10 Horror Movies With Spine-Chilling Opening Sequences

Standing head and shoulders above the rabble of ‘70s & ‘80s slasher movies, John Carpenter's 1978 Halloween boasts an opening which continues to terrify even to this day.

Told from a point of view perspective, the movie opens with a voyeur-esque peek through a window as a pair of frisky teens kiss before retreating upstairs to do, well, what it is that frisky teens do. Scored by Carpenter's spine-chilling synthesisers, the murderous protagonist enters the house, pulls a kitchen knife from the drawer, watches the boyfriend leave (fully dressed after a profoundly disappointing one minute 20 seconds) and heads upstairs.

Donning a clown mask found on the floor, the viewer purposefully heads into the bedroom. The girl turns around and recognises the figure as Michael, surprised but not concerned, before he savagely stabs her to death with the knife. Heading outside, the girl's parents return home to find Michael, and the camera shifts to reveal this killer was a small boy, his expression remorselessly blank.

The reveal shocked audiences at the time and, while modern audiences have since become accustomed to such twists, the inescapable dread, of which we are a part, stands unmatched. Carpenter's movie established him as a master in the sights and sounds of horror, and Halloween's opening remains a deserved classic to this day.