10 Scariest Horror Movie Opening Credits

2. Seven

Se7en Opening Credits
New Line Cinema

Seven puts on a masterclass when it comes to the opening credits, a patchwork yet intricate nightmare that perfectly foreshadows the torment to come. Designed by Kyle Cooper, the opening titles for Seven positions disturbing imagery next to a gloriously creepy remix of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer", the industrial tones complementing the sinister, frayed nature of what we later discover is essentially John Doe's preparation montage.

Cooper packs a tremendous amount of disturbing imagery into Seven's opening titles, whether it's Doe peeling the skin off his fingertips or photography of invasive medical procedures. Layered with the remix of "Closer" and the scrawly nature of the typography, Seven immediately imparts a sense of dread to the proceedings - sinister forces working in the dark, committed fully to something disturbing.

The opening titles get even creepier after the first watch as well, their abstract creepiness recontextualised by John Doe's actions later in the film. There are two snippets in Cooper's sequence where we can see Doe studying passages on pregnancy, a dark moment of foreshadowing that signifies his interest in Gwyneth Paltrow's Tracy.

Terrifying from the off, Seven's opening credits take on a whole new layer of terror when revisited.

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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.