Horror openings: Research

Most Popular Horror Openings

There are many different types of openings that horror films use but there are mostly 4 popular ones such as: cold openings (Horror Kill Sequence), Red Herring, Flashback (Origin Opening), and the "Everything seems normal" opening. But in today's blog I will be going over only 3 of them.

Cold Open (Horror Kill Sequence)

For this I wanted to pick The Nun 11 as an example of a great cold opening:

The Nun II (2023) Opening Scene | Warner Bros. UK

From this opening scene from the Nun 11 you can see a cold open contains 3 main things

• A standalone, violent attack (whether it be supernatural or not)
• It features new characters who are not the main protagonist
• And in this case it's designed to re-establish Valak's threat and set the tone for the rest of the film

Other popular examples of some cold openings are scream, The Conjuring 2, or It Chapter 2

Red Herring

A great example of a red herring opening is the film The Ring (2002):

Opening Scene | The Ring (2002)

From this opening from The Ring, we can see a red herring opening contains 4 main things:

• A misleading clue or false assumption
• Characters or events that seem important but aren't
• In the case of the ring the setup of the two teens joking about the cursed videotape appear to be the main plot but that misleads the audience

Other popular examples of some red herring openings are The Grudge (2004), and The Bye Bye Man

"Everything Seems Normal"

A great example of a everything seems normal kind of opening is Hereditary (2018)

Hereditary beginning scene

• calm, routine/everyday life
• Subtle hints of tension (should not be overly obvious)
• A slow leadup into the first sign of a disturbance

Other popular examples of this are The Babadook, and A Quiet Place

Which One Do I Want To Do

For my film I would like to pick the "Everything Seems Normal" opening as this is not bad to do in 2 minutes or less. Also, from what I have seen not many actors are truly needed for this type of opening as most of the time it's focused on a normal day (before it all goes to hell). Which will be easier for me as a director in terms of holding each person accountable for their parts.