Other times, you fall in love almost immediately, usually thanks to an opening scene or sequence that lets you know right off the bat that youre in store for a real treat.
As a companion piece to Christopher Jimenez recent post here on Shock about some of his favorite opening title sequences, today I take a look at some of those actual opening scenes that kicked off horror movies with a seriously impressive bang, effectively whetting my appetite from the word go.
Here are some of my stand-out favorites, in no particular order.
I encourage you to leave a comment when youre done reading, and add to the list with some of your own picks!
Great Opening Sequences
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#1
Night of the Living Dead: There’s unquestionably no horror film in the history of cinema that’s had more of an influence on popular culture than George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, which quite literally gave birth to the modern day zombie. It was the 1968 film’s opening ten minutes that forever turned zombies from mindless slaves into monstrous horror icons, as Romero immediately informed us that his zombies were not like the others. Horror movie imagery doesn’t get much more iconic than the late William Hinzman shambling towards siblings Barbra and Johnny, and it’s impossible to forget the oft-quoted line of dialogue that I need not even repeat, for you to know what I’m talking about. What’s so brilliant about the scene is that the siblings initially treat the shambling zombie like he’s not even a threat, which in many ways reflects the state of cinema zombies at the time. Up until that point, zombies weren’t much of a threat, but that forever changed during Night of the Living Dead’s opening romp through the cemetery.
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#2
Piranha 3D: As I noted in my recent list of the 10 best remakes of the past 10 years, I’m a huge fan of Alexandre Aja’s Piranha 3D, which is pure entertainment from start to finish. The opening scene features a cameo that rivals Bill Murray’s in Zombieland, and is perhaps the most awesome Jaws homage of all time. In it, Richard Dreyfuss more or less reprises the role of Matt Hooper, dressed in the exact same outfit he wore in Jaws, right down to the black beanie. He’s even singing along to ‘Show Me the Way to Go Home’ and chugging Amity Beer, and in fact it’s a bottle of the Jaws-inspired beer that’s responsible for waking the titular piranha from their slumber. 35 years after surviving the events of Jaws, Hooper met his end in a remake of a Jaws parody – something poetic and tragically beautiful about that, isn’t there?!
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#3
Them: The 2006 French film Them (aka Ils) is often compared to The Strangers, which was released just two years later. And it’s a fitting comparison, given that both films center on a young couple in a remote home being stalked by intruders who don’t seem to really have any motive behind doing what they’re doing. Reportedly based on true events, Them is a highly effective and impressively tension-filled affair, which kicks off with an opening sequence that sets the stage and lets us know that the villains mean business. Running nearly 10-minutes long, the opening scene shows a mother and daughter driving along a desolate road, their car crashing into a pole after something darts in front of them. After the mother mysteriously vanishes, the daughter is tormented by the unseen attackers, who make her final moments a living hell. It’s of course not uncommon for horror films to begin with the deaths of characters unrelated to the main storyline, but it’s the way co-writers/co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud take their time with that establishing scene that makes it so effective, playing out like its own creepy short film. Them is all around a wonderful companion piece to The Strangers, both conveying much the same level of home invasion-style terror.
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#4
Humongous: One of my goals with this list was to shine some of the spotlight on lesser-appreciated opening scenes, which aren’t quite as iconic as the ones you’d expect to fill a list such as this. I think it’s safe to say that the 1982 slasher flick Humongous fits the bill, as it’s one that has really only been discovered by die-hard slasher addicts. The opening scene takes place at a Labor Day party several years before the bulk of the film’s events, and it showcases one of the most instantly satisfying sequences of rape-revenge you’ll likely ever see. After turning down a sexual proposition from a creepy drunk dude, a young woman by the name of Ida runs off into the woods, where she’s attacked and raped by the man. It doesn’t take long for a pack of vicious dogs to come to her rescue, and they brutally bite into the dude’s face and rip him apart. Interestingly enough, Humongous isn’t a film about killer dogs, which makes the opening all the more bizarre and memorable. Definitely one to seek out, if you dig '80s slashers!
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#5
Hatchet: How do you get a gore-hound’s attention, right off the bat? Well, just ask Adam Green, who burst onto the scene in 2006 with the throwback slasher film Hatchet. All it took was six minutes for Green to win me over and let me know that Victor Crowley was about to become one of the most formidable horror icons of this generation, thanks to an opening sequence that is quite frankly gorier than most entire slasher films. Robert Englund pops up for a brief cameo and then becomes Crowley’s very first on-screen victim, and his character’s son is then literally ripped limb from limb, his blood decorating every single tree within a few feet of the mayhem. A well-placed use of Marilyn Manson’s ‘This is the New Shit’ seals the deal on Hatchet’s opening scene being a pretty damn memorable one. Now THAT is how you give rise to a new horror icon.
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#6
The Stepfather: A good opening scene should set the tone for the movie, and quickly let us know what kind of experience we’re in store for. Few horror films do that better than 1987’s The Stepfather, which lays all of its cards on the table from the word go. In a peaceful looking house, in a peaceful looking neighborhood, we see a bearded man calmly washing blood off his face, altering his appearance and then putting on a nice suit. As he exits the house, the source of the blood is revealed, as the music turns ‘scary’ and we see that the man’s entire family has been completely butchered, their bodies strew all about the living room. He calmly waltzes out of the house and heads toward a new life, not a single line of dialogue needed to let us know exactly who the film’s title character is, and what he’s all about. Sometimes, less truly is more, and The Stepfather is a perfect example of that.
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#7
Freddy vs. Jason: A lot of horror fans tend to rag on Freddy vs. Jason, with the general consensus being that it didn’t quite live up to the SUPER AWESOME AMAZING movie most had in their heads, going in. The fact of the matter is that there was simply no way it could’ve ever lived up to that hopeful hype, and I say this as someone who enjoyed the ever living hell out of the movie. It was fun, which is all it needed to be, and the opening sequence in particular really put a huge smile on my face. Not only did we get a nice recap of Freddy Krueger’s reign of terror, both pre and post-burn and full of nostalgia-inducing clips from Elm Street films past, but it also quickly and efficiently brought Freddy and Jason into the same world, and bridged the gap between their respective franchises. Freddy vs. Jason may not be the greatest thing ever, but it’s nevertheless a pretty damn awesome thing. So stop bitching and just enjoy it, will ya?!
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#8
The Collection: Another film I recently praised here on Shock was The Collection, which I named one of the ten best sequels of the past ten years. I had more fun with that movie than most theatrically released horror films in recent memory, and it was the opening scene that let me know right off the bat that I was in store for a sequel that was a bit more over the top than its predecessor. Presumably taking a cue from Ghost Ship – a film that easily could’ve been on this list – The Collection kicks off with a gory sequence of pure carnage, with the franchise’s masked villain using all sorts of gruesome traps to wipe out an entire dance floor of young partiers. As Ghost Ship taught us, it’s kind of hard not to love a movie that has a body count in the double digits within the first few minutes, and indeed it is impossible to not love The Collection’s dance party meat grinder opening.
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#9
When a Stranger Calls: There are a few noteworthy cases in the history of horror cinema where the opening scenes are so good that everything that comes after them pales in comparison, and 1979’s When a Stranger Calls is perhaps the reigning king of that particular handicap. So superior is the establishing opening to everything else in the movie that it’s for the most part all anyone remembers about the entire thing, and in fact I was very surprised the first time I watched it to realize that the iconic portion of the film was such a small piece of the puzzle. It’s in the 20-minute opening sequence that a young babysitter is terrorized by a caller who we soon find out is inside the house, and it’s those 20 minutes that effectively did for babysitting what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean. Admittedly, I’ve been known to eject the When a Stranger Calls DVD at around the 20-minute mark, which is a true testament to how well done that extended opening sequence was.
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#10
Santa's Slay: If my intention today was to list off horror’s BEST opening scenes, then I can assure you that this last entry would’ve been bumped off in favor of a film like Jaws, Scream or the Dawn of the Dead remake. But since this is more about personal favorites than ‘bests,’ I feel comfortable giving a shout-out to 2005’s holiday horror gem Santa’s Slay, which features former pro wrestler Bill Goldberg as a demonic Santa Claus. If you’re one of those fans who can turn your mind off and just have fun with a silly movie, Santa’s Slay is an absolute blast, and it doesn’t take long to get to the good stuff. The opening scene puts some of the most annoying actors together in the same room – including Fran Drescher and Chris Kattan – and serves them up to Goldberg’s killer Santa on a silver platter. He bursts down the chimney and brutally murders all of the C-list stars, setting Drescher’s head on fire, kicking a little dog into a ceiling fan and using a tree topper as a throwing star. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then Santa’s Slay is the perfect way to spread a little holiday fear around your home.
