The opening scenes to these legendary horror movies have become some of cinema’s most iconic moments. Horror has been an incredibly popular genre for entertainment for well over a century, with the genre encompassing all manner of frightening subjects. Whether it be a ghost story, monster flick, slasher movie, or apocalyptic epic, horror has been a prominent narrative device throughout cinema’s entire history, and has contributed to some of the most memorable moments in popular culture.
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Perhaps the most important scene in any horror movie is the first one, as the opening scenes set the tone for the entire story. While the opening moments of Sinister, The Ring, Dawn of the Dead, The Shining, It Follows, and more iconic horror flicks deserve honourable mentions, it’s hard to forget the opening moments to this selection of movies. Plane explosions, alien invasions, young murderers, and shark attacks, these horror movies have delivered some of the most unforgettable, shocking, and visually striking opening scenes ever.
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10) Final Destination (2000)
The opening sequence of the original Final Destination movi saw Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) and his classmates board Volée Airlines Flight 180, on which Alex experienced a premonition of the plane exploding, killing himself and his friends. His premonition allowed him to warn people onboard and save a handful, though Death came after them soon after. The explosion of Flight 180 kick-started the whole Final Destination franchise, which has recently continued with the fantastic Final Destination: Bloodlines, subverting audience expectations brilliantly and setting up the entire franchise’s simple but effective concept in explosive fashion.
Sequels to 2000’s Final Destination continued the original movie’s pattern of delivering high-intensity, gory, and shocking opening sequences. While Final Destination featured a plane explosion, 2003’s Final Destination 2 saw Kimberley (A. J. Cook) experience a highway pile-up, 2006’s Final Destination 3 had Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) experience a rollercoaster disaster, 2009’s The Final Destination saw Nick (Bobby Campo) and his friends killed at a racetrack, and 2011’s Final Destination 5 had Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) try to save his colleagues from a bridge collapse. Final Destination: Bloodlines put a fantastic and equally-horrifying spin on this trend.
9) Ghost Ship (2002)
Even though 2002’s Ghost Ship was a lackluster supernatural horror movie, its opening scene quickly became one of the genre’s most legendary and bloody. It takes us back to 1962 aboard the Antonia Graza cruise ship, where the passengers dance to Francesca’s (Francesca Rettondini) music, shortly before a metal cable is tightened quickly enough to slice its way through everyone on the dancefloor, bisecting everyone. This is one of the goriest and unexpected opening scenes in the horror genre’s history, and while it perhaps wasn’t indicative of the rest of the not-so-scary movie, this scene is truly iconic.
8) IT (2017)
The second live-action adaptation of Stephen King’s legendary 1986 novel of the same name, Andy Muschietti’s IT from 2017 opened by displaying just how terrifying Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) is immediately. IT opens with young Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) floating a paper boat along the rainy streets of Derry, Maine, only for it to drift down a storm drain, where the sinister Pennywise waits to bite off Georgie’s arm. The 1990 miniseries doesn’t open with Georgie’s death, but instead the disappearance of a little girl, so seeing this harrowing scene play out in 2017’s IT was shocking.
7) Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter’s Halloween is widely considered as one of the greatest horror movies, and its haunting opening scene has a large part to play in that. Shown through the eyes of the young Michael Myers, we see six-year-old Myers murder his teenage sister with a chef’s knife after she has a tryst with her boyfriend. This action kick-started his career as The Shape, and booted one of cinema’s most iconic film franchises, now 13 Halloween movies strong. This enhanced by a wild score that quickly breaks the movie’s false sense of security.
6) A Quiet Place (2018)
Typically, alien invasion movies tend to relier more heavily on the science fiction genre, but John Krasinski’s directorial debut, 2018’s A Quiet Place, bridged the gap between sci-fi and horror perfectly. The opening scenes of this mostly-silent movie saw the Abbott family collecting supplies quietly, avoiding the attention of incredibly sound-sensitive and violent aliens. Beau (Cade Woodward) takes a fancy to a toy rocket, however, and Lee (Krasinski) isn’t fast enough to save his son when the rocket starts making noise. This scene establishes the tension, deep tragedy, and the shock factor that the entire movie continues brilliantly.
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5) Midsommar (2019)
The most recent movie on this list is also one of the creepiest, as Ari Aster’s 2019 folk horror Midsommar saw a group of Americans, including Dani (Florence Pugh), drawn into a violent Swedish cult. Midsommar’s opening scene establishes sheer tragedy for Dani that makes her vulnerable enough to join the cult, as her sister, Terri (Klauda Csanyi), murders their parents before taking her own life. What makes this more sinister and grounded, however, is that Aster only shows the aftermath of this heinous event. Cleverly thought-through and drifting hauntingly into Dani’s own howling scream – this is a fantastic but nightmarish moment.
4) Suspiria (1977)
The opening sequences of Dario Argento’s Suspiria from 1977 are some of the most visually striking and bold scenes ever brought to screen. Doused in vivid reds, pinks, and oranges, ballet dancer Suzy Bannion’s (Jessica Harper) arrival in Freiburg, West Germany, to attend a prestigious dance school is told concurrent to the vicious murder of Pat Hingle (Eva Axén) at the hands of the school’s coven of witches. Every moment is heightened by a cacophony of horrific musical notes and a sinister, colorful, painting-like depiction of Freiburg, making Suspiria’s introductory sequence one of the most iconic in cinema history.
3) Jaws (1975)
Not your typical horror movie, 1975’s Jaws made the titular great white shark one of cinema’s most notable villains. Steven Spielberg made audiences terrified of ever going back in the ocean in Jaws’ very first scene, which saw a young woman (Susan Blacklinie) go for a late night swim during a beach party, only to be pulled beneath the waves and washed up in pieces the next day. Brutal, suspenseful, and mysterious, Jaws’ opening scene set up the movie’s entire plot perfectly, and made a whole generation terrified of deep water for years after.
2) 28 Weeks Later (2007)
As the sequel to Danny Boyle’s 2002 masterpiece, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later needed to make a strong first impression, and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo certainly delivered in the movie’s opening moments. After trying to hide in a cottage outside London during the original Rage Virus outbreak, Don (Robert Carlyle) is forced to abandon his wife, Alice (Catherine McCormack), when the infection makes it inside. Don runs from a group of infected to a striking Danny Boyle-esque score, which ensured the audience knew Don was certainly not to be trusted – though this made the rest of 28 Weeks Later somewhat predictable.
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Let’s take it back for a moment to the original 2002 movie, 28 Days Later. If we ignore the actual opening scene of a group of animal rights activists finding highly-aggressive chimpanzees in a laboratory and releasing the Rage Virus, the sequence of Jim (Cillian Murphy) walking through the empty streets of London is one of the most memorable and influential scenes not only in the horror genre, but in cinema as a whole. Filmed on a shoestring budget while closing streets for only minutes at a time, this sequence is truly impressive.
We can only hope that Danny Boyle’s upcoming 28 Years Later continues this remarkable trend and delivers yet another powerful opening sequence.
1) Scream (1996)
There’s perhaps no horror movie opening scene more iconic than the first moments of 1996’s Scream, directed by Wes Craven. The scene sees high school student Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) called on the phone by a mysterious individual who quickly turns sadistic and reveals that Becker’s boyfriend, Steve (Kevin Patrick Walls), is tied up on the patio. The caller asks Becker questions about horror films, and when she answers wrong to a question about 1980’s Friday the 13th, the caller kills Steve. He then chases and brutally murders Becker through her garden while wearing the now-iconic “Ghostface” costume.
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Scream’s opening sequence has been parodied time and again, but stands the test of time in its own right. It’s a nerve-shattering ten minutes, and it’s still considered an incredibly bold and clever decision to have the movie’s biggest star, Barrymore, killed off in the film’s opening moments. Subversive, shocking, and terrifying, Scream set the standard for the six-movie-strong franchise that also birthed a three-season long TV show. The franchise is set to continue with 2026’s upcoming Scream 7, which will surely deliver even more thrills and chills for horror fans.
What is your favorite horror movie opening scene? Let us know in the comments!
