10 Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

Alan J. Pakula's Klute occupies that space between horror and thriller, although I would argue it is more than chilling enough to qualify for this list. The film, which released in 1971 and earned Jane Fonda an Academy Award, is paranoia undistilled - a remarkable reflection of surveillance anxieties that lives in the spaces between our everyday existence.

Pakula was famed for broaching this exact kind of subject matter - Klute is part one of the director's unofficial "Paranoia Trilogy", with The Parallax View and All the President's Men the remaining two entries - but he perfected it here, leaving a palpable sense of incursion from the off.

Part of what makes Klute's paranoia so compelling is its setting and focus. Fonda's Brie lives on the top floor of a city apartment - not necessarily an urban fortress, but a home that feels secure - and Pakula immediately sets about exposing each of the ways that sacred space can be intruded upon. It could be a window, a skylight, a phonecall, electronic surveillance - maybe even the fabric of the building itself hides a passage to forces unseen. Michael Small's score for Klute - possibly the scariest thing ever - binds it all together, a breathy, ethereal composition that feels like it's stalking us from outside the frame.

Klute evokes powerlessness in an extremely raw way, starting with Arthur Eckstein's opening credits, which focus on the main antagonist of the film listening to one of Brie's intimate phone calls - all while Small's music creeps along.