10 MORE Horror Movie Openings That Get Worse The More You Think About It
3. Fallen
Fallen is a criminally underrated supernatural horror in which Detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) pursues Azazel, a fallen angel capable of possessing human beings purely through touch.
In the opening sequence, Hobbes watches serial killer Edgar Reese (Elias Koteas) be executed, but unbeknownst to both him and the audience at the time, Reese was actually possessed by the demon Azazel.
Following Reese's death, Azazel seeks out new bodies to inhabit in order to carry out more killings, and if you look closely during Reese's execution, there's a brief moment where Reese's mocking attitude changes to one of fear and panic.
This seems to pinpoint the precise moment at which Azazel decided to leave Reese's body, leaving the poor guy to return to consciousness just as he's in the midst of being murdered by the state.
That's terrifying, and it only gets worse when you consider how many deranged serial killers in the universe of this movie are presumably just Azazel hijacking their body for kicks, and then jumping ship when caught or killed.