20 Horror Movie Openings That Are Practically Perfect
1. Halloween - Michael Murders His Sister
And finally, we've got the first scene in John Carpenter's Halloween, which is a strong contender for the greatest horror movie opening ever.
It's the most confronting of beginnings, as it places the viewer in the shoes of a killer - the whole thing is one unbroken-POV shot. A figure voyeuristically spies on a young woman named Judith (Sandy Johnson) as she's intimate with her boyfriend. Once the boyfriend leaves, they get a knife, don a clown mask and then cruelly stab Judith to death.
Chilling enough on its own, this scene is taken to new levels by Carpenter's all-timer of a musical score.
First-time viewers will expect Judith's death to be the crescendo, but it's not. The most shocking moment of all comes when the POV shot finally ends and the killer is unmasked - it's a little boy, Judith's younger brother Michael. Truly, this is one of the most disturbing and haunting beginnings to a movie ever, and none of the sequels or remakes ever came close to the unbridled perfection of Carpenter's original masterpiece.