10 Best Horror Movie Opening Scenes Of The 2010s

Absurdist horror doesn’t get much better than Rubber, the Quentin Dupieux-helmed story of a sentient, psychokinetic tyre in the US desert, who goes on an all-out head-exploding rampage.

The first scene takes place both in and outside of the film, as we are addressed by Lieutenant Chad (Stephen Spinella), a law enforcement officer who climbs out of his own boot and espouses the tenets of the “no reason” philosophy. After delivering a short monologue about the absence of meaning and purpose in cinema, he introduces the film we are already watching and exits the way he came, leaving us with an audience of onlookers positioned not far from the action to watch the exploits of Robert the tyre unfold.

A true exemplar of Dupieux's style, this opening distils all his strangeness and comedic quirks into one absurdist scene, while challenging us, the audience, directly. We are told there is no reason, but in the process are challenged to participate in the film and actively seek to defy the declarations of a director whose intent is oblique, but whose entire approach signals him as a trickster. And it’s this kind of dicey, participatory meta-fiction that makes this scene one to remember.