10 Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

5. Alien

Alien Opening Credits
20th Century Studios

Alien's blend of existential terror is peerless, and it's made apparent pretty much from the off. The title sequence for Ridley Scott's sci-fi magnum opus makes clear the cold unknown of space immediately, rendering in stark clarity its immortal tagline.

Jerry Goldsmith's score almost telegraphs how unprepared the soon-to-be-revealed crew of the Nostromo are for what they're about to face - a slow, melodic composition that acts as a sort of reflection of them awaking from their slumber, all the while an unnerving set of strings and an echoey clunking fade in and out, all of it conveying one thing - you are vulnerable.

Like the crew of the Nostromo, the opening credits for Alien make clear that we too are trapped precariously in the void, unable to change course from the horror lying in wait. We look to the stars in Alien and don't see wonder - all we get is dust, and darkness.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.