B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping horror cold opens into the ol’ VCR. 

One of my favorite parts of horror is the cold open. We open on our group of sacrificial teens. This group usually doesn’t make it past the opening credits, but they help establish our villain or important plot details that will come back later. 

We all know that the Scream franchise has the best cold opens. From Drew Barrymore and her Jiffy Pop to, most recently, Samara Weaving meeting her doom in a dark alleyway. No one does ‘em better. 

However, there are still some worthy mentions. 

For example, the opening of Fear Street Part One: 1994. It’s definitely an homage to Scream, but boy howdy, is it a good one. Maya Hawke is a wonderful Scream Queen, and the entire chase scene is just *chef’s kiss*. 

When the sinus pressure hits. 

In a similar vein, we have Freaky. The opening of Freaky gives us just enough exposition to avoid a lengthy scene later on, but it doesn’t ruin the fun of the movie. It’s also the epitome of the sacrificial teen sequence. 

Next up, we have It Follows. While Freaky lays the groundwork for our villain, It Follows does the opposite. We’re thrown straight into the action. We can’t see what the character sees, so we have no idea why she’s running. Cold opens can be risky, but in the case of It Follows, It Pays Off. 

The last cold open I want to touch on is Scare Package. It shouldn’t be a secret that I love meta commentary and meta horror movies in general. That’s why I was DELIGHTED when Scare Package came out, and I saw the opening segment. I know that Cabin in the Woods had played on the idea of planting Harbingers of Doom, but Scare Package took it to the next level. 

Mfw I walk into a room and immediately forget what I needed 

Imagine the real estate agent who sold you the haunted house, the security guy who assured you the electricity was fixed, and everyone else you interacted with was a plant. In fact, this was their career. Now imagine that one of these people wanted to start saving victims, only to make a bigger mess. It’s too good. 

Creating the perfect cold open is an artform. You have to hook your audience from the start, and there isn’t much leeway. When done correctly, it’s memorable at worst and is the indication of a wonderful film to come at best. 

Scream’s cold open is one of the most iconic horror scenes of all time, and continuing cold opens throughout the franchise has only added to its incredible quality control. Scream also set the precedent for the likes of Freaky, It Follows, and Scare Package. The cold open is a treasure to the horror genre, and honestly, movies in general, and although it might be called a cold open, it sure does warm my heart. 

And yeah, I regretted writing that as soon as I finished typing it out.