10 Horror Movies With Spine-Chilling Opening Sequences

10. Lights Out

Centring around the innovative idea of a monster that can only exist in darkness, Lights Out is the feature-length remake of the 2013 YouTube short of the same name.

Cleaner Esther (original YouTube star Lotta Losten) closes up the textile factory where she works and begins turning off the lights. As she flicks one of the switches, a figure appears in the darkness, before disappearing when the lights come back on. As the figure suddenly jumps forward in between lights, Esther flees, trying vainly to warn her indifferent boss Paul on the way.

Sure enough, it turns out Paul should have heeded the warning. Encountering the figure, now revealed as a gaunt monstrosity with sharp claws, Paul attempts to flee but is slowed down by the creature slashing his leg between spotlights. Paul manages to barricade himself in an office, but soon finds the creature's ability to manipulate the electric lights, and is swept into the darkness before his corpse reappears, bloodied and broken under a spotlight.

The sudden appearance and disappearance of the creature with the flick of a switch is absolute nectar for fans of the jumpscare, and loads every flicker with heightened tension. Definitely one to watch with the lights on.