10 Great Directors With No Movies In The IMDB Top 250

5. David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg
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Highest-Rated Movies: Eastern Promises (7.7) and The Fly (7.5)

David Cronenberg has been directing for over 40 years, and in that time, he’s made some of the most influential movies ever to grace the big-screen.

1986’s The Fly is cited as an influence on horror filmmakers to this day; eXistenZ’s study of existentialism is still scarily relevant, perhaps even more so than when it released; and A History Of Violence and Eastern Promises are shocking and gripping in equal measure, both quiet dramas on the outside with an explosive, beating heart below the surface, the perfect case study for all aspiring thriller directors.

In truth, he hasn’t directed a film that’s really resonated with the type of people who are voting on the Top 250 - which somewhat explains his absence - but crowd-pleasing spectacle just isn’t his forte (look no further than his comments on superhero movies for evidence).

Cronenberg favours smaller, more focused stories with a hyper-violent edge, and though that limits his audience, it allows his movies to be deeply affecting in a way Marvel or Star Wars flicks just can't muster.

As he nears the end of his career it’s looking unlikely that he’ll ever make the Top 250, but based on those aforementioned comments, he doesn’t care, and neither should you - just go check out some of his stuff if you haven't already.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!