There's plenty of horror movies that start slowly and methodically, letting viewers settle
into a rhythm before the terror really comes.
These are not those movies.
Here are the scariest opening scenes in horror movies.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Other Friday the 13th sequels leaned hard into funhouse territory, relying just as much
on morbid humor as gory shocks - but not in the case of Friday the 13th Part V: A New
Beginning.
Corey Feldman reprises his role as a young Tommy Jarvis in the dream sequence that opens
the film.
On a dark, stormy night, Tommy finds himself observing Jason's grave as two would-be grave
robbers are digging it up.
[Thunder and ominous music]
It doesn't go well, and Feldman's reactions as he witnesses Jason rising once again to
butcher the hapless crooks, sell Tommy's sheer panic and terror perfectly.
[Thunder and ominous music]
The brilliant opening is arguably the best of the series.
Twilight Zone: The Movie
1983's Twilight Zone film was largely short of true scares, but its brief, pre-credits
opening sequence has added a phrase to the pop culture lexicon that still has the power
to make our skin crawl:
"Hey!
You wanna see something really scary?"
"You bet."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, this is really, really scary now."
Comedians Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks put the audience at ease as motorists on a lonely
road at night.
But when Brooks tries to rattle Aykroyd by turning off his headlights, Aykroyd ups the
ante by insisting that Brooks pull over so that he can show him something scarier - and
boy, does he ever.
"What are you doing?"
[Scary monster noises]
Scream
Wes Craven's 1996 deconstruction of the horror genre, Scream started a trend of self-awareness
in fright flicks that continues to this day.
But it's easy to forget what a virtuoso piece of filmmaking its opening sequence is.
Drew Barrymore appears as a young woman named Casey, who receives what she thinks is a prank
phone call.
"Hello?"
"Why don't you want to talk to me?"
"Who is this?"
"You tell me your name, I'll tell you mine."
"I don't think so."
As the guy quizzes her about horror movies, the tone of the call goes from playful to
sinister to outright terrifying as Casey slowly realizes that this is no joke.
"You never told me your name."
"Why do you want to know my name?"
"Cuz I wanna know who I'm looking at."
"What did you say?"
The scene is an absolute master class in playing on audience expectations and building tension.
Scream's influence has towered over horror for the last couple of decades, but it may
not have lingered quite as long in the popular imagination without this opening.
Jaws
Virtually everything that could have gone wrong with Jaws did, up to and including the
mechanical sharks not working up to expectations.
But the technical problems ended up enhancing the film in ways nobody could have foreseen,
as Stephen Spielberg wisely chose to keep his toothy menace offscreen whenever possible.
The opening scene shows just how effective this technique is as a young swimmer named
Chrissy goes for the last moonlit skinny dip she'll ever take.
[Gasping for breath]
For the actual attack, Spielberg and his crew employed an underwater system of ropes to
jerk the actress back and forth, and all we can see are her terrified reactions, which
she completely sells.
[Screaming]
Jaws is a film that set the template for the summer tentpole picture and has been ripped
off more times than can be counted - but its opening retains all of its power over four
decades later.
Drag Me to Hell
Sam Raimi made his triumphant return to gonzo horror with 2009's Drag Me to Hell, the story
of a loan officer named Christine who runs afoul of a curse.
Unless she can find a way to stop it, Christine will be tormented by a demon for three days
before getting dragged to hell.
The opening scene makes it clear that it's definitely not just in Christine's head, either.
A young boy is brought to a medium because he's been hearing voices after he stole a
necklace from an old woman.
All of the old, Evil Dead-esque Raimi calling cards make their return: the off-kilter angles,
the eye-popping closeups, the crazily kinetic camera work.
[Screaming]
[Thud]
But the scene also establishes that the demon has no mercy, as the boy's frantic cries for
help don't stop his fate.
[Screaming]