer of meld groundbreaking special effects with gang - pleasing , action - packed storytelling . All of this spend a penny it all the more surprising that his debut moving-picture show isPiranha 2 : The Spawning . A cheap sequel lacking the humor and appealingness of music director Joe Dante ’s originalPiranha , Piranha 2 : The Spawningis a mess . A wacky story of flying fish terrorizing beachgoers , this debut pic could not be a less likely starting point for one of Hollywood ’s most telling aircraft carrier .
