10 Most Controversial Opening Movie Scenes

6. Proxy

There's something so immediately terrifying about seeing a pregnant woman in a horror movie. Even if nothing happens, the tension that something, anything might happen to the unborn child is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire runtime. Though filmmakers usually steer clear from having anything terrible happen to the baby (or at least showing it in detail), 2013's Proxy throws all that out the window in the opening minutes.

Following a pregnant woman as she travels home from a doctor's appointment, she's knocked unconscious in the street by a hooded assailant, who then proceeds to smash her stomach in with a brick.

Obviously, the scene became a sensation even before the movie came out, coming to overshadow the entire project. There was no way that wasn't going to happen though, as even in the context of the narrative it's still jarring, and easily one of the most uncomfortably violent movie openings of all time.