20 Greatest Horror Movie Opening Scenes of the 2020s (So Far)
The recent horror movie opening scenes you won't EVER forget.
The 2020s have been an absolute banner decade for horror so far.
The last six years have seen the genre go from strength to strength, not only as a commercial force to be reckoned with at the box office but also as a staple of general pop culture and at times even an industry awards darling.
And because first impressions are basically everything, what is any great horror movie without an attention-grabbing opening scene, which immediately lets the audience know precisely what sort of ride they're in for?
A poor opening scene can lose the audience in record time, while a fantastic one can have them locked in from the jump, fully invested in the story and characters from that point forward.
And of the 2020s to date, these are the 20 horror movie openings that few who've seen them will ever be able to forget.
Regardless of how the rest of the film turned out - and in some cases it sadly wasn't pretty - these shocking, hilarious, and just terrifically crafted establishing scenes left one hell of a first impression...
20. Barbarian
Zach Cregger's genre debut Barbarian wastes not a second of the viewer's time, kicking off with a most relatably creepy setup when protagonist Tess (Georgina Campbell) pulls up to her Detroit Airbnb in the middle of the night only to find a man, Keith (Bill Skarsgård), already inside.
Keith claims that he also booked the Airbnb and they're dealing with a double-booking situation, but of course, we as audience members are primed to be immediately suspicious and fear for Tess when she accepts Keith's invitation to come inside.
It's an elegantly simple yet brilliantly effective primer for the rest of the movie, Cregger pulling us all in one very clear narrative direction, only for - without spoiling too much - things to take a rather unexpected and grisly turn at the end of the first act.
Yet without such a pointed but straightforward opening scene, that subsequent rug-pull wouldn't be nearly as surprising.