10 Movies Where The First Scene Is The Best
4. The Empty Man
From David Fincher to his extremely promising protege, now, with David Prior's directorial debut The Empty Man, which became something of a cult classic once it hit streaming in late 2020, after Disney effectively sent it to die theatrically.
Much of the early buzz was focused around the horror film's unforgettable 22-minute opening sequence - a taut, expertly shot setup for the rest of the movie that functions as a God-tier short film in of itself.
The sequence takes place in Bhutan in 1995, as four friends go hiking on a mountain and one of their number, Paul (Aaron Poole), is lured into a crevice. His friends eventually find him near-catatonic while staring as a giant humanoid skeleton in a cave.
Things grow increasingly ominous until a possessed Paul whispers something into the ear of one of his fellow hikers, prompting her to kill their two other friends and then throw herself off the mountain while Paul looks on.
A mesmerising exercise in mood, this opening sequence is a magnificent slow-build that both functions on its own terms and serves as a potent mood-setter for the rest of the story, which jumps ahead 23 years. It's never this dynamite again, but it gets close at times.