10 Slasher Horror Movie Openings That Get Worse The More You Think About It

Those horror offerings which have far more going on than you may have originally thought.

Black Christmas 2006 Constance Lenz
Dimension Films/MGM

An opening scene is pivotal to any movie, but even more so within the realms of horror.

For horror films, those openings are often about setting the picture's stall out and establishing the sinister threat of the day. Take Halloween's chilling introduction of young Michael Myers, or think back to the deafening shrieks of Chrissie Watkins in Jaws' first moments. By just a few minutes into those movies, the beast of the feature has been introduced and you have a solid idea about what you're about to watch unfold across the following 90 minutes or so.

In the instance of some other films, though, the opening sequences offer up a lot more than what's seen on the surface. For such pictures, there's plentiful troubling details to unpack if you stop to take a think about what's really going on in these first few scenes. And it's on those movies that the focus is on here, as we dive a little deeper on matters you may not have previously even considered.

With that in mind, then, here are ten such slasher openings that are far more twisted than you may have initially thought.

10. A Creepy Mortician - Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter

Black Christmas 2006 Constance Lenz
Paramount Pictures

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter went ahead and wrapped up the F13 franchise at four movies, with Jason Voorhees killed off after being brutally bludgeoned to death by young Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman). And with that, the Friday the 13th series sailed off into the horror sunset, never to be seen again...

Of course, The Final Chapter - much like Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - was anything but final, with the franchise delivering a further six movies, a remake, and a crossover with Freddy Krueger.

While the ending of The Final Chapter has been addressed, it's the beginning that's likewise a rather disturbing scene. Having picked up the action directly after the events of Friday the 13th Part III - where Jason was left with an axe in his head - this fourth film had the supposedly dead body of Voorhees transported to the morgue.

It's here that we're introduced to coroner Axel Burns, who's tasked with performing an autopsy on Jason. Unfortunately, he's also a total horned-up prick who's more bothered about trying to hook up with Robbie Morgan, one of the building's nurses.

Given the slimeball behaviour of Axel, this clearly isn't the first time that he's tried to have sex in the hospital morgue. Similarly, his creepy persona suggests it's not just Robbie who he's likely to have wooed into getting down and dirty with in amongst the dead bodies of the facility.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.