10 Slasher Horror Movie Openings That Surprised Us All

2. Scream

Carol Kane fails to check the children in time in When A Stranger Calls
Dimension Films

Wes Craven's Scream wasn't the first movie to kill off its headline act early on, but it was a true game-changer in how it offed Drew Barrymore's Casey Becker in the opening moments of what would go onto become a four-movie (and counting) franchise.

For variation, your writer would love to give Scream a day off here, but it's impossible to ignore those opening moments of Craven's 1996 picture when looking at the most surprising, effectual slasher movie openings.

The actual act of Casey's death was a chilling one, with her played like a fiddle in a terrifying game of cat and mouse before being carved up and hanged from a tree. But the most jarring part of this sequence, is that it's Drew Barrymore's character who fell afoul of Ghostface here.

Barrymore had been front-and-centre of the promotional push for Scream, with Dimension Films' marketing campaign being so heavily built around Drew as Scream's A-list star.

Not just did this serve as a genuine shocker at the time of its release, the death of Casey Becker also firmly cemented that all bets were off with Scream; a theme that would be followed throughout this film and the subsequent franchise entries that followed.

Senior Writer
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.