10 Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

9. The Empty Man

sons of anarchy finale jax confession
20th Century Studios

Finally released towards the end of last year - being one of many films whose release was delayed due to the pandemic - David Prior's The Empty Man nicely surprises audiences early on by serving up what essentially is a teaser movie for what was to come.

Set in 1995, that opening focusses on four friends whose hiking trip goes majorly array. There's an eerie skeleton, there's catatonia running wild, there's eerie figures, there's sinister goings-on, and there's the death of three of these characters.

From there, just as you're digging into this story, The Empty Man surprisingly changes things up by jumping ahead to 2018.

In this new setting, a mystery plays out involving rituals that all tie to the local legend of the Empty Man. This strange entity forces its victims to kill themselves, before then leaving a message of how "The Empty Man made me do it".

Given the relatively recent release of the picture, it would be a tad unfair to fully wade into spoiler territory here. Either way, the setup of The Empty Man is one that definitely takes the film's audience by surprise in how it basically serves up a bonus mini-movie.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.