10 Scariest Opening Sci-Fi Movie Scenes Ever

Found footage films are a difficult feat to pull off. Just getting the audience to suspend their disbelief long enough for them to stop shouting "Just drop the camera and run, idiot" is hard enough, and there are other challenges the subgenre presents itself. The lamest example is Matt Reeves' Cloverfield, in which Hud, the cameraman who suddenly has a suspiciously good eye, explains his desire to keep filming.

"People are gonna wanna know, you know?" he says. "How it all went down."

Screw you, Hud.

Though essentially a shot-for-shot remake of the Spanish-language film [Rec], Quarantine still manages to pack a punch and adds one element that is absent in the original. While coving a night-in-the-life story of a local firefighting station, reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) is thrust in the middle of a 911 call at a run-down apartment complex. Things seem status quo, until a body suddenly drops into the lobby and all hell breaks loose.

Soon, the survivors are locked in, surrounded by military officers ordered to shoot any who try to escape on sight as zombie-esque creatures tear through the tenements. [Rec]'s brief, vague explanation has no basis in science, but faith. It turns out one of the residents was an agent of the Vatican investigating the transference of demonic possession.

Quarantine grounds its reasoning in the science fiction realm, with newsclippings hinting at a doomsday cult and a break-in and a chemical weapons lab.

Either film is worth the watch.