10 Horror Movies That Never Got Better Than Their Opening Moments

It's important for any movie to kick off with an opening scene that immediately gets the viewer's attention and pulls them into the film's world, whatever that might be.

And in the case of the horror genre, that typically means serving up a gnarly death scene to give the audience a taste of what to expect from the remainder.

Yet sometimes filmmakers perhaps put a little too much effort into a punchy opening, enough that the rest of the film can't even begin to live up to it.

While some of these horror movies are still very good for the most part, it's nevertheless clear that the lion's share of the effort went into crafting an all-timer opener that audiences would remember for years, even decades.

Once these scenes were out of the way, each movie struggled to achieve that level of excitement, intensity, and outright terror again.

And considering that the end of a movie is what will often define an audience member's lasting impression, it's always a shame when the finale is a bit deflating compared to how it all started...

To say that the opening sequence of Final Destination 2 goes hard would be quite the understatement - it offers up by far the most visceral premonition sequence in the entire franchise, and ruined logging trucks for an entire generation.

Like its predecessor, the sequel quickly tees up a devastating calamity which appears to kill the bulk of the movie's ensemble cast, before of course pulling back to reveal that it was actually a premonition witnessed by protagonist Kimberly (A.J. Cook).

While heading on a road trip for spring break with her friends, Kimberly sees all goddamn hell break loose: a bunch of huge logs suddenly break free from the back of a logging truck, causing a colossal pile-up in which the movie's characters are all brutal victims.

Cars and bikes are flung around like toys, killing everyone in sight as they trigger massive explosions. Finally, Kimberly herself is killed when she's hit by an oncoming truck while helplessly trapped in her car.

Just at this moment, we see that it was in fact Kimberly's vision, and as per the series' formula, the catastrophe then takes place for real, albeit with Kimberly and a few other "lucky" folk avoiding it.

There are a number of fun kills throughout Final Destination 2, for sure, but the movie's opening instead goes for the gut, offering up a gnarly massacre that continues to unnerve audiences because the fear of driving behind a large cargo vehicle is so damn relatable.