The Top 10 Best Horror Movie Openings
The best horror movie openings pique our curiosity and convince us that they are worthy of our time investment. With so many viewing options available, most of us lose interest if a movie doesn’t grab us right away. It takes something special to stand out.
The common thread among the most compelling horror movie intros is that they have a great hook. Each of them leave us with questions that we hope will be answered in a satisfying way. Here are my top ten best horror movie openings.
10. Friday the 13th (1980)
The original Friday the 13th doesn’t have the notoriety of other comparable movies of its era, like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. To younger audiences, it’s probably best known for being the subject of a trivia question that Ghostface uses to trick Casey Becker in Scream (more on that movie later). Few slasher fans would include the first Friday among their favorite movies.
But it does have a banger of an opening sequence. The movie opens on a dark summer night at Camp Crystal Lake. The moon is shrouded in clouds. Crickets chirp and the faint strums of a guitar can be heard.
Related Article: The Friday the 13th Movies Ranked
A mysterious figure stalks the campsite. The campers, blissfully unaware of the danger that lurks nearby, are singing around a campfire. Later, two horny counselors sneak off to a barn loft to fool around. An unseen assailant gruesomely dispatches them as Harry Manfredini’s famous Psycho-inspired musical score plays for the first time.
The opener is eerie and atmospheric. Although the basic formula (camp counselors getting killed in creatively gruesome ways) has remained a Friday the 13th staple, it’s interesting to note the stark difference between the ambience of this scene and the cartoonish, over the top antics (Jason in space, anyone?) that later became the series’ modus operandi.
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9. The Stepfather (1987)
The Stepfather‘s opening sequence stands out because of its gradually escalating terror. A man stands in front of a bathroom mirror. He is calm and collected despite being covered in blood. The man methodically packs a suitcase, showers, and shaves his beard. He puts on a sharp business suit, complete with a classic ’80s red power tie.
The man then walks down the stairs and strolls past the bloody bodies of his family, jovially whistling as he apparently heads off to work. The man has murdered his wife and kids. He is utterly indifferent to the pain and carnage that he has caused.
Like all of the best horror movie openings, this scene does a great job making us want to know more. Who is this guy? What compelled him to do something so hideous? And why the hell is he so disquietingly calm?
The opener is the perfect way to introduce Jerry Blake (Terry ‘O Quinn), the stepfather of the title. Blake is a psychopath who is obsessed with having the perfect family. His life is an endless cycle of marriage and murder.
Quinn’s unsettling performance is captured perfectly in the opening scene. Jerry seems like a normal, clean-cut guy, but there is an unhinged rage simmering just beneath the surface.
Stream The Stepfather on Amazon Prime
8. It (2017)
A young boy named Georgie loses his toy boat down a sewer drain. Suddenly, a mysterious figure appears in the drain opening with the little boat in his hand. He introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård).
After entertaining Georgie with conversations about popcorn and candy, Pennywise offers to give the kid his toy back. As Georgie reaches for the boat, Pennywise reveals his true nature. He bares his razor-sharp teeth, bites Georgie’s arm off, and drags him into the sewer. What, exactly, is Pennywise, and where did he come from?
Those familiar with Stephen King’s novel will not be surprised by Georgie’s fate, but the graphic nature of its depiction is jarring. The opening scene successfully differentiates this film from its predecessor, a tamer 1986 television adaption.
This version of It is uncompromisingly terrifying and brutal. Skarsgård’s brilliant performance is never better than in this first scene. Pennywise is no typical evil clown. Skarsgård is able to capture his otherworldly nature right away.
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George Romero’s timeless zombie classic begins innocently enough, with siblings Johnny and Barbara traveling to a rural cemetery to visit their father’s grave. They are soon attacked by a mysterious man in a suit. The undead flesh eater, who has risen from a nearby grave, kills Johnny and assaults Barbara, who manages to escape and seek refuge in a nearby farmhouse.
There have been countless movies about zombie apocalypses, but this was a fresh concept when Night of the Living Dead was released. The random attack and ensuing chaos must have been shocking to viewers at the time.
Night of the Living Dead wasn’t the first zombie movie, but it kickstarted the genre’s popularity. The opening scene builds suspense by taking a seemingly prosaic situation and turning it into something horrifying and surreal. It will always be one of the classic horror movie intros.
Stream Night of the Living Dead on Tubi
6. Ghost Ship (2002)
It’s an idyllic night in 1962 and a group of partygoers are dancing on the deck of a majestic ship. A sharp wire suddenly cascades across the deck and slices through the dancers. Everyone is frozen in shock for a few seconds. Then they fall apart as the wire dismembers them. A little girl, the only survivor, screams in terror.
Ghost Ship is unquestionably the least intelligent movie in this list, but it has carved itself a place in history with its diabolically demented first five minutes. Its opener has become the stuff of legend.
The Ghost Ship opening scene’s ingenious creativity is the main reason that this is one of the best horror movie openings. We’re also left curious about what caused this incident to occur. Ghost Ship is worth watching even if the rest of the movie doesn’t quite match up its stellar beginning.
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5. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Ginger Snaps introduces us to Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins), two intelligent but morbid teen sisters who are obsessed with death. The opening scene depicts the girls’ school art project, in which they create a disturbingly convincing montage of themselves dying in a variety of gruesome ways.
Even their disgusted teacher has to admit that the girls have done a great job. Their efforts would make even Tom Savini proud.
The opener effectively establishes the film’s darkly comic tone. It also leaves us guessing what this movie is about. The best horror movie openings always leave us wanting more.
Ginger Snaps is a werewolf movie with themes about sisterhood, puberty, and being an outcast in a small town. You could probably guess these themes after watching the opening scene, but you’d have no clue that a werewolf was involved.
Stream Ginger Snaps on Peacock
4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
After a grueling day at the hospital, nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) returns home to the Milwaukee suburbs. She and her husband Luis wake up the next morning to find a neighborhood girl eerily staring at them from the bedroom entrance.
After the undead girl bites her husband and turns into him a zombie, Ana’s idyllic suburban life quickly deteriorates into chaos as her neighborhood (and the rest of the world) succumbs to a zombie apocalypse.
Dawn of the Dead‘s opener wastes no time getting straight to the point. It doesn’t risk boring us with excessive exposition. The opener ends with Ana frantically fleeing in her car, swerving through zombie-infested streets while listening to a recorded radio message dispense dubious advice about potential safe havens.
What will become of Ana? Is any place truly safe from the hordes of the undead?
The ’04 version of Dawn of the Dead is criticized for lacking the subtext of the original 1978 film (and for having zombies that zoom around like they’re high on speed), but its unforgettable depiction of a sudden Armageddon makes it one of the best horror movie openings.
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3. It Follows (2014)
It Follows opens in a suburban neighborhood on a crisp Autumn day. A disheveled young woman bolts out of a front door into the street, looking furtively behind her at something that no one else can see. Despite her bizarre behavior, Annie (Bailey Spry) insists to her dad and the neighbors that she doesn’t need any help.
Later, Annie drives to a beach and makes a brief phone call apologizing to her dad. Her grotesquely mutilated body is found the next morning.
Openers don’t get more mysterious than this. Annie seems to be suffering from a mental breakdown at first. It’s only after we see her remains on the beach that we realize the threat she perceived was objectively real.
It Follows leaves us curious about (but also terrified of) the film’s villain. What was following this poor girl, and who is “it” going to go after next?
2. Halloween (1978)
After a dynamite title sequence featuring a jack-o-lantern and orange credits, Halloween begins, appropriately, on Halloween night. A silent, heavy-breathing stalker grabs a butcher knife, dons a clown mask and lurks inside a middle class family’s home.
He eventually climbs the stairs and enters a bedroom, wherein he stabs teenager Judith Myers several times in the chest.
The entire sequence leading up to Judith’s demise is filmed from the perspective of the killer. The voyeuristic camerawork was innovative for the time. John Carpenter’s legendary piano score adds to the tension.
Related Article: The Halloween Movies Ranked
Only at the end of the sequence does the camera pull back to reveal that the killer is a young boy: six-year-old Michael Myers, Judith’s younger brother. He expressionlessly stands in front of his house, clutching a bloody knife in his hand, while his parents look at him in bewilderment.
Today, of course, everyone knows that Michael Myers is the killer. But imagine watching this movie in 1978 and not knowing anything about it beforehand. The fact that the murderer is a child, and the victim’s younger brother, is genuinely provocative and chilling.
1. Scream (1996)
Of all the best horror movie openings, none is more iconic than Scream. Casey Becker, a high school student from a small northern California town, is home alone. She is making popcorn and getting ready to watch a movie.
Casey receives a series of phone calls from a mysterious man who keeps asking her questions about scary movies. Casey is at first amused by the calls, then annoyed, and finally terrified as she realizes that the man is right outside. The caller, whose identity is hidden by an eerie costume, breaks into the house and attacks her.
Casey, played by Drew Barrymore, was portrayed as the main character in all of the movie’s promotional materials. Surely she is going to survive, right? What kind of movie would kill its protagonist in the opening scene, especially when the character is played by a prominent celebrity?
Scream‘s opening scene does multiple things brilliantly well. It effectively introduces the “ghostface killer” persona (although he wasn’t officially called Ghostface until Scream 4), establishes the film’s spoofy self-referential tone, and subverts our expectations by killing the supposed main character.
Related Article: The Scream Movies Ranked
Casey, like Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, is a false protagonist designed to fool us into thinking that she is protected by plot armor.
I remember watching Scream for the first time as a teenager and being utterly flummoxed by Casey’s death. It’s a shocking and even disorienting twist that makes us wonder what could possibly come next.
When Sydney (Neve Campbell) was introduced in the next scene, I immediately assumed that the killer would get her next. After all, who could be safe at this point?
For its legendary and often imitated opening sequence, Scream claims the top spot on my list.
Surprise + suspense = a great opener
Each of these movies intrigues us by defying our expectations. Surprise creates suspense about what’s to come, and that hooks us into paying attention to the rest of the story. Hopefully future filmmakers will take heed of the lessons that these opening scenes offer.
