10 More Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

The Brood invites us into a reality where one mentally ill woman can asexually conjure hideous, feral offspring from her own body, all of whom inhabit a telepathic hive mind that allows her will to manifest outside of her psychiatric facility. So, yeah, it's a David Cronenberg film.

But before any of this has the opportunity to unfold, we have the title credits. A simple sequence, featuring coloured text on a plain black background (variations of which Cronenberg used on many of his early and mid-period pictures), the driving force of this one is the score. The first Cronenberg movie to have an original soundtrack, the music was composed by Howard Shore (yes, the Howard Shore) in his film score debut, and employs a string-led chamber orchestra to uncanny effect.

Adopting the sound of the classic horror title and playing with it, Shore, who admits to working around the edges of the subconscious, evokes established scores like Bernard Herrmann's Psycho, while gifting the form a new sense of danger. His composition spikes and whoops, presenting something familiar before whipping it in unexpected directions at crucial moments, such as on the film's title, with the simplicity of the visuals amplifying the emotional impact of the music.

But this is only one of many unsettling contributions from Cronenberg and Shore, beginning a long partnership in which each became a defining part of the other's work, while redefining the relationship between horror sound and imagery.