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

19. The Empty Man

David Prior's cult classic The Empty Man begins with one of the most attention-grabbing opening sequences of the decade - a scene so expertly crafted and singularly effective that it could easily function as its own brilliant standalone short film.

The lengthy sequence, effectively a 22-minute prologue to the rest of the supernatural horror story, takes place in Bhutan in 1995 as four friends hike up a mountain.

After one of them stumbles across a massive humanoid skeleton in a cave and dares to touch it, all hell breaks loose, an apparent mania spreading among the group, causing one of their number to kill two of the others before hurling herself off a cliff, leaving only the man who found the skeleton alive.

Though the precise meaning of this scene isn't revealed until much later in the movie - it's the origin story for the Empty Man himself, effectively - the impeccable atmosphere and enticing ambiguity make it an absolutely masterful, truly unforgettable opening.