Top 10: Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Daniel Ribeiro

2. I Killed My Mother/J'ai Tué Ma Mère (2009) - Xavier Dolan

3. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - Sean Durkin

4. R/R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) - Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer

5. The Babadook (2014) - Jennifer Kent

6. Armadillo (2010, documentary) - Janus Metz

7. I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) - Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
 

8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - John McNaughton

9. Monsters (2010) - Gareth Edwards

10. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005) - Judd Apatow

Other great debut movies, including a documentary, reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order):

(500) Days of Summer - Marc Webb
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) - Dito Montiel
A Soap/En Soap (2006) - Pernille Fischer Christensen
Alive Inside/Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (2014, documentary) - Michael Rossato-Bennett
Crank (2006) - Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Zack Snyder
The Deadly Companions (1961) - Sam Peckinpah
Dumb and Dumber/Dumb & Dumber (1994) - Bobby & Peter Farrelly
Everything Must Go (2010) - Dan Rush
Klown/Klovn - The Movie (2010) - Mikkel Nørgaard
MacGruber (2010) - Jorma Taccone
Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010) - Mikkel Munch-Fals 
Obvious Child (2014) - Gillian Robespierre
The Scent of Green Papaya/Mùi đu đủ Xanh/L'Odeur de la Papaye Verte (1993) - Tran Anh Hung
The Witch (2015) - Robert Eggers 
Zombieland (2009) - Ruben Fleischer 

Other good debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetic order):

Bullhead/Rundskop (2011) - Michaël R. Roskam
Camping (2009) - Jacob Bitsch
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) - Peter Care
Demolition Man (1993) - Marco Brambilla
The Driller Killer (1979) - Abel Ferrara
Edge of the City (1957) - Martin Ritt 
Eraserhead (1977) - David Lynch 
Evil Dead (2013) - Fede Alvarez
Fruitvale Station (2013) - Ryan Coogler
The Greatest Showman (2017) - Michael Gracey 
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) - Peter Cornwell 
Lights Out (2016) - David F. Sandberg 
Mama (2013) - Andy Muschietti
Margin Call (2011) - J.C. Chandor
The Mysterious X/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X/Orders Under Seal/Sealed Orders (1914) - Benjamin Christensen
Primal Fear (1996) - Gregory Hoblit
Shake It All About/En Kort En Lang/Shake It (2001) - Hella Joof 
Strangerland (2015) - Kim Farrant 
Ted (2012) - Seth MacFarlane 
Teddy Bear/10 Timer til Paradis (2012) - Mads Matthiesen 

Mediocre, poor and/or failed debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetic order):

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - Chuck Russell
Accused/Anklaget (2005) - Jacob Thuesen
Bachelorette (2012) - Leslye Headland
Blind (2014) - Eskil Vogt 
Delicatessen (1991) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
District 9 (2009) - Neill Blomkamp
Eagle vs Shark (2007) - Taika Waititi
Eight Legged Freaks (2002) - Ellory Elkayem 
The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984) - Lars Von Trier
The Elite/Eliten (2015) - Thomas Daneskov
The Enforcer (1976) - James Fargo 
Escape from Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore
Everything Is Illuminated (2005) - Liev Schreiber
Get Low (2009) - Aaron Schneider 
Harry Brown (2009) - Daniel Barber
Hesher (2010) - Spencer Susser
The Kings of Summer/Toy's House (2013) - Jordan Vogt-Roberts 
Painless/Insensibles (2012) - Juan Carlos Medina

[64 titles in total]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of the list?
What debut movies would be on yours?
What worthwhile debut films are missing here?

The Babadook (2014) - Kent's dark horror gem

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Australian Movie of the Year

The chilling poster for Jennifer Kent's The Babadook

QUICK REVIEW:

A widow and her 6 year-old son try to make their daily life work, but his rebellious behavior only increases, as a mysterious children's book turns up in their home...

Babadook is a fantastic film. Full of atmosphere, it gets under your skin with two central, marvelous performances: Essie Davis (The Last Time I Saw Michael Gregg (2011), video) drives out a primordial scream as the mother/wife, SPOILER who lives in the shadow of her unmanaged grief. And young Noah Wiseman (The Gift (2013), short) is an impressively vivacious, strong boy as the son, who is at times sweet, at times irritating.
The film is handsomely realized and really scary. It is not predictable as a whole, but parts of it is. It is the feature debut of Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent (Monster (2005), short).

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in Jennifer Kent's The Babadook

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 7.5 mil. $
= Big hit
[Babadook was funded through Australian film subsidies and a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Much care went into protecting Wiseman from the horrific parts of the film, as well as not giving the film any obviously Australian characteristics. The film opened in Sundance and made 0.2 mil. $ in Australia, 0.9 mil. $ in the US and 0.5 mil. $ in the UK. Babadook played at a long row of festivals. It is also the 4th best reviewed 2014 title on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Babadook?