10 Horror Movies That Never Got Better Than Their Opening Moments

Urban Legend kicks off with a terrifically memorable opening sequence which dramatises the infamous "killer in the backseat" legend, whereby a victim gets into their car and fails to realise a murderer is hiding in the back.

Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) stops at a gas station to have her car filled up, where we're immediately led to be suspicious of the creepy-looking attendant - played rather knowingly by the great Brad Dourif.

The attendant eventually persuades Michelle to leave her car and seemingly attempts to attack her, causing her to pepper spray him and promptly drive away.

But as it turns out, the attendant was actually trying to warn Michelle that somebody was in the backseat of her car.

And so, we cut back to Michelle on the road, where an axe-wielding maniac appears in the backseat of her car all while Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" plays out, and poor Michelle is then killed with a swift swing of the axe.

It's a tightly wound, expectation-defying sequence which sets the tone for what's to come, even if the rest of the movie doesn't have nearly enough fun shaping grisly death scenes around infamous urban legends. It's all downhill from here.