10 Movies Where The First Scene Is The Best

9. It (2017)

Spectre Opening
Warner Bros. Pictures

Andy Muschietti's It Chapter One is a tenacious and surprisingly savage adaptation of the first half of Stephen King's legendary horror novel, and proved it'd be holding nothing back in its very first scene.

Muschietti's film opens just as King's novel does, with young Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) sailing his paper sailboat down the rainy streets near his home in Derry, Maine.

Once the sailboat falls down the storm drain and Georgie attempts to grab it back, he discovers Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) hanging out down there.

After a brief back-and-forth, a visibly uncomfortable Georgie reaches to get the sailboat back from Pennywise, who then reveals his grotesque "true" form, clamping down on Georgie's arm with his gigantic set of teeth.

Georgie crawls away, his right arm ripped off, but can't get far before Pennywise reaches his arm out and drags him helplessly into the sewer.

Between Muschiett's taut, shockingly violent direction and Bill Skarsgård's bone-chilling performance as Pennywise, this is quite the statement-of-intent right out of the gate, even if none of the film's remaining set-pieces can match this level of intensity.

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Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.