10 More Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

10. In Fear (2013)

Chances are you haven't seen Jeremy Lovering's indie horror In Fear, but the director's entry into the 'countryside is awful' canon packs tension like a suspension bridge from its opening second.

Production company logos are paired with the sound of ordinary answering messages from protagonist Tom (Iain De Caestecker) to Lucy (Alice Englert), his prospective date to a music festival in Ireland, setting up the film's plot before plunging us into the titles. The abstract title sequence proceeds to establish the tone for the movie to come, with images suspended in lettering - quite literally placing the events of the film within the word 'fear'.

The credits depict what we can assume to be Tom and Lucy's journey on the ferry to Ireland, before diving into more impressionistic territory, with snatches of newspaper reporting violence and destruction, flies feeding from unidentified meats, haunted-looking rural locations, and a car crash - which may be the key to unlocking several of the feature's mysteries.

Bathed in single-colour filters, these images are straight out of the horror playbook, and are backed by an electric keyboard and the kind of tension-building atmospheric sound effects we wouldn't expect to find so soon into the picture. The contrast and escalating violence of the sound and visuals puts us on the back foot, undoing the seemingly ordinary premise and giving us plenty to worry about for the film to come.