10 Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

7. The Conjuring

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The Safran Company/Evergreen Media Group/New Line Cinema

It wasn't so much the opening minutes of The Conjuring that surprised horror hounds; it was more how the movie quickly transitioned from those Annabelle-centric minutes to something completely different.

Ahead of its release, this James Wan vehicle was heavily promoted using the imagery, the intrigue and the eeriness of the Annabelle doll. The posters, the trailers, and even the subsequent home release of The Conjuring all had Annabelle splattered all over them. Heck, said posters were literally just a shot of Annabelle creepily watching us while she was being held by an unknown figure sat on a rocking chair.

For its first few minutes, The Conjuring did what we were led to believe it would do: it told us about the Annabelle doll and some of the spooky shenanigans it had gotten up to.

Then, almost out of nowhere, the film transitions to being something entirely different.

Rather than Annabelle being the focus of the movie, the creepy little doll is merely a footnote in this particular film. Instead, those Annabelle-led first few minutes dovetail into the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren helping the Perron family with the demonic forces tormenting them in their home.

Senior Writer
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.