10 Opening Horror Movie Scenes That Should've Been Cut

9. The Predator Arrives On Earth - Predator

Saw The Final Chapter
Fox

John McTiernan's Predator is an incredible movie with an opening scene that serves no meaningful purpose at all, and worse than that, it denies first-time viewers the thrill of watching the mayhem unfold alongside the doomed central characters.

Rather than kicking things off with Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dillon's (Carl Weathers) hilariously hyper-masculine greeting, Predator's opening minute shows an alien spaceship deploying a shuttle to Earth because... reasons.

Given that the movie has a slow-burn build-up to Dutch and his team learning quite what they're fighting against, it feels like a mistake to basically spoil that upfront.

Without this scene audiences wouldn't be left waiting and waiting for the alien to show up in the movie's first half, and even once it does materialise, they'd be left to speculate on the precise nature of its origins.

Much like Don't Breathe, this feels like a studio note, that Fox were worried audiences wouldn't piece together that the soldiers were dealing with something otherworldly otherwise. But c'mon, give people some credit.

Contributor
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.