10 Horror Movies With Spine-Chilling Opening Sequences

TW: Violence against animals

While horror has proved again and again that you can inflict violence upon horny teens in as many ways as you can imagine, unless you are trying to make a deliberately transgressive movie, there are things that you just do not put on the screen. Certain victims are off limits in terms of what the viewing public will accept, and, as eloquently put by the 2019 Netflix docuseries of the same name, you do not f*** with cats.

Clearly nobody told Untraceable director Gregory Hoblit. That film follows FBI special agent Jennifer Marsh as she attempts to track down the host of website Killwithme.com, where victims are placed in torture devices that progressively activate as the site receives more hits.

Whilst interesting in its critique of horror voyeurism, the film is largely forgettable except for its opening scene. As the credits roll, a kitten is lured on to a board covered with glue. Unable to move, it has no choice but to sit in view of the active webcam, and the unseen killer. Thankfully, nothing is shown on screen, but the implications from what little has been shown is enough to make this one of the more upsetting horror openings in recent memory.