10 Most Harrowing Opening Scenes In Horror Movies

10. Final Destination (2000)

If the Final Destination series has accomplished anything, it's making audiences intensely paranoid about dying in comically elaborate and horrific accidents.

For all these new anxieties, we can thank the opening scene from the first film.

Alex (Devon Sawa) and his high school classmates are about to leave New York for a trip to Paris on flight 180. On the plane, however, Alex has a premonition that the aircraft will explode in mid-air, killing everyone aboard.

What starts as turbulence after take-off quickly escalates into catastrophe. The aircraft begins to shake violently before a hole is blown in its side and screaming passengers still fastened to their seats are jettisoned out. Those lucky enough not to plummet to their deaths have the luxury of being engulfed in a fireball when the plane finally explodes.

Though a tad on the overdramatic side (it is a horror from 2000, after all) this scene nevertheless reinforced how precarious air travel can be.