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

18. Evil Dead Rise

Evil Dead Rise bamboozles audiences with one hell of a cold open, where cousins Teresa (Mirabai Pease) and Jessica (Anna-Maree Thomas) are vacationing at a lakeside cabin with Jessica's boyfriend Caleb (Richard Crouchley).

However, things soon turn sour when a clearly very, very unwell Jessica is revealed to be possessed, promptly scalping Teresa and decapitating Caleb before levitating above the lake.

This is such a fun, savage intro to the movie - we get a brilliant fake-out with a drone imitating the iconic first-person perspective of the Kandarian Demon, two deeply nasty kills, and then an all-timer title drop when Jessica hovers diabolically over the lake.

It was nothing if not an upfront indication that Lee Cronin had the chops to deliver a standalone sequel worthy of the original Evil Dead trilogy, and the scene also serves as a fun epilogue to the rest of the story, which takes place a day earlier.