20 Greatest Opening Scenes In Horror Movie History

The Movie: Dario Argento’s magnum opus, Suspiria follows an American ballet dancer whose excitement at being accepted to a prestigious European dance school turns to terror when she discovers that the institution is a cover for a murderous coven of witches. The plot of the film is quite limited but you will be too busy staring at the gorgeous visuals to care.

The Opening Scene: The film’s opening sequence is arguably Argento’s crowning achievement in carnage and beauty. It begins with a rain-shrouded taxicab ride and ends with the hyperbolic murder of a young dance student.

The student in question, Pat (Eva Axén), gets attacked by a ghostly pair of arms that disembowel her, tie a cord around her neck, and send her crashing through a glass ceiling, left dangling in mid-air, neck snapped. The aesthetics of the scene, the ominous music and the brutality of it all is a heady combination indeed.