Establishing a terrifying atmosphere early on is no easy feat.
While we’re discussing great opening scares, get ready to cover your eyes.
What we’ve got for you below are ten of the scariest openers in horror.
Just be aware there are spoilers, too.
Darkness Falls (2003)
Darkness Fallsisn’t exactly regarded as a horror classic.
It’s just one of many PG-13 scary movies that pervaded the 2000s.
This is a shame, because the opening act is so well handled.
Ghost Ship (2002)
Another 2000s horror that banks on a stellar opening scene isGhost Ship.
Be that as it may, you will struggle to remember anything after the beginning of this maritime haunter.
That’s simply because the rest of the movie is unremarkable.
The introduction, though, is brilliant.
Aboard an Italian ocean liner in 1962, the passengers dance on the deck as the entertainment performs.
Only one guest survives as everyone else is severed in half.
You will be hard-pressed not to remember this one.
The stellar special effects keep this grisly massacre firmly lodged in our memories.
It caught us off guard and never let us go.
In future entries, the disasters became more and more intricate.
The innovation of the original stands out, though.
Alex and his classmates have boarded a flight to Paris, France.
Before taking off, Alex has a visceral premonition of the plane exploding in mid-air.
Most short-form horror with a punchy ending owes a debt to the iconic show.
Without Rod Serling’s classic anthology, we would struggle to convey terror in so little time.
In the prologue, Albert Brooks' character picks up a hitchhiker played by Dan Aykroyd.
As naturally funny as these actors are, they just aren’t cutting the tension enough with their conversation.
We are expecting something to happen.
When it does, you might’t help but be ready to enter theTwilight Zone.
One thing the remake thankfully did not leave out was the opening scene.
Two teenagers are home alone and goofing around.
We’re led downstairs to one of the teens answering the ominous phone call.
It’s not the supposed ghost coming to collect, though.
This cold open lacks a score, relying only on eerie silence.
All the prolonged suspense ultimately crescendos into a breakneck, horrifying death sequence that you will never forget.
However, Spielberg catapulted the shark into the collective consciousness.
He gave people something new to fear.
At the start ofJaws, Chrissie goes for a night swim in the waters off Amity Island.
Is it truly a horror movie?
Halloween (1978)
You cannot make a slasher without giving us a strong opening scene.
Otherwise, what’s the point of your movie?
In John Carpenter’sHalloween, a teenage babysitter has an inkling that someone is watching her.
She has no substantial proof, but she’s right to trust her instincts.
As frightening as the whole movie is,Halloweenseizes our attention from the beginning.
Through only the eyes of an unseen party, we watch helplessly as a teenager is stabbed to death.
Outside, the assailant is revealed to be a boy, whose face is emotionless.
He should have listened to her.
All Jim wanted was some company to keep him awake.
Wes Craven single-handedly sparked interest in the genre with his send-up of slasher films.
A teenager named Casey is at home by herself one night.
She answers a call from someone who eventually admits he’s watching her.
Casey has no choice but to then engage in a cat-and-mouse game.
When she fails to beat her tormentor, she is punished in the most gruesome way.
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Here it is.
What starts off as a simple night of babysitting ends up being a fight for survival for Jill.
This happens again; Jill is understandably spooked.
Finally, the police trace the call and learn the caller is inside the house with Jill.
The other two acts of the film are nowhere as effective as the intro.
NEXT:10 Times People Made The Worst Decisions Ever In Horror Movies
