10 Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

John Carpenter deservedly holds the title of Horror Master, having crafted a selection of seminal genre outings in the 1970s and '80s - starting with 1978's Halloween. Many of Carpenter's other works took years (sadly) to develop cult success, but the writer, director and composer's propulsive 1978 debut has always been iconic.

Halloween's opening first half is most praised for its shocking introductory scene, in which Carpenter places us in the perspective of a masked killer stalking, and then murdering, a woman at home alone - only to reveal that this was just a six-year-old child the entire time. That scene of a young Michael Myers is rightly immortal. Still, it is also punctuated by one of the all-time great opening title sequences, in which Carpenter's ghostly and enduring theme plays against a black backdrop, as an ominous pumpkin fades in, and amber credits follow.

The opening credits of Halloween are simple but extremely effective, taking the playful spookiness of the Halloween season and imbuing it with a dread that transcends campfire horror or spooky bedtime tales. It's a formula that the sequels iterated on to great effect. For all its faults, the original Halloween 2 places a great, electronic twist on the original theme and opening credits from its predecessor, peeling back a pumpkin to reveal a skull. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch introduces an electronic jack o'lantern, while the Blumhouse requels benefit from separate Carpenter compositions and a pumpkin (or pumpkins) to match each entry's theme.

There's no beating Carpenter's chilling original, though.