10 Opening Horror Movie Scenes That Changed Everything

8. Happy Death Day

Bride of Chucky Tiffany Jennifer Tilly
Universal

Happy Death Day's opening nine minutes set the tale for something utterly unique in the horror genre. Well, unique if you discount the film's sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, that is.

Those nine minutes introduce us to our lead character, Tree Gelbman, a college student who wakes up in someone else's bed after a one-night stand. From there, Tree returns to her sorority house - mocking someone she'd previously hooked up with along the way - does her best to ignore her own birthday, is late for class, has it revealed to the audience that she's having an affair with her lecturer... and is then killed by a baby-masked killer.

While that in itself would usually be quite the shock, how Happy Death Day "changed everything" is that Tree immediately wakes up back in the bed of that aforementioned one-night stand. From there, this picture becomes very much the Groundhog Day of horror - all with a healthy dollop of humour throughout - as Gelbman gets killed time and time again, awakening on that same morning and doing her best not to get killed in the same ways as previously, while trying to work out who her killer is.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.