Top 5 Horror Cold Opens that Go Hard

Most horror movies take their time — a little atmosphere here, a spooky hint there — before pulling you into the dark. But every so often, a film doesn’t wait. It opens the door, pulls you inside, and locks it behind you.

These are our top 5 horror cold opens that go hard — the scenes that don’t need setup, don’t waste a second, and tell you everything you need to know about the horror to come.

5. The Empty Man (2020)

The Empty Man's cold open is arguably better than the entire movie. Before the movie heads to suburban, near procedural creepiness, it opens with a 20-minute short set in the Himalayas that could have stood on its own. It follows a group of hikers who find a strange, warped skeleton inside a cave. It's fused to the wall, whispering a madness that slithers its way into one of their minds.

What follows is a slow-burning unravelling that ends in violence, silence, and a heavy, existential chill.

It’s less of a jump scare horror and more “the universe is staring back at you and doesn’t care” horror. By the time the title card hits, you’re not even sure what movie you’re in — which is exactly why it goes so hard.

4. Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter doesn't just make horror films; he embodies them. He establishes the rituals and creates memorable pieces that stick in our minds forever. Halloween came out close to 50 years ago, and it still reigns as not only one of the best horror films of alll time, but its cold open, being a single unbroken shot of young Michael Myers, was genius.

The audience doesn’t realize who they’re watching until it’s over: a six-year-old boy, standing blank-faced in a clown costume, after stabbing his sister to death.

No buildup, no reason, no mercy. Just the reveal that evil can be small, quiet, and already inside the house.

3. Scream

Scream is the greatest meta horror movie ever written, and its cold open is horror cinema. A teenage girl, home alone, gets a flirty phone call that turns into a threat. Drew Barrymore was coming up on peak fame, her sudden dearth didn't just shock audiences, it was structured film anarchy in a movie that broke rules from the get-go - the title star died before the title card.

Wes Craven used that opening to rewrite the rules — and the audience’s expectations — in under ten minutes. The scene’s pacing, tension, and cruelty have been studied ever since.

2. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Few cold opens fake you out as well as this one. Instead of woods, we start in a sterile underground facility with two guys joking about baby-proofing. It plays like a workplace comedy — until the title card screams across the screen mid-sentence. The best part is this was done on purpose - the filmmakers intentionally wanted to displace the audience and make us feel like we sat down for the wrong movie.

That hard cut says everything about the movie’s DNA: it’s a demolition of horror. By the time the real cabin shows up, the audience already knows something much bigger is going on than the implication that they're simply going to a cabin in the woods.

1. Evil Dead Rises (2023)

No warm-up, no mercy, no rules.. Evil Dead Rise opens lakeside with a subtle homage to the franchise’s demonic camera rush — but this time, it bursts up from the water. Within minutes: a scalp rip, a drone kill, and a levitating Deadite hovering above the lake as the title rises from the horizon in blood-red daylight.

The rest of the movie doesn’t even start until after this massacre, making the opener feel like a nightmare you barely survived before the story begins.

The best horror cold opens serve as more of an announcement of pure cinematic dread rather than something just to scare you. They give no time for the slow build dread of horror - from the slow cosmic unravelling of The Empty Man to the absolute bloodbath of Evil Dead Rise, these openings hook you from the beginning.

They set the tone, break the rules, and make it clear that the horror has already started.