10 Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

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.