10 Horror Movies With Spine-Chilling Opening Sequences
3. Evil Dead Rise
A full ten years after the soft reboot failed to ignite the horror world, 2023's Evil Dead Rise set the standard for how a modern horror film should be made and, like a passage from the Naturom Demonto itself, breathed terrifying life into this cult franchise.
In the opening scene, cousins Jessica and Teresa are holidaying at a sun soaked lakeside cabin along with Jessica's boyfriend. Whilst Teresa is hoping for some relaxing time away reading her book, her serenity is cut short by the aforementioned drone-wielding jock boyfriend and Jessica's own mysterious illness. Checking on her infirmed cousin, Teresa is horrified to discover Jessica not unwell but possessed, reciting Teresa's book verbatim in a deep demonic voice with the chilling repetition "let me in".
What follows is a nightmarish progression of choking, scalping, drone-related self-mutilation and eventual jock beheading, before Jessica's pallid body rises unnaturally from the lake, silhouetted in the air by the film title in blood red lettering. As the movie pulls back to the main narrative, set one day earlier in a derelict apartment building, we are left reeling by the evocative imagery, desperate to know what could have possibly led to this.