20 Greatest Opening Scenes In Horror Movie History

The Movie: Stephen King famously disowned Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his classic horror novel The Shining, which says a lot about how “bad” an adaptation it actually was. In actuality, Kubrick’s movie is a great, dark and ambiguous film, and has rightly been branded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. The book and the film share a few common plot elements, but the style is totally different: Kubrick plays it vague and clinical, whilst King writes with more emotion and detail.

The Opening Scene: While The Shining's most famous scare moments come much later in the film, Kubrick's horror masterpiece opens with one of the most unnerving title sequences ever.

The camera begins by slowly looming over a lake, taking the viewer to the cliff-side road to follow a car. The magnificently haunting score lays over the scene instantly giving it the feeling of foreboding. Before a single line of dialogue is spoken, you are sufficiently rattled.