14 Best Horror Movies Start With A (2024)
Are you one of those people who loves watching horror movies at night with a big bowl of popcorn in hand? Horror films or sci-fi are always interesting since they make people excited and nervous at the same time, and even if they are silly, people enjoy it. But it suddenly strikes one an idea and for many one might be asking a question, how does one of these horror stories start?
It was also quite common for lots of horror films to begin with the creation of discomfort or fear in the first scene, sometimes accompanied with an item that will foreshadow the horror to come.
Taking a closer look at the ways horror movies start, this article focuses on the main trends and narrative ploys murdering to grab viewers’ attention and drag them into the whose world of terror. As such, we will go through movies such An American Werewolf in London, Alien, The Blair Witch Project, and to mention but a few, in order to see how these movies set the tone instantly. Well, you might need this flashlight, so here is our look into the various styles in which the opening of horror films can be done!
Best Horror Movies Start With A
1. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
- Genre: Comedy Horror
- Director: John Landis
- Cast: David Naughton (David Kessler), Jenny Agutter (Alex Price), Griffin Dunne (Jack Goodman), John Woodvine (Grey Dyer)
- Runtime: 1h 37m
- IMDB Rating: 7.8
It is a story of two American tourist, David Kessler (David Naughton) who is on a backpacking tour with his friend, Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), in the scary and lonely areas of the English moors. One stary night, while many of the characters are out, they meet a dangerous werewolf that threatens them. Michael is killed, however David escapes with a bite mark in his neck.
David wakes up in a London facility with no capacity to recall the act that almost cost him his life. On recovering he has a very awkward, humorously conceived nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) to attend him. For instance, David is depicted to be going through dreams or rather hallucinations and transformation that seems to be affiliated with the full moon. He imagines a horrible werewolf form of Jack who tries to make him accept the curse and become a part of the monster’s pack.
I have some issues with the internal consistency of some scenes, especially with the transformation – when the change gets stronger, David has a hard time controlling himself and becomes a raving monster. He shares his secret to Alex who has collected information on the legends in the local society and finds one that pertains to a werewolf. Grey Dyer (John Woodvine), who is a sagacious old man informs her about the curse and how to have it lifted.
One final plot climax depicts a fully transformed David fighting other werewolves at the moors. It has a R-rating for violence, gore, and language and is famous for its realistic werewolf transformation scenes and the combination of horror and black comedy genres.
2. Alien (1979)
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Tom Skerritt (Dallas), Veronica Cartwright (Lambert), John Hurt (Kane)
- Runtime: 1h 57m
- IMDB Rating: 8.4
This science fiction movie comes from Ridley Scott and opens with a large industrial space ship called Nostromo on its way home to earth when it receives a transmission of a distress signal from a nearby moon which appears to be desolate. Despite the orders of their company not to search or investigate anything they come across they do so and they stumble upon what appears to be an abandoned spacecraft of an alien origin.
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In the other ship, they first come across a facehugger – an alien organism described as a sentient organism that burrows into the head of the crew member Kane (John Hurt). Bringing Kane back to the Nostromo, the crew fails to realize what they are dealing with is not just a space veteran who had a rough landing. The initial Alien, a facehugger, implants an embryo and then violently erupts from Kane’s chest in the most shocking of experiences – an Alien creature.
It is a predatory creature from space that reaches adulthood at incredible speed and starts killing crew members one by one. Here, the so-called ordinary warrant officer rises to become the heroine, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). The generally passive plot is characterized by her cleverness and determination with which she finally defeats the alien monster. It is regarded as the movie with a good psychological view, special effects being revolutionary for that time, and of course Sigourney Weaver’s terrific acting as Ripley.
3. Aliens (1986)
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks), Carrie Henn (Newt), Lance Henriksen (Bishop)
- Runtime: 2h 33m
- IMDB Rating: 3
Years after the original Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is awoken from stasis cryogenics and called to meet with the company’s board. They tell her that there has been an emergency signal coming from LV-426 which is the moon where the Nostromo crashed to meet the Xenomorph alien creature. There is a need to control a colony of colonists and recently the colonists have shut down.
Of the two, Ripley is the most anxious to avoid going back, a fact that can be attributed to her scary ordeal. However, she agrees when she finds out that the colonists are people and the one among them who is a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn ), the only survivor of the colony. Ripley is then captured and wakes up in a space ship where she is introduced to a team of Colonial Marines them being Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) which sets out to investigate and possibly neutralize the Xenomorphs.
Cut to Planet LV-426, where the crew finds that the colongy has been infested by the fatal androids. The marines, on countless occasions, are attacked by Xenomorphs in the motion picture through critically dramatic scenes. As for the interpersonal relationships, the main characters of Aliens that are Ripley and Newt, do build up relations in course of the movie – these characters develop relations that are quite close to friendship as they try to survive in the universe inhabited by the aliens. The feature film enriches the Alien saga, reveals fresh characters and demonstrates the ominous life cycle of the Xenomorphs.
4. Apostle (2018)
- Genre: Folk Horror
- Director: Gareth Evans
- Cast: Dan Stevens (Thomas Richardson), Michael Sheen (Malcolm), Lucy Boynton (Andrea), Bill Milner (Frank)
- Runtime: 1h 40m
- IMDB Rating: 6.9
In this 19th century tale, the young married man Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) goes to save his sister, whom the natives have abducted. He stumbles upon a rather suspicious religion with its prophet prophet Malcolm played by Michael Sheen. Thomas has no choice but to join the cult and become one of their own, perform their bizarre rituals, and gain their trust in order to find his sister.
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While trying to find more information about the cult and joining its members, Thomas gets to know that it is not just a group of people who have gathered to follow some religious beliefs, but people involved in various immoral and unlawful activities. Everyone in the community appears to be a zealous follower of a brand of religion which is not very different from some form of witch cult involving animal sacrifice, violent rituals and body horror. He has to face many dangers in his struggle to make his way higher in the cult’s ranks to eventually free his sister.
There is a general sense of tension, dread, with the environment and the use of rituals as well as the depiction of cult-like behavior that has been presented in the movie.
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- Genre: Slasher
- Director: Wes Craven
- Cast: Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson), John Saxon (Lieutenant Thompson), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Johnny Depp (Glen Lantz)
Teenagers living in the small fictional town of Springwood, Ohio are being killed in their dreams by a maniacal killer wearing a glove of woven fingers‘ killing gloves. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is convinced of the ominous truth – the world of dreams is a door, and Freddy is utilizing it to hunt down the youths in the world of dreams with a view to slaughtering them asleep.
All of these teenagers are linked in that, at some point, they were in foster care . Many years before, the children’s parents took part in the burning of the local child murderer named Frederick Krueger or Freddy Krueger, who, having returned from the dead, wants to take revenge on the teenagers. Nancy, with the help of her smart friend Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp), begins studying dream books and sleeplessness as the only way to meet the target of the nightmare and fight against him.
Additionally, the movie made a legendary horror killer, named Freddy Krueger, famous, and also developed the topic of dream-related dangers. It has a high amount of blood, gore and nightmare sequences more specific are filled with blood.
6. The Amityville Horror (1979)
- Genre: Haunted House Horror
- Director: Stuart Rosenberg
- Cast: James Brolin (George Lutz), Margot Kidder (Kathy Lutz), Melissa Sue Martin (Amy Lutz), Jessica Demuynck (Gretchen Lutz)
- Runtime: 1h 56m
- IMDB Rating: 5.4
Stating its facts on factue, although fictional of course, it paints a picture of George Lutz (James Brolin) and Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder), a couple with three children who move into a large house in Amityville, New York at a give away price. Misfortune soon befalls the family, such as strange noises, cold/breezy sensations, and unprovoked sightings in the house.
The children become odd and the protagonist, Kathy, grows more frightened with each passing frame. George, who was at the beginning of the film rather cynical about the forces of the paranormal, begins to see the otherworldly phenomena for himself.
They found out the previous tragedies of the house such as the case where Ronald DeFeo, a young man, killed all the members of his family. The family tries to call for the priest’s assistance, but they realized that supernatural forces are preventing this.
The haunted house motif is that a house is inclusive of a strange and evil force. Fear in this season is made through the use of sudden false starts or jumps, eerie sights, and sounds, as well as psychological intimidation. While, the origin of a cabin referred in the movie is not quite clear, the film has become a standard representative of haunted house horror genre.
7. An American Crime (2007)
- Genre: Psychological Horror (Note: This is a disturbing true-crime drama with graphic content, but not traditionally considered horror)
- Director: Tommy O’Haver
- Cast: Catherine Keener (Gertrude Baniszewski), James Franco (Ricky Hobbs), Evan Peters (David Sweat), Juliette Lewis (Karla Monroe)
- Runtime: 1h 55m
- IMDB Rating: 7.5
An American Crime is based on an actual event, where a woman Whitney, portrayed by Giovanni Russonbuono, tortures a young girl Sylvia Likens played by Caitlin Hudson to death in Indiana in the 1960s. Sylvia (Ellen Page) comes from an abusive home where her mother (Daphne Walter) is unable to raise her and her younger sister; thus, they are taken by Gertrude Baniszewski (Catherine Keener).
Despite first seems that Gertrude only strict step-mother, however she changes quickly and starts abusing Sylvia physically and psychically. Every single member of her family turns against Kelvin and although she is a mother, she contributes to his suffering by deceiving and forcing the other children from the neighborhood, including her own sons, to join bullies in tormenting Kelvin. Sylvia is one of the few women shown in the journal, barely surviving the increasingly violent encounters depicted in the film.
Warning: This film is rather violent and has plenty of controversial scenes, though it still did not seem horror to me. It should be noted that the today’s viewership may have a delicate stomach and therefore should avoid watching this program.
8. Annabelle (2014)
- Genre: Supernatural Horror
- Director: John R. Leonetti
- Cast: Annabelle Wallis (Mia), Ward Horton (John), Tony Hale (Father Perez), Alfre Woodard (Sister Charlotte)
- Runtime: 1h 29m
- IMDB Rating: 5.4
Annabelle is based on the same world of the Conjuring and shows John (Ward Horton), and his pregnant wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) as they get ready for the birth of their unborn child. Hoping to make amends, John buys Mia a lovely vintage doll and soon realizes that the doll is possessed.
The young bride and groom adopt a horrifying and sinister “Annabelle” doll, which is haunted by evil incarnate that targets the couple. Scooby Dooe and friends started experiencing the eerie incidents, violent attacks, and possession. John makes an effort to visit a priest and a paranormal crawler to make sure he learns everything about the doll and the only way to thwart the entity before it takes the unborn child of Amy and his offspring.
In main part of the film, the director maximally reflects on the jump scares and creepy atmosphere to amaze fans of horror genre. The each object is a vessel for evil and how far one would go to ensure the safety of their family.
9. Antichrist (2009)
- Genre: Psychological Horror
- Director: Lars von Trier
- Cast: Willem Dafoe (He), Charlotte Gainsbourg (She)
- Runtime: 1h 48m
- IMDB Rating: 4.4
Antichrist is a highly provocative and undoubtedly allegorical movie by Lars von Trier, the Danish director and artist. It centers on a man and a woman (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) who travel to a remote area to stay in a cabin after child’s death.
Finally, the movie explores their social strain and disintegration as they fully demoralize themselves in dealing with some of life’s harshest realities like loss and grief and the aftermath of a terrible break up. There are many scenes in the novel which are full of horror; they contain strong hints of the nightmare, mythical scenes and dramatic actions.
Warning: They are moving and engaging as well as provocative and disturbing; this film does not shy away from graphic portrayal. It is perhaps unsuitable for the strong-hearted because it elicits vulgar emotions.
10. Audition (1999)
- Genre: Psychological Horror
- Director: Takashi Miike
- Cast: Ryo Ishibashi (Shigeharu Aoyama), Eihi Shiina (Asami Yamazaki)
- Runtime: 1h 54m
- IMDB Rating: 7.7
Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a widower , who after losing his wife to cancer starts a plan to find a wife, although the premise is to cast a woman for his new movie. He falls in love with a beautiful and mysterious woman, a local student Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina). However, Asami has his or her own hidden agenda as do all the characters in the show and has a sinister side as well.
In the season of the tumor, as Shigeharu gets emotionally involved in a dysfunctional relationship with Asami his mind reaches out to him. He learns some dark history regarding her and notices some rather problematic conducts. The movie’s ending portrays power and sadism where Asami’s paternalistic nature is revealed, torturing Shigeharu mercilessly.
Warning: The show is widely popular for the acting out of many incidents with much violence and controversies. He also deemed it indigestible unfit for viewers with sensitive stomachs.
11. Alien³ (1992)
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Director: David Fincher (in his feature film directorial debut)
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Charles S. Dutton (Clemens), Charles Dance (Clemens), Lance Henriksen (voice of Bishop)
- Runtime: 1h 59m
- IMDB Rating: 6.3
Ripley crash-lands on Fiorina “Fury” 161, which is a prison planet that contain male convicts’ prisoners who are violent. She finds out that men only are employed by the service of the guards and a warden, Clemens (Charles Dance). Ripley discovers that there is something more sinister going on – a company is conducting tests to harness the Xenomorphs for use in war.
After a while, Ripley is proved right in her thinking that she is not a lone soul. There is a scene in which prisoners have been injected with Face hugger embryos without their knowledge. Once the aborts develop and hatch out, the prison turns into a horrendous state. The young woman that Ripley rescues from the prison where the company subjects’ desperate inmates to experiments because they are immune to a deadly virus may be their salvation.
Indeed, Alien³ turns the series for a different setting, where the crew is threatened by primal cages, corporate evil and Ripley’s fight for survival following an alien attack.
12. Alien Resurrection (1997)
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley – clone), Winona Ryder (Call), Ron Perlman (Johner), Brad Dourif (Dr. Gediman)
- Runtime: 1h 47m
- IMDB Rating: 6.3
This is a sequel set two hundred years after the Rio de Janeiro scene of Alien³, in which a large corporation clones Ripley from a blood sample containing Xenomorph dna. The end is near; the grunts want to get it over with and terminate the queen by surgically removing her embryo and turning it into a weapon. We learn from this that Ripley wakes up as a clone with some of her memories and those of the queen.
They are a group of mercenaries who were assigned to capture Riple and bring her to a space station where she would be further examined and her xenomorph removed. Although, there is never a straight forward way of doing things. Embyrof the queen is then implanted back into Ripley where from a monster is bred. The film portrays an action-packed sequence of escape and shoot-out between Ripley and the corporate goons while she struggles to come to terms with her gender and what the corporate heads had in store for her.
Although Alien Resurrection is not afraid to be somewhat silly at times and introduces a humor and visual angles to the Alien series that have not been seen before, it remains a competent addition to the franchise with the Xenomorph still being a fearsome villain.
13. Annihilation (2018)
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Director: Alex Garland
- Cast: Natalie Portman (Lena), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Ventress), Tessa Thompson (Josie Radek), Gina Rodriguez (Anya Thorensen)
- Runtime: 1h 55m
- IMDB Rating: 6.9
Lena (Natalie Portman) is a biologist dealing with the death of her husband who went missing with other researchers to investigate the phenomenon, a shimmering dome, that has engulfed a region on the American coast. Lena remained quite grief-stricken but she decided to go on another expedition all over again this time its an entire female team of scientists specializing in different faculties.
I imagine that the visitors find themselves in a world that is not quite recognizable as the natural world because the laws that govern life have gone awry. The flora and fauna have also evolved in the most unnatural and surreal ways; even the world around them seems to possesses a certain level of the enigmatic element of intelligence. While progressing further inside, the team not only risks being killed by the mutated beasts, but also experiences the neurodegenerative effects and physical transformations in human body due to the coverage of The Shimmer.
The film focuses on the subject of eradication and it raises such questions as power of the human mind, human impact on the environment, and the necessity to investigate more.
14. Antiviral (2012)
- Genre: Body Horror
- Director: Brandon Cronenberg (son of famed body horror director David Cronenberg)
- Cast: Caleb Landry Jones (Syd March), Sarah Gadon (Hannah Geist), Malcolm McDowell (Elias)
- Runtime: 1h 28m
- IMDB Rating: 6.3
Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) is an employee of a company that specializes in acquiring and distributing such biological pathogens as belonging to celebrities to the die-hard fans. In this world, it is a rank to be a celebrity and to be ill and people will be prepared to pay a lot of money to suffer a disease of a star.
Syd finds himself working on a new unknown illness that is associated with a reserved pop star, Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon). He gets infected and does develop certain physical metamorphoses that are quite far from the norm. The film also links on celebrity culture, stalking, and fragile identity where people do not hesitate to become the mere objects of desire to get a shot at fame regardless the harm it can cause to their physical selves.
Conclusively, Antiviral is an unsettling and provocative picture, which employs some elements of body horror film in order to comment on the culture of consumerism and reverence for celebrities.
Wrapping Up
Horror movies’ beginnings are a significant setting in motion that determines the overall tone and mode familiar to viewers and impressing them with eerie scenery and characters. Whether it is the darkness of natural night and the full moon, a sinister-looking object that in reality is not one actually has a skeleton hidden inside, or a group of friends who go out in the night only to get lost, such scenes that depict tales of the night set the tone for horror.
So the next time you choose a horror movie to watch, try to determine the whole plot of the movie from the first scene. Hopefully it might be a clue to the entire ordeal which sent shivers down one’s spine. You may watch these movies on Netflix.
FAQs
What is the top horror movie?
It is impossible to say that there is a best horror movie because everyone has different opinion about movie whether they like it or not. Highly rated horror movies are however some of the best ones which help in getting value for our money and these are the following; The Exorcist, The Shining, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Get Out. Both are critically acclaimed and popularly loved by many, however it all depends on ‘ what you find more horrifying’.
What is a horror movie that starts with AB?
No other major horror franchise title starts with “AB” besides “Abracadabra,” a 1993 film that doesn’t really belong to horror genre but represents more of a kid-friendly Halloween theme. It is possible that there could be some independent horror movies with ‘AB’ titles, outside the obscure world, one would have to look for them on the internet.
What is a very scary movie?
This will depend to a great extent with fear factors present with each individual. Some people find the uncanny as the most terrifying type of horror while there are those who are scared by the psychologically threatening or suddenly appearing monster. It’s much easier to find out which horror movie is too much for a certain person when they read reviews and watch trailers beforehand.
What is the scariest movie called?
This is down to a bit of debate, then, which is why some of the most frequently proposed contenders for the title of ‘the scariest movie of all time’ are The Exorcist, Hereditary, Sinister, and Pulse. In essence you are being asked, what is the thing you are most afraid of!
Is The Exorcist scary?
However, one must note that indeed The Exorcist is perceived by many as a horror movie due to the themes of religiosity, demonic possession and reappearance, plus special effects which were outstanding depicting even much more than those that have been seen today. There would be a domineering impression, which is not advisable for everybody.
Is “I see you scary”?
Generally the phrase ‘‘I see you’’ that may be friendly under normal circumstances may be interpreted as creepy. A suspenseful song would be useful in a horror movie trailer or scene this may be used to create suspense or to show that something dreadful is around the corner.
Is Sister Death scary?
However, there are several films with a title or a title that is similar to “Sister Death”, “Sister of Death “or “Death Sister”. Well, as far as I can observe, no, they are not necessarily celestial, depending on the particular movie that you are talking about. And the most successful example of such a movie is, of course, Saw, which does not need any comments, and it is enough to read the comments or watch the trailers to assess how dangerous it might be.
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