20 Horror Movie Openings That Are Practically Perfect

Don't Look Now is one of Britain's all-time great horror masterpieces. It's commonly remembered for having one of horror's best endings, but it mustn't be forgotten that it's also got one of horror's best beginnings, one which cleverly foreshadows the ending. 

This sequence depicts what is probably the worst pain anybody can experience: the death of a child. Young Christine (Sharon Williams) drowns in a pond and it all plays like a nightmare, with director Nicholas Roeg deploying surreal, expressionistic visuals to convey the overwhelming horror of the situation. 

And then, when Christine's father, John (Donald Sutherland) cradles her lifeless body and screams in anguish, viewers are brought right back down to earth. It's no dream, it's cold reality and it's traumatizing. Watching this back, it seems all the more incredulous that the late, great Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar. 

As aforementioned, this cleverly sets up the remainder of the story. While John is looking over some pictures of the church he's going to be renovating in Venice (which is where the rest of the story occurs), various omens - such as John cutting himself and blood spreading across one of the photos - give John a gut feeling that something is wrong outside, hinting that he's got supernatural second sight himself. 

Of course, he doesn't realize this until too late, and a mysterious figure in one of the photos plays into his ultimate fate - if you know, you know.