20 Greatest Horror Movie Opening Scenes of the 2020s (So Far)

8. 28 Years Later

28 Years Later demonstrates in its opening scene that Danny Boyle hasn't missed a step where visceral brutality is concerned, the much-anticipated sequel kicking off with a prologue sequence set in 2002 at the time of the original Rage virus outbreak.

We follow a young lad, Jimmy (Rocco Haynes), who flees his home in Scotland when it's overrun by the Infected, resulting in the deaths of his mother, sister, and young friends.

Jimmy reaches the church where his father, a minister, believes that the Rage virus is a sign of the end-times - an outcome he welcomes as salvation.

And so, Jimmy runs off to hide all while his father is attacked and turned into one of the Infected, Jimmy eventually fleeing the church before we skip forward to the present day.

From the sheer brutality of the sequence to the compelling origin story it serves up for Jimmy, who is the primary villain of sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this scene made it easy to believe upfront that this was a worthy successor to 28 Days Later.