Directing a movie is no easy task, so when a new director bursts onto the scene, it can be quite an event. Some of the best movies in history are outstanding and memorable directing debuts, and some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time began their careers with a highly celebrated first feature. However, outstanding directorial debuts are in the minority; in fact, most are simply average, and a noteworthy few are well below that.

Some incredible filmmakers, like James Cameron, kicked off their filmographies with an opener that they can only wish they could disown. Other directing debuts, like Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda, were subpar efforts from directors who didn't get better with age. Unfortunately, these directorial debuts rank among the worst in motion picture history, resulting in underwhelming and sometimes outright terrible movies that have aged quite poorly.

10 'Alien³' (1992)

Directed by David Fincher

Nowadays, David Fincher is praised as one of the greatest directors working in the industry. He's the modern master of thrillers, though he has dipped his toes into all sorts of other genres throughout his career. One of those genres is sci-fi, as much as Fincher may wish that it hadn't been. The filmmaker's first movie was Alien³, one of the worst sequels of all time, where Ripley crash-lands on a prison planet after her latest ordeal. Upon her arrival, she notices that she may have brought an undesired visitor along.

Fincher himself has stated that no one hates Alien³ more than he does, but a few fans could certainly give him a run for his money. Though by no means atrocious, thanks to impressive visual effects and decent action scenes, Alien³ lacks all the suspense and strong atmosphere that made its two predecessors so iconic. This was likely due to the nightmarish production, which was characterized most of all by relentless studio interference. Fincher would thankfully soon prove to be an exceptional director, but his debut was so poor that it nearly tanked his career before it had even taken off.

9 'Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic)' (1969)

Directed by David Cronenberg

A trailblazer in experimental cinema, the master of body horror, and director of some of the best Canadian movies ever made, Torontonian auteur David Cronenberg is nowadays one of the most respected figures in his field. However, one wouldn't have been able to tell what kind of mad genius hid behind the camera of his first film, Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic). This highly experimental sci-fi horror film is disguised as an educational film documenting an attempt to turn eight subjects into telepaths.

Though its creativity and originality are unbridled, and the clues of Cronenberg's skill are definitely there, Stereo feels annoyingly pretentious and formally tedious. All in all, it feels like nothing more than a few great ideas crammed into a nonsensical package. At only a little over an hour in length, the torment thankfully doesn't last very long, but for anyone who isn't a die-hard Cronenberg completionist, Stereo should be best left avoided.

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8 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' (2019)

Directed by Simon Kinberg

With 2000's X-Men, 20th Century Studios kicked off the superhero movie craze that has defined much of the 21st century's blockbuster landscape. Through ups and downs, the series went out not with a bang but with a faint fizzle in the form of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It was directed by Simon Kinberg, who produced and wrote a few of the franchise's past installments but had never directed a movie before.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with handing the reins of an iconic franchise over to someone with no directing experience, but that was a challenge that Kinberg was not up to. Dark Phoenix squanders its standout cast and legendary story due to a terrible script, confusing visuals, and lifeless direction by Kinberg. For all these reasons and more, Dark Phoenix usually ranks as one of the worst superhero films of all time.

7 'Dementia 13' (1963)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

One would be hard-pressed to find someone willing to argue against the fact that Francis Ford Coppola, the man behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, is one of the best filmmakers ever. However, it wasn't always that way. The director's first movie was Dementia 13, a Psycho-like horror thriller about a widow hatching a plan to get her late husband's inheritance, unaware that she's being targeted by a murderer lurking in the family's estate.

Saying that Dementia 13's production was rushed would be an understatement. The late producer Roger Corman just wanted a cheap Psycho knockoff, so he placed it in Coppola's (who used to be a sound technician) hands, giving him nine days to shoot the movie. The result is a picture that isn't particularly scary or thrilling but rather boring and with little to no personality of its own. There are plenty of great and disturbing horror thrillers, but this isn't one of them.

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6 'Glen or Glenda' (1953)

Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.

Edward D. Wood Jr., better known as Ed Wood, is regarded by many as the single worst movie director of all time. As true as that may be, Wood was a fascinating figure with a fascinating creative voice, which made him worthy of being the subject of a biopic directed by Tim Burton. Of the many atrociously incompetent films that he made, Glen or Glenda is perhaps one of the most intriguing. In it, a psychiatrist tells the stories of a transvestite and a pseudohermaphrodite.

Mind-bendingly bizarre and overtly Freudian, Glen or Glenda is an exquisitely strange look into Ed Wood's exquisitely strange mind. It's not a good film in any way whatsoever, seeing as it has a senseless narrative, dumb acting, and a complete lack of understanding of how cinematic storytelling works. However, Glen or Glenda also has plenty of the Wood-isms that have made his movies surprising cult classics despite their abysmal quality.

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5 'Nomads' (1986)

Directed by John McTiernan

The action movie genre wouldn't be what it is today without John McTiernan, the man behind genre classics like Predator and Die Hard. It's a good thing, then, that studios and audiences gave him a chance to direct some of the best action movies of all time, considering that Nomads is such a terrible debut that giving its director a second shot must have been a hard decision. It's about a French anthropologist specializing in nomadic groups who moves to L.A. to follow a group of sinister street punks who may be more than they seem.

Nomads is such a terrible debut that giving its director a second shot must have been a hard decision.

For those who love terrible accents, Pierce Brosnan's half-attempt at a French one should be an absolute delight. For all other viewers, though, Nomads is unlikely to have anything of interest. It's corny, confusing, and so busy trying to have an interesting visual style (which it fails at) that it forgets to have a coherent story. Although the director is easy to call one of the best in his genre, this debut wasn't a good indicator of McTiernan's talent.

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4 'Fear and Desire' (1952)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick