10 Greatest Directorial Debut Horror Movies

10. Dan Trachtenberg - 10 Cloverfield Lane

Coming from YouTube fame where he was a host on a movie talk show, Dan Trachtenberg first caught the eye of J.J. Abrams when he adapted the popular video game series Portal into a seven-minute short. Following this, Trachtenberg was gifted the heavily under-wraps sequel in the Cloverfield franchise for Abrams' Bad Robot production company.

The movie Trachtenberg delivered was vastly different to the original Cloverfield, but equally as brilliant in its own unique way. While Cloverfield was a found-footage Godzilla-esqe romp, 10 Cloverfield Lane was a claustrophobic nightmare, carried by excellent performances from Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman. Brimming with Hitchcockian suspense, Trachtenberg proved himself as a talented, young director who could create nail-biting set pieces.

Since his success with 10 Cloverfield Lane, Trachtenberg has segued into television, directing episodes for popular shows such as Black Mirror and Amazon's The Boys. Trachtenberg was recently announced to be helming the fifth instalment in the Predator franchise, which looks to be his next project.