If you recall, I did a ranking a while ago on horror’s best Movie Openers. This is a sort of sequel to that, only with best Title Sequences! This means the little opener at the beginning with the title added in. Enjoy!
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Now hailed as a super-meta fan favorite, no one knew what to expect from The Cabin in the Woods when it first came out. How did office workers shooting the shit have anything to do with a horror movie? Welp, they had everything to do with it, actually. As a precursor to what happens in the rest of the movie, we’re totally off-guard when the title itself jumpscares us into oblivion. A masterpiece!
Halloween (1978)
We all know the infamous house walkthrough and teen stabbing sequence that Halloween has so kindly graced us with. We also know the beautifully autumn-aesthetic beginning neighborhood shot (if you want more of that, check out Witching Season Films‘ Halloween Atmospheres series). But what we all came here for was the jack-o-lantern! Orange and black coloring. A fiery, flickering jack-o-lantern face. That kick-ass soundtrack. This sequence has inspired so many other films and remains a solid piece of the Halloween world, being copied and updated all throughout the series.
The Grudge (2004)
After being abruptly shocked at Bill Pullman’s sudden suicide by jumping off of his Tokyo high-rise apartment ledge, we’re greeted with a watery, bloody, sentient tuft of long black hair. The Grudge‘s sounds of wushing and garbling are hard enough to take, but a sudden child’s hand slaps the screen — simultaneously slapping us back to our senses. It is unsettling, to say the least.
The Shining (1980)
The opposite of claustrophobia is agoraphobia: the fear of open spaces. I don’t know how they did it, but The Shining‘s filmmakers managed to make a movie about an inescapable haunted hotel — something you’d think would be claustrophobia-inducing — extremely agoraphobic. Wide open mountain ranges, winding lakeside passages, sweeping helicopter shots, all set to the tune of a death march. Who knew such breathtaking views could harbor such evil? The people in the little car going down the pass are in for an awful surprise.
The Terror, Season 1 (2019)
Another series I had just gotten to watch after an extended time on my Shudder watch list, The Terror is an anthology series with every season being about a different paranormal event. Season 1 is about the real-life tragedy that befell the crew of Captain Sir John Franklin as they were searching for the Northwest passage in the 1840s. What really happened is unknown, but The Terror shows us what could have taken place. Its intro shows us in spine-chilling fashion the ships being trapped in arctic ice, showing main characters wither away to skin, bone, and dust. It’s like looking at a black and white picture set to an out-of-tune piano: sinister and worrisome. It passes the vibe check for the season, for sure.
Eli Roth’s History of Horror (2018)
Say what you want about Eli Roth, but he clearly is a horror fan. His History of Horror documentary-style show interviews various people in the horror business and gives insightful views about a different topic each episode. And just like each episode focuses on a “subgenre,” the title sequence shows all of what horror has to offer in 30 seconds: vampires, bloody chainsaws, haunted houses, Nosferatu, crows, zombies… ugh, I love it! Plus the music is superb with a capital “S.” If this doesn’t make you want to watch a scary movie, something is wrong with you because I am so pumped every time I see it.
What’s your favorite title sequence? Let us know in the comments!
