It’s important for ahorror movieto grab its audience in the first few moments, as evidenced by the amazing opening scenes of the genre’s finest entries.Like any other movie, a strong first scene is important for a horror movie to get right, holding the audience’s attention long enough to keep them from heading back to the menu of a streaming service. Considering how many of themost iconic horror scenesare actually the first ones in the film they stem from, it could be argued that a solid first impression is particularly important for horror films.
Usually, the opening scenes in horror movies present an opportunity for filmmakers to give the viewer a quick scare before getting bogged down in exposition and set-up, a promise of what’s to come before taking the time to establish a narrative. In some cases, these scenes act as an inciting incident that spurs the entire plot forward, or comes back around far later in the film. Either way, some of the first scenes in horror movies can stand on their own as some of thegreatest opening scenes in movie historyin general.
9Scream
Shockingly Assassinated A High-Profile Actress
Perhaps one of the most infamous horror movie openers, and for good reason,the beginning ofScreamis still the most iconic part of the film for many people. Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker is home alone when she gets a call from a mysterious stranger, at first taking the opportunity to chat and even flirt with the gravelly voice.
The fact thatScreamwas willing to cast a starlet like Drew Barrymore only to callously murder her was a shock to audiences in 1996, playing with standard slasher movie conventions.
But things take a turn for the worse when the caller ends up being the depraved Ghostface killer, who plays with his prey by asking horror movie trivia questions before murdering her in cold blood with a dagger. The fact thatScreamwas willing to cast a starlet like Drew Barrymore only to callously murder her was a shock to audiences in 1996, playing with standard slasher movie conventions.
The way her face drops when Ghostface replies “I want to know who I’m looking at” can still send a chill down the spine all these years later, and it’s no wondertheScreamfranchisehas tried to re-create this moment so many times since.Casey’s death is still a masterclass of tension-buildingfor slasher flicks.
8Jaws
Made Two Notes An Iconic Soundtrack
On land, humans are undoubtedly apex predators, able to run down any prey over long distances and shape the natural world to our advantage with superior intellect. All of those advantages are stripped away in the water, andJawstakes full advantage of capitalizing on the fear of this vulnerability.
Jawshas a 97% rating onRotten Tomatoes.
The opening scene recreates the film’s iconic poster, in whichthe bloodthirsty Great White mauls the beautiful Chrissy to death while she goes on an ill-advised solo swim. From the haunting score that’s still instantly recognizable years later to the clever way Spielberg forces the audience into the shark’s perspective with POV shots, this scene is a powerful image to kick off the first modern blockbuster movie.
The dark shadows obscuring what shifts beneath the murky water until it’s too late is an excellent method of building an unbearable amount of suspense until the attack finally begins. This moment, let alone the rest of the movie, gave an entire generation a crippling fear of the ocean.
7A Quiet Place
A Heartbreaking Tragedy That Explains The Nightmare Setting
In modern times, the best monster movies need to be a little higher concept than a simple shark with a taste for human flesh, and films likeA Quiet Placeexemplify how to set up a terrifying new creature. The opening scene shows a family walking through what seems to be some post-apocalyptic landscape, taking great care not to make a sound by communicating with sign language and walking barefoot over carefully-laid paths of sand.
When a looted toy accidentally activates its sound effects,it’s shown why making noise is such a death sentence in this world. This scene is a great way to wordlessly explainhow the monsters ofA Quiet Placework, shown barreling across fast distances like a freight train to annihilate anything that makes noise above a certain decibel level.
It also immediately sympathizes the Abbott family to the viewer, having to watch them tragically lose their youngest child to the horrors of their new life. Children are sometimes considered to be sacred in horror films, making it all the more shocking when one is killed in the opening moments ofA Quiet Place.
6Midsommar
Sheer Anxiety-Inducing Dread
Sometimes, horror movies rely on a single tragedy that goes on to haunt the rest of the plot, and few do as good a job setting up such an inciting event asMidsommar.Here,the camera silently weaves through a scene of the aftermath of Dani’s sister’s awful murder-suicide, killing herself and their parents with tubes of deadly carbon monoxide.
Cut to Dani’s boyfriend, Christian, nervously walking through the bleak winter snow to attempt the impossible task of comforting Dani after such a devastating traumatic event. The sheer level of dread Ari Aster is able to conjure with this uncomfortably long glimpse into a disaster is hard to describe.
The moment also subtly shows the cracks already forming in Dani and Christian’s relationship, with Christian’s slow pace approaching Dani’s apartment and his anxious expression betraying the fact that he’s realizing he can’t break up with Dani as he was planning to under such circumstances. Informing the rest of Dani’s actions in the entire film,Midsommar’s first scene is audaciously bleak.
5The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Atmospheric And Gruesome
The Texas Chainsaw Massacreis one of the most successful horror films to get away with such atrocious levels of gore, with the tagline “Who will survive, and what will be left of them?” informing audiences of how gruesome things will get right off the bat. If that warning weren’t good enough, the opening scene isan atmospheric series of images that straightforwardly reveals how depraved the violence will get.
Over a black screen, a narrator explains the horror that’s about to unfold, giving the film the quality of adocumentary-style horror movie. From there, the viewer is treated to some nauseating sights, flashing lights, and sounds of bodies being chopped up, ending on a disturbing effigy of corpses piled on a tombstone like some sort of twisted monument.
Not only is this sequence powerful enough to induce medical distress, but it makes it clear in no uncertain terms thatThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrewill not be for the squeamish. Feeling like a maddening descent into another world of carnage, this scene sets the stage for the nightmares to come perfectly.
4Sleepy Hollow
Not The Average Endearing Tim Burton Adventure
Sleepy Hollowcould easily be dismissed as just another typical outing from the visionary director Tim Burton, whose work embodies the spooky and macabre while rarely venturing into full-on horror movie territory. ButSleepy Hollowisn’t just a evocation of Burton’s gothic style, but a genuine slasher film attempting to emulate the Hammer horror films of old.
This point gets across right away in the opening scene, when a hapless traveler has an encounter with the legendary Headless Horseman. After Peter Van Garrett dramatically pens his signature while riding in a carriage through a twisted treeline, his journey is suddenly interrupted whenhis driver is decapitated by a mysterious unknown force.
He gets out of the carriage in a mad dash for his life in a nearby cornfield, but he isn’t able to outrun the stampeding hooves of the Headless Horseman’s steed, being run down and beheaded by the spectral slasher.This scene instantly conveys the very real danger of the Horseman’s myth.
3It Follows
Sees The Curse Claim Its Most Tecent Victim
In a classic trope adhered to by many horror movies,It Followssees a minor character killed by the film’s antagonist before it encounters any of the main characters. In this case, an unnamed girl frantically runs from something, clearly in a state of high distress, as if someone (or something) is chasing her.
Though the audience doesn’t see anything, before longthe helpless victim is cornered at a beach, begging an invisible force for her life. Her pleas fall on deaf ears, and the camera cuts to her mangled corpse rotting in the sand. This scene only makes complete sense after watching the entire film, cleverly foreshadowinghow the curse ofIt Followsworks.
The unnatural position her body is left in also disturbingly implies how exactly the menacing entity kills its victims, something the film never outright states, but can be inferred by this moment and other deaths. Without prior knowledge of the rest of the film,this scene sets up an intriguing mysteryand describes a haunting supernatural murder.
2IT: Chapter One
Both Creepy Tension And In-Your-Face Gore
Another horrifying entity described simply as “It”, Pennywise the Dancing Clown has quickly become one of the most famous horror movie villains ever put to screen. A lot of that star power is thanks to the powerful opening scene ofIT: Chapter One, which mimics the inciting event of the original Stephen King novel.
It’s hard to watch so much brutality being inflicted on such an innocent child, instantly making this scene a memorable one.
On a dreary rainy day, the innocent Georgie is out playing with a toy paper boat, which gets away from him, flowing down the street and into a storm drain. This leads toan encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, a killer clown. Seeing Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise in full effect for the first time in the dim light of the sewer is nothing short of heart-stopping, and it’s hard not to shout at the naive Georgie to get away as he’s lured closer by promises of popcorn and balloons.
The creep factor turns to sudden shock whenPennywise finally snaps at his prey, taking off the young boy’s entire armand dragging him into the depths beneath the street to be devoured. It’s hard to watch so much brutality being inflicted on such an innocent child, instantly making this scene a memorable one.
1Halloween
The Birth Of An Iconic Monster
To this day, no opening scene has had as profound an effect on its franchise as Michael Myer’s first kill intheHalloweenfranchise. From a child’s perspective, director John Carpenter describes a young boy watching his teen sister canoodle with her boyfriend before sneaking upstairs to have sex.
In a sort of trance, the young Michael grabs his iconic steak knife from the kitchen, creeps upstairs, dons a clown mask, andstabs his own sister to death for no reason beyond pure evil. Somehow, the creepiest part is when Michael runs downstairs after the fact, panting into his mask, only to be met by his confused parents, who rip it off to find he still hasn’t left his bizarre fugue state.
The fact that the Myers' family certainly don’t seem to have given Michael any trauma that might activate his bloodthirstiness is the most interesting and terrifying element of the whole series.One day, he simply became pure evil, and John Carpenter manages to makehorror moviehistory with this idea in five minutes or less.
