10 Opening Horror Scenes NOTHING Like The Rest Of The Movie

Saying The Empty Man's onset feels out of place doesn't do it justice. Instead, this 20-minute sequence almost feels like a self-contained story since it focuses on separate characters in a different time period and environment.

This mind-bending horror begins with Paul and his three friends travelling across a Bhutanese mountain. When Paul falls through a crevasse, his friend Greg heads down to help him out. To Greg's astonishment, Paul has been left in a catatonic state, staring in awe at a giant humanoid skeleton. One by one, each of the group becomes possessed, causing them to kill each other or themselves, until Paul is left alone.

After that, the rest of the story centres around James, a widowed ex-cop who's researching a mysterious cult, believing they'll lead him to a missing girl. Though the intro eventually ties into the bigger picture, it doesn't happen for almost two hours. 

Considering The Empty Man is 140 minutes, it could've realistically functioned without the opening. Nevertheless, it was the right move to keep it in, since it's the most tense and enthralling sequence in the entire film, by far.