10 Scariest Opening Sci-Fi Movie Scenes Ever

3. From Beyond

Quarantine opening
Empire Pictures

From Beyond, Gordon's second and not final foray into Lovecraft's oeuvre, is very much the opposite of his comical Re-Animator. It takes the science and thematic terror much more seriously. You know your movie is Freudian when a character literally bites off the third eye of a monstrous rape creature.

Combs returns, this time as Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, who along with partner Dr. Pretorious have invented The Resonator, a device that allows the mind to see beyond what it can normally perceive by activating the Pineal gland. Within moments of turning it on, strange, interdimensional beings float in view of the doctors. They immediately turn aggressive, taking bites out of the scientists.

Tillinghast is locked up in a mental institution after Pretorious is found decapitated, but psychologist Kathryn McMichaels (Re-Animator alum Barbara Crampton) starts to find his outrageous story credible after a CT scan reveals his pineal gland is enlarged. Reluctantly, he returns to the Resonator with McMichals and a decective (Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree).

The opening kill scene is hectic and nausea -inducing enough. Things only get worse from there.

Contributor
Contributor

Kenny Hedges is carbon-based. So I suppose a simple top 5 in no order will do: Halloween, Crimes and Misdemeanors, L.A. Confidential, Billy Liar, Blow Out He has his own website - thefilmreal.com - and is always looking for new writers with differing views to broaden the discussion.