10 Slasher Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

1. Halloween (1978)

Carol Kane fails to check the children in time in When A Stranger Calls
Compass International Pictures

It would be impossible to compile such a list and not feature the iconic opening to John Carpenter's legendary Halloween in some form or fashion.

Along with Black Christmas, Halloween is the film often credited with kickstarting the slasher subgenre. And man, did Halloween itself kick things off with an almighty head f**k.

Regardless of what BS you may hear from some blowhards, absolutely nobody was ready for Halloween's opening act reveal that the person we'd just seen carry out bloody murder was an angelic-faced six-year-old boy.

With the opening act death of Judith Myers, the audience had seen all of this play out from the killer's vantage point; in reality, it actually being writer/producer Debra Hill's hands carrying out the stabby-stabby action here.

It's only once this killer leaves Judith's lifeless body behind and heads outside that we have the jaw-dropping revelation that the carnage we've just witnessed was carried out by someone so young. It was genuinely shocking, it was utterly jarring, and it was an opening scene that made you realise that Halloween was far from your regular run-of-the-mill horror picture.

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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.