10 Brutal Horror Movie Openings Nobody Saw Coming
3. Open Heart Surgery - Suspiria (1977)
Fans of Argento likely went into this film expecting his usual trademark stylish violence, but none of them could have possibly been prepared for the ridiculously violent double-murder that awaited them within the film's first fifteen minutes.
Arriving at the Tanz Dance Academy on a dark and stormy night, our protagonist Susie Banyon spots a young woman named Pat fleeing the school in a state of panic. Whilst Susie struggles to get inside the building, we follow Pat as she takes refuge at a friend's apartment. She confides in her friend that something unusual was occurring at the academy before going to the bathroom to dry herself off.
An unseen assailant then attacks Pat, smashing her face through the bathroom window and pulling her out onto the roof where she is stabbed multiple times. A washing line is then tied around Pat before she's stabbed several more times, leaving her heart completely exposed.
In a particularly graphic close-up, we see the blade pierce Pat's heart before her body falls through a stained-glass skylight, and the resultant falling debris kills her friend.
It truly is one of those sequences that must be seen to believed, and even after all these years, it's still utterly breathtaking.