10 Horror Movie Fakeouts We All Fell For
9. The Double Opening Fakeout - Scream 4
The Scream series has successfully faked audiences out numerous times over the years, though perhaps never more unexpectedly - or divisively - than during the opening sequence of Scream 4.
The sequel begins with two young women (Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes) being slaughtered by Ghostface in standard Scream fashion, but as they die their ultra-gory deaths, Wes Craven pulls back to reveal that we're actually watching the opening sequence of Stab 6, a sequel in Scream's movie-within-a-movie franchise (based on the events of the Scream series itself, no less).
The "real" start of Scream 4 involves two friends (Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell) watching Stab 6 and disparaging the state of contemporary horror movies, before Bell's character suddenly stabs Paquin with a knife, and Craven pulls out again to reveal that this is really the start of Stab 7.
Craven then finally proceeds with the movie's actual prologue, as Jenny (Britt Robertson) and Marnie (Aimee Teegarden) watch Stab 7 and are subsequently murdered by the new Ghostface killer.
Craven went full meta here, and for better or worse nobody saw either of the fakeouts coming.
It was certainly a unique way to open Scream 4 and differentiate itself from its predecessors, even if many fans felt it ultimately went too inside baseball for its own good.