20 Horror Movie Openings That Are Practically Perfect
11. Ring - The Dreaded Phone Call
Much like with The Shining, Ring's opening scene - which depicts the movie's ghostly antagonist claiming a teenage victim - is a testament to the power of subtlety and suggestion. We don't really see anything and we don't need to, for this sequence has enough atmosphere to carry it for miles.
Tomoko (Yuko Takeuchi) and Masami (Hitoma Sato) are chilling at Tomoko's house when Masami tells her about a sort-of urban legend going around. There's a cursed tape - if you watch it, you get a phone call warning that you will die in seven days and then, seven days later, that's exactly what happens.
Masami is just telling it as a joke, but Tomoko knows it is true, as she watched such a video herself. The two girls fall silent... and then the phone starts to ring.
All the way through this scene, we know how it's going to end. We know poor Tomoko is going to die, but we don't know how or when. Director Hideo Nakata drags this sequence out for as long as possible, building the tension up and up and up with his brilliantly creepy visuals before, at last, something does happen to Tomoko. However, we don't see what - that comes later.
It's a tremendously unsettling beginning - oh, and it's ten times better than the American equivalent.