10 Slasher Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All
8. You're Next
In Adam Wingard's You're Next, we have a movie that completely pulls the rug out from under you from the get-go.
Ahead of the movie's release, the promotional material had geared audiences up to expect a small group of animal mask-wearing killers on a bloody rampage. And yes, that is indeed what we ultimately got - well, until the tables were turned on said killers - but the opening moments of You're Next led you to believe that Talia (Kate Lyn Sheil) and Erik (Larry Fessenden) were going to be some of our central protagonists.
While they very much were on the protagonist side of the fence, the pair's role in You're Next was an extremely minimal.
Rather than sticking around for a good chunk of the movie, lovebirds Talia and Erik were merely fodder whose sole purpose was to get murdered during the film's first few minutes as a way to set up the threat that was looming large for the Davison family down the road.
With the benefit of hindsight, of course, Talia and Erik's roles here made perfect sense. Given the clever, minimal marketing campaign around You're Next, though, seeing these characters not be more pivotal characters was somewhat of a shocker during a first watch at the time of the movie's 2013 release.