10 Horror Movie Openings That Pissed Everyone Off
2. Too Meta For Its Own Good - Scream 4
As brilliant as the first two Scream movies' opening scenes were, Scream 3's intro committed the cardinal sin of killing off fan favourite character Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) while also introducing Ghostface's much-maligned ability to mimic voices.
Scream 4 clearly bore a weight of responsibility to make up for Scream 3's disappointing opener and deliver something more in-step with the first two movies.
But Scream 4's pre-title sequence is unfortunately a case of over-correction and overdoing the series' signature meta-ness to the point that it becomes obnoxious while actively undermining the stakes of what we're watching.
The film opens with two young women (Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes) being killed by Ghostface in typical fashion, before it's revealed that we're actually watching the start of Stab 6, with two friends (Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell) then discussing the state of modern horror films.
But in a double fake-out, Bell's character then stabs Paquin's, revealing that we're actually watching a film within a film, and this is the start of Stab 7.
We then finally meet the first real victims of Scream 4, Jenny (Britt Robertson) and Marnie (Aimee Teegarden), in what's ultimately a pretty standard fare opening for the series.
But considering the two previous fake-outs, many had limited investment in the fates of Jenny and Marnie for fear it was just another meta rug-pull.
Thankfully the most recent fifth Scream film opted for a back-to-basics approach that lovingly homaged the original while offering its own contemporary twist.