Last year I wrote a piece called 5 Horror Films With Amazing Endings. You guys wound up digging it so I did 5 MORE Horror Movies With Amazing Endings, along with 5 Horror Movies With Horrible Endings and 5 MORE Horror Movies With Horrible Endings!

So, having pretty much tapped out the ENDING thing for now, I figured I’d take a look at some BEGINNINGS. Some of these movies start strong and end strong but others, more often than not, never fully achieve on the promise of their initial 15 or so minutes.

Head below to check ’em out!

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)



You knew this one was going to be on here didn’t you? While the James Gunn scripted/Zack Snyder (still his best) directed film is pretty damn good all the way through, most people would agree that it’s first 10 minutes or so are a true tour de force. From the economic, yet efficient, character introductions to Sarah Polley’s reactions to the chaos breaking out around her. This, and the opening credits, are a masterstroke.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009)



You guys know by now that I dig this whole movie, but the first 20 minutes especially shine. There’s just something great about the quick dispatch of teens who could potentially have been our protagonists, right up until that great shot of Jason charging towards the camera smashes us into the main story.

SCREAM



While Scream is pretty much a classic at this point, I’m not sure if it ever beats the opening Drew Barrymore sequence. It’s lighter on laughs than the rest of the film, but makes up for it with a sadistic level of suspense that the remaining 100 minutes have a hard time recapturing (those 100 minutes are still pretty great though).

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD



It’s remarkable how efficiently Dan O’Bannon sets up his universe – just a hair to the left of the Romero films – and establishes the tine of his utterly unique piece. The humor, the horror, that body in the bag twitching in the freezer – it’s all there.

SINISTER



Not so much an opening sequence as an opening shot, whatever your opinion may be of Scott Derrickson’s Sinister – there’s no denying the power of this image.

GHOST SHIP



Our contributor Wolfman wrote at length about this, and he’s d*amn right. The scene that possibly BEST demonstrates this article, it’s all downhill from here. Enjoy!