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Besides the usual assortment of ghouls and ghosts roaming the streets this time of year, Halloween is notorious for debatable list after debatable list of which horror films are the so-called “scariest”. While it can be fun (and awfully challenging) to attempt to put these in some semblance of order, the results usually end up in yelling, screaming, arguing, and fisticuffs.
In an attempt to alleviate some of this violence, I’ve decided to list off a few of my favorite opening scenes to horror films. They may not be the scariest scenes in the genre (and most aren’t), but they serve to either get the viewer’s heart pumping, or make the viewer slightly uneasy about what it to follow. By no means is this a final or a comprehensive list, nor is it in any particular order. It merely serves to entertain us fine folks who love the horror film.
Halloween
We might as well start with a classic. The opening minutes of John Carpenter’s Halloween actually end up being some of the most exciting minutes of the first half of the film. A young Michael Myers, all decked out in trick or treating attire, puts on his mask and proceeds to brutally slaughter his mostly-naked sister. The entire scene is shot from the point-of-view of Michael, even going so far as making the viewers’ field of vision just the two small eye holes in the mask. The best part: for the entire length of the scene, we have no idea who the masked killer is, until the big reveal before the opening credits roll. To our shock, it’s none other than a punk five-year-old holding a knife still dripping with his sister’s blood. And don’t forget the simple, yet effective, title sequence of a candle-illuminated jack o’lantern… simple sometimes is better.
The Shining
The opening of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece The Shining contains absolutely no dialogue. It is simply a series of long tracking shots of a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle slowly climbing the winding roads of the Colorado Rockies to the isolated Overlook Hotel. While the sights and scenery are beautiful, the score sets the tone of the film like nobody’s business. The music you hear is entitled “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) and is a portion of the major funeral mass of the European Roman Catholic Church. Subtle and haunting, it serves to make the viewer ever so slightly uneasy as we watch that bug climbing up the mountain.
Friday the 13th
While the original Friday the 13th has been copied and spoofed up the wazoo, the opening five minutes of the film let you know what you are getting into, and also serve to introduce the mystery aspect of the film. Remember, Jason is not the killer in the original… the audience has no idea who is doing all of the slaughtering until the final 20 minutes. The opening also helps hit home the archetypal “rule” of the slasher film: if you smoke pot, or have pre-marital sex… you are gonna die.
Scream
The opening 12-minute prologue scene in which an all-American, sweatered girl — Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore in a cameo) — is alone preparing popcorn to watch a video at home when she receives an initially playful phone call (she is asked a trivia question: what is her favorite scary movie? — and she replies, “Halloween”) — and then the repeated terrifying calls turn obscene, threatening and ugly. When she demands to know what the caller wants, the caller simply replies: “To see your insides” — followed with her startling murder outside by repeated stabbings and hanging from the front yard’s tree. I think everyone who began watching that film figured Drew Barrymore would be the main heroine, but her untimely on-screen death catapulted Scream to a level above your stereotypical horror film. Sometimes Wes Craven manages to knock your socks off!
Saw
Picture this: you have just awoken from an unconscious nap in a full bathtub, and as you fall out of it you realize it is completely pitch black and you are bound to a heavy lead pipe with shackles. The lights come on and you realize there is someone else in the room with you. You think he is the one who put you there, but upon closer inspection, you see he is bound to a lead pipe in the opposite corner of the disgustingly putrid bathroom from hell. You have no idea how you got there, you have no idea how to get the hell out... and even worse, there is a dead body lying face-down in a pool of blood in the center of the room. The original Saw came out of nowhere and took the horror world by storm. It’s exciting story and slick writing (and high box office totals) have yielded two sequels with likely at least another on the way. But the opening to this first entry has us on the edge of our seats wanting more… it was unlike any opening we have seen before, and the franchise continues to instill excitement in our blood today!
Dawn of the Dead (2004 Remake)
This is certainly not the best horror movie. It definitely is not the best zombie movie. Hell, it isn’t even the best Dawn of the Dead movie!! (Remakes… gotta love ‘em!) But, the remake edition of Dawn of the Dead is an above-average horror flick, and the opening scenes of a nurse, Ana (Sarah Polley), witnessing the total collapse of order and civilization are horrifically amazing. My favorite part is when her zombified boyfriend is chasing her on foot while she is driving… until he sees something appetizing that is much easier to capture; he makes a complete U-turn and heads for his new prey. Finally she’s knocked out in a car crash, and the chaos continues with news flashes throughout the opening credits. For a movie that does not hide some major cheese, the opening may be the most effective opening for a horror movie ever!
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