A good opening scene in a movie helps grab viewers’ attention and keep them glued to their seats until the very end. A horror movie often relies on subverting typical genre conventions, and an opening scene that tells viewers the movie is either going to be exactly what they want or is going to surprise them is imperative to horror.

So, for example, a perfect Good For Her movie like Companion, starting with a scene that comforts a viewer before plunging them into a gory horror movie with slasher elements, demonstrates how a tonally different opening scene can help the horror aspect hit viewers harder. An amazing opening scene can set a great pace for the rest of the film.

As a horror film buff, some horror movies that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen drew me in simply because they made a statement with an opening scene that left me wanting more. In the history of horror movies, many have made us gasp from the get-go, but some legendary horror movie opening scenes will never be forgotten.

Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Rise (2023)

As if opening with a POV drone sH๏τ that elevates to reveal it is from a drone that’s being flown by one of the movie’s characters isn’t unsettling enough, the opening of Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Rise features an unnerving handheld POV sH๏τ from the perspective of the movie’s first victim of physical violence, who we then see has been scalped.

Moreover, the zombie horror begins with no warning as a possessed woman starts reciting words from a book she isn’t reading. A common place act becomes horrifying only to reveal she has been zombified. To cap it all off, the opening sequence ends with a decapitation and an unforgettable тιтle card as she floats above a lake with bloodied water.

Blade (1998)

Wesley Snipes’ Blade is a movie character who helped reshape genre expectations by bringing profanity and gore to a genre that was largely PG until then. The film’s opening and Blade’s introduction ensure we know that this isn’t the typical superhero movie. The blood rave, as it’s called, remains a fan-favorite opening movie scene over 25 years later.

Though the movie opens with a brief and harrowing birth scene, the real opening scene of Blade is the blood rave where a room full of vampires dance to an electric beat while being drenched in blood through sprinklers like in Carrie. The buildup to the revelation of them being vampires won’t ever leave you once you have seen it.

It Follows (2015)

One of the best horror movies released in the past 10 years is It Follows, which features Maika Monroe in her first major starring role that helped her break through as a scream queen. Its disturbing opening scene immediately unsettles the audience and introduces them to the main antagonist in the movie without any real exposition or revelation.

A girl runs out of her house while looking behind her in terror, and despite giving reᴀssurances to her neighbor and her father about her safety, she just doesn’t stop looking like she’s running from an invisible ᴀssailant. When she ends up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ on the beach with her leg broken, you know that something is lurking that’s somehow selectively visible.

Jaws (1975)

John Williams’ unmistakable score for Jaws is imprinted in the minds of anyone who has ever seen the movie. With hooks attached to her, stuntwoman Susan Blacklinie had to act the part while being dragged around to give the impression that she was being dragged by a Great White, while Spielberg’s sharp eye followed her through the camera.

While it makes me feel old to realize 2025 marks Jaws’ 50th anniversary, it is also testament to Spielberg’s timelessness, as the movie’s opening remains just as iconic today, and will always be among the best film openings of all time, despite the development of technology that makes shooting such scenes easier today, because of the crew’s expert craftsmanship.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

One of the horror movie scenes that changed millennials’ lives as kids is the opening of Final Destination 2, which depicts a horrifying highway pile-up that starts after the logs being carried by a log truck suddenly come loose and start flying or dropping off the truck. The sight of a log smashing through a car’s windshield is permanently scarring.

If you’ve had the misfortune of watching this movie, you likely have a permanent fear of driving in the proximity of a log truck, let alone immediately behind it. While the Final Destination franchise itself has better opening scenes, the cultural impact of Final Destination 2‘s log truck makes it one of the most iconic opening scenes in movie history.

28 Days Later (2002)

Cillian Murphy’s unrecognizable yet iconic look in 28 Days Later as he stares across a littered and empty Westminster Bridge gave us one of British cinema’s most iconic sH๏τs ever. Now, the real opening scene of 28 Days Later is the lab break-in by volunteers who release the rage virus by coming into contact with infected chimpanzees.

The impact of their actions isn’t felt until the next scene, which is often considered the actual opening, where Cillian Murphy’s Jim wakes up from a coma in a hospital to see that everyone is missing. He walks through London and finds it empty, while John Murphy’s intoxicating composition, In The House – In A Heartbeat, plays in the background.

Hereditary (2018)

While Charlie’s unexpected decapitation by a stop sign, a horror movie moment that makes us audibly gasp, is undoubtedly the most unforgettable scene in Hereditary, its opening scene has one of the smoothest transitions in cinema history. It occurs right before we meet the movie’s protagonist as he walks into his room, after the camera has panned across another room.

After ominously showing us the view from outside the window, the camera moves around slowly to reveal an interesting model. It is a miniature model of the house, but with the rooms made visible and accessible from the outside. As the camera zooms into one room, we transition into the actual room instead of the model’s version. It’s impressively done.

Halloween (1978)

A horror movie scene that hits differently after becoming a parent is the iconic opening to John Carpenter’s Halloween. Through a POV sH๏τ, we see a teenage girl going to her boyfriend and starting to make out with him, before getting stabbed and murdered along with her boyfriend. The POV then turns to the outside of the house.

When it’s revealed that the POV is of the teenage girl’s younger brother, the discomfort experienced from watching her being murdered increases manifold. The opening establishes that Michael Myers kills Sєxually active teenagers and also shocks viewers so effectively that they no longer know what to expect from the movie, even if it follows the straightforward slasher formula.

Get Out (2017)

The genius of Get Out‘s great horror movie villain twist is that it’s effective despite heavy foreshadowing due to the sheer outrageousness of the concept and the way it engages with racial politics in America. The opening scene is just as genius, because it introduces the central theme of the movie without hitting viewers over the head with any metaphors.

LaKeith Stanfield’s character is seen walking down a street, talking anxiously into a phone, as he’s clearly uncomfortable in this neighborhood, and before we can settle into the scene, he’s nabbed from behind and kidnapped. The unsettling nod to the rising racial tensions in the country tells you what to expect without revealing how, even when the character reappears later.

Scream (1996)

Scream was ahead of its time as a 1990s horror movie, because its self-referential humor that pervades the gory and intense chase sequences involving its iconic villain was a completely unexpected twist in the writing for the audiences at the time. However, that’s not the biggest twist in the movie or its cultural impact, as the opening scene achieved more.

Not only is the phone call gimmick iconic today, but Ghostface’s reveal also revived Drew Barrymore’s career. The actress, featured on the poster, dies in the opening scene, and this was perhaps the greatest twist for audiences when it was released. Everyone had ᴀssumed she was the protagonist, which turned out to be Neve Campbell in her breakout movie role.