10 Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

3. 28 Weeks Later

sons of anarchy finale jax confession
20th Century Fox

Sh*thouse. Absolute, absolute sh*thouse.

That's what most people were thinking as 28 Weeks Later opened up, with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 2007 effort showing just how brutally self-serving people were in this virus-riddled landscape of rage and survival.

In similar movies to 28 Weeks Later - and even shown in 28 Days Later - we're used to seeing people bandying together to help each other in their mutual quest to survive from day-to-day. Granted, there are sole-focussed selfish characters dotted across those pictures, but those films don't start things off by depicting your lead character as one of those sole-focussed selfish characters.

During the opening of 28 Weeks Later, Robert Carlyle's Don is holed up in a barricaded cottage with his wife and four others. When a horrified, desperate young boy knocks on the door in search of safety, Don's wife Alice takes the lad in.

Once it becomes apparent that a bunch of infected have swarmed in on this supposed safe haven, it's here that 28 Weeks Later delivers the gut punch moment of Don opting to save his own skin; leaving his wife, the young boy, and the other survivors be torn to shreds by the infected.

For Don, he departs through an upstairs window and eventually make his solitary escape on a boat.

Again, absolute, absolute sh*thouse behaviour.

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.