20 Best Opening Scenes From Recent Horror Movies
18. The Monkey
Osgood Perkins' The Monkey begins in 1999, as a blood-soaked Captain Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott, in surprise cameo form) rocks up at an antiques shop and attempts to return a cursed wind-up toy monkey.
Petey is clearly incredibly frazzled by whatever he's just been through, but before much of anything can happen, the monkey begins drumming, signalling that all fresh hell is about to break loose.
And indeed it does, as a mouse gnaws on a rope in the shop, causing an axe to fall onto a harpoon, causing said harpoon to fire directly at the store's owner, who is instantly impaled.
He's not dead yet, though - after a beat, the monkey drums one more time, before the harpoon retracts, pulling the owner's intestines with it.
A terrified Petey then makes one last attempt to get rid of the monkey, picking up a nearby flamethrower and melting it - but of course, this solution is ultimately only short-lived.