Establishing a mood from the get-go is monumentally important for a movie, especially for films
of the horror-thriller genre.
A movie's first few scenes can either strike an audience with terror, or signal yawns to
come … which is particularly scary for horror fans.
In the case of these freaky flicks, the first ten minutes are terrifying for all the right
reasons.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The opening credits for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street introduce Freddie Krueger without
showing his burn-damaged face, as he puts together his terrifying claw in his boiler
room.
Once his blades are ready, we meet victim number one.
Tina is a pajama-clad blonde who finds herself running down the halls of his leaky lair,
all while Krueger cackles at the uselessness of her escape attempt.
Just as she's about to eat it at the hands of his new weapon, she awakens to realize
it's all just a dream.
Judging by the slash marks on her gown, though, we already know in the film's first few moments
that it's much worse than some normal nightmare.
Scream
The opening scene from Scream was an instant horror favorite, and for good reason.
Casey Becker is your everyday teen girl, cooking up some popcorn in her home alone, while her
parents are out on a date.
She gets a call from an apparent prankster who wants to talk about scary movies, and
Casey thinks it's all just fun and games and plays along…
"Do you like scary movies?"
"Uh huh."
But then the conversation starts to turn dark.
She quickly begins to realize this isn't a joke, especially once the caller reveals he's
abducted her boyfriend, Steve, and bound him on her back deck.
Her fight-or-flight response kicks in, but the latter option isn't available because
the masked boogeyman has gone from lurking outside to inside.
The villain's speed and ability to predict her every move, courtesy of the house's open
window scheme, is absolutely crippling.
Making things worse, when the killer finally strikes, Casey's parents have come back home,
but she can't scream loud enough for anyone to help her.
"Mom!"
Now, who hasn't had that nightmare before?
Jaws
All Chrissi wanted to do was take a little night swim with the cute guy she met at a
party.
While she's practically a fish in the moonlit water, the dude isn't so convinced he's capable
of swimming.
He's pretty drunk, after all, so Chrissie goes it alone…and gets about halfway to
a buoy before that ominous cello music kicks in.
Chrissie is all smiles in the dark until something starts to pull her under.
She's left thrashing and begging for help, but her wannabe boyfriend is unaware on the
beach.
Desperate, she tries to cling to the buoy, but she knows she's done for.
"Oh my God, I'm gonna die!"
The shark drags her down and makes a meal of the poor girl.
Meanwhile, Mr. Helpful is still over there, drunkenly murmuring to himself on the sand.
Talk about a beach bum.
The Ring
When we first meet Katie and Becca, they're blabbering about the woes of modern tech,
but one of them is harboring a very dark secret.
It's not the "electrorays" that pose a threat to the girls -- it's the fabled video tape
Katie has watched that's said to kill anyone who watches it a week later.
Somehow, she's not bothered by the ominous warning label that was attached to the tape
or the fact that she received a frightening phone call soon after her screening of it.
She even fake chokes to show just how unscared she is.
But her playfulness comes to a halt once things around the house start turning themselves
on and off and everything's soaking wet all of a sudden.
When she goes to find Becca, she discovers the video is playing in her room, and she
gasps as her face turns to stone.
If you've been hesitant to chuck that old VCR, well, this might change your mind.
Final Destination
The first scene in Final Destination set the shock value bar pretty high for the films
to follow.
In the beginning, we meet Alex, a high school student who's boarding Flight 180 with his
school pals.
They're excited for their field trip to Paris, until all hell breaks loose and the plane
starts to fall apart mid-air, killing some of the passengers in grisly ways before it
explodes and takes the rest.
Then all of a sudden, Alex wakes up in a cold sweat and realizes it was just a dream.
He's convinced this is some kind of premonition that everyone needs to heed.
But after screaming his warnings to the rest of the passengers, Alex is booted from the
plane, along with a few unhappy tagalongs.
The group is also made to wait in the airport as the plane takes off for the excursion of
a lifetime, but then Alex's vision comes true as the plane blows up.
After the first film, the sequels tried to follow that explosive formula, with a massive
highway pile-up, a roller coaster ride gone wrong, a race car demolition derby, and a
devastating bridge collapse.
So, if you want to see some movies that are frontloaded with massive intensity, the Final
Destination movies are your, well, final destination.
Night of the Living Dead
In the introduction to George Romero's seminal zombie flick, we meet Johnny and Barbra, a
pair of siblings who've trekked out to put a wreath on their dad's grave.
Due to technical problems with their radio, they don't hear the warning that's being broadcast
about what they're about to encounter in the cemetery.
While Barb's paying her respects, Johnny notices a weird man walking through the graveyard
and makes light of the arrival.
"They're coming for you, Barbara."
Little does he know, his joke has just set the tone for everything that's about to happen.
Barb tries to pass the stranger, but he reaches out and grabs her, so Johnny jumps to his
sister's defense, but he's knocked out cold while trying to wrestle the man to the ground.
Terrified, Barbra kicks off her shoes and runs away to lock herself inside her car.
The walker doesn't suffer windows, though, so Barbra releases the parking brake, hoping
she can roll away to safety.
But a tree stops her progress, forcing her to flee on foot.
When she enters an abandoned farmhouse that seems relatively safe, it's only the beginning
of her bout with this deadly humanoid thing…and many others to come.
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