10 Most Controversial Opening Movie Scenes

There's no lack of controversial movie scenes from throughout cinema's history, with filmmakers constantly trying to push the boundary of just how much they can get away with, whether that was John Waters asking his actors to eat real dog droppings in Pink Flamingos or Gaspar Noe's unsimulated sex scenes in Love.

However, those movies at least had the decency to ease you into things first, essentially letting you know what you were in for before dropping a major scene that upped the ante and pushed things as far as they could go. Other films, on the other hand, didn't give you the luxury of that same prep time, instead attempting to catch you off-guard with an opening scene that immediately cranked things up to 11.

Whether they were purposefully button-pushing in an attempt to expand genres or narratives or simply to achieve a hot-topic opening to stir up backlash and enjoy some free marketing, there have been plenty of controversial first scenes that made their movies instantly infamous.