Name your favourite opening credit sequence in a horror film.

Casey - Cinema Fromage

The opening of Jim Wynorski’s Not of This Earth carries on for a solid 5 to 7 minutes. In this action packed time frame we catch glimpses of large monsters, various explosions, fist fights with said monsters and various other trappings that make for a promising scifi/horror camp flick! It’s not until you sit through the entire 81 minutes of the movie that you realize that all of the action and monsters shown in the opening credits? None of it is in the movie.

Stacie - Final Girl

I’ve been thinking about opening credits a lot lately, because they seem to be getting more and more lengthy all the time. They’re becoming these overblown Adobe After Effects mini-movies and to me, they don’t often put me in the right mood.

For me, number one is Gore Verbinski’s The Ring…because it doesn’t HAVE a credit sequence. Maybe it’s the same in the original version, but I don’t remember. There’s no names, no distractions, nothing- the movie just starts. No one does that!

Sometimes films get it right, and I think when they take a ‘less is more’ approach, even credit sequences can be effective in setting a mood- I’m thinking the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, with those blood red sunspots and subtle news report narration, and Halloween 1 & 2, with the pumpkins and Carpenter’s haunting music. They’re short and subtle and they suck you right in.

That said, of course, I love some of the Friday the 13th credit sequences, like in Part 2 where the logo explodes. It’s just plain awesome. And then there’s Creepshow, with those super sweet Bernie Wrightson- inspired drawings and the “scary” font…those credits tie into the whole comic book feel of the film really well. Man, when I was a kid Creepshow was the shit. It kinda still is.

Sean T. Collins - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

The 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. Probably the most effective use of popular music in a horror film I can think of, and part of the scariest 15 or so minutes of zombie movie ever filmed.

Jeff O’Brien

OMEN 2

The discovery of the daggers…

Nico - DVDTrash

Easy one this week, Dario Argento’s Suspiria, fantastic opening for a great film, and one I’ll be revisiting before going to Italy to watch the final chapter “Mother of Tears”!

Paul Corupe - Canuxploitation

I’ve always been partial to the proto-psychedelic opening sequences to the films of Roger Corman’s Poe cycle, which have always struck me as Saul-Bass-on-a-budget. The Pit and the Pendulum, I think, is the best of the lot, with constantly swirlilng multi-color oil paints and an almost atonal Les Baxter score that work together to foster an atmosphere of instability and insanity that thematically carries through the rest of the film. To me, they are the perfect intersection of the Gothic horror with the camp of ’60s pop art–both dated and timeless.

Dave - Rue Morgue’s The Abbatoir

Another tough one… . So many horror flicks, even bad ones, grab you off the get go. I’m gonna go with the first one that comes to mind: The Dawn of the Dead remake. Johnny Cash + apocalyptic zombie mayhem = awesome. I love the design of the actual credits themselves, the use of found footage and the way it’s all edited together to “When the Man Comes Around.”

Curt - Groovy Age of Horror

For me, it’s a toss-up between two Argentos: BIRD WITH CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED. Great music, great images, very striking in both cases.

JA - My New Plaid Pants

I have a real fondness for the opening credits of Final Destination, with all the cheesy over-the-top suggestions of “THE SIGNS OF IMMINENT DEATH!” , as if we’re supposed to be terrified that there’s a copy of Death of a Salesman on the kid’s desk.

Louis - Damaged 2.0

The remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD. The blood splotches mixed with Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” is spectaularily haunting and downright iconic. Running a close second would be the skuzzy 70’s style openin credits of THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, set to the Allman Brother’s “Midnight Rider”. I love the freeze frame and zoom in style. And, finally, it’s much longer than an opening credits sequence, but I really dig the first fifteen minutes of FEAST, when all the chatacters are introduced in one bigsnarky, horror-geek in-joke.

Thanks to all the cinephiles for this week’s Horror Roundtable. And thank you for reading. While you’re here, why not sample some of the fine horror blogs available above? It’s not like I posted anything this week.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.