10 Awful Opening Scenes In Otherwise Awesome Horror Movies

8. Malignant

Scream 4 Anna Paquin Kristen Bell
Warner Bros.

James Wan's Malignant follows a young woman called Madison, who believes is being stalked by a psychic imaginary serial-killing childhood friend, Gabriel. If that premise sounds ridiculous, wait until you hear the twist!

In the end, we discovers Gabriel is a parasitic twin, who lives on the back of Madison's' skull, and possesses her body when he performs his murders.

Even though Malignant is a bit... well... maligned, the third act is an utter delight. This balls-to-the-wall revelation, and the mesmerising action sequence that follows turned Malignant into the most talked-about horror of the year.

It's ironic how entertaining the ending is, when juxtaposed with the terrible opening. In the prologue, we see Madison's doctor, Florence Weaver, preparing to remove Gabriel from Madison.

But unlike the rest of the movie, this scene is shot and lit like a low-budget B-movie from the '70s. The actors perform in a hokey manner, while delivering corny lines like, "he's drinking electricity." Because this scene rakes of exposition, many believe it's a deliberate homage to schlocky horror. Even if that's true, it's still jarring, since this style isn't used again.

Also, this scene has too many clues revolving around Gabriel, allowing some viewers to deduce his identity long before the big reveal. If this opening was cut, there would've been a bigger mystery behind Gabriel's origins, making the twist all the more shocking.

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows