Opening Kill Scene: The Elevator Pitch of Horror Movies

When I was in college, I took a Professional speaking course where I learned about the ‘elevator pitch’. Basically, the elevator pitch is having 30 to 60 seconds to present an idea or maybe even promoting yourself. Depending on how effective you are will determine whether or not you are given the opportunity to present your entire idea and sell it to the powers that be. Essentially it is a short presentation designed to be an attention getter so you can present the full presentation.

A horror movie that has a kill scene in its opening is just that, an elevator pitch. It sets the tone of the movie and grabs the audience’s attention keeping them invested in the rest of the movie. Often, we are introduced to our main antagonist. Not every horror movie needs to do this, but it does help. For this article I have listed a few of my favorites. There are of course several great examples, but these are some of my personal favorites.

Black Sunday (1960), directed by Mario Bava

Princess Asa Vajda, a vampiric witch, and her evil acomplice, Javutich,^[a] are sentenced to death for sorcery Asa vows revenge and puts a curse on her family’s descendants. Bronze masks with sharp spikes on the inside are placed over Asa and Javutich's faces and hammered into their flesh, but a sudden storm prevents the villagers from burning them at the stake.

This is a case where we meet the antagonists in the opening scene and they are put to death for their crimes in a brutal and heinous fashion as the scene takes place in the 1600’s. Of course the rise from the grave to seek revenge for their deaths. But this scene ,which was certainly pushing the envelope in 1960 as many horror movies of the time were, effectively introduces the vullains and gives a sense of the atmosphere and dread we will see throughout the movie.

On a side note, Princess Asa Vajda portrayed by Barbara Steel has got to be the sexiest female villain in a horror film. At least in my opinion.

Jaws (1975), directed by Steven Spielberg.

Of course, on its 50^th anniversary I am going to discuss Jaws and the iconic scene that keeps us out of the ocean, well at least it keeps my out of the ocean.

At the very beginning we meet a young woman, Chrissie who is attending a beach party one night. A young man takes a liking to her and Chrissy playing hard to get leads him on a chase as she removes her clothes and jumps into the ocean for a late-night swim. The guy chasing is too drunk and passes out on the beach.

Meanwhile, Chrissy swims farther and farther out and everything seems right until she feels a pull and a tug and a sharpness piercing her skin. She is violently throttled back in forth in the water. She is being attacked by a great white shark. We can’t see the shark or the gruesome damage he is causing the young woman. But her horrific and deafening screams tell us all we need to know as our imaginations take over.After one last gasp. She is pulled under and all we see later are a few remains the next day.

This scene introduces us to the shark and tells us right from the beginning, it’s not playing around. From this moment forward the movie has our undivided attention as it then breathes and we get to know the main characters.

Suspiria (1977) directed by Dario Argento

In the opening scene of this horror masterpiece we first meet Suzy Bannion, a young American ballet student, who is arriving in West Germany, to study at a prestigious dance school. As she is arriving at the school, Suzie sees another student, Pat, running in terror from the school. Pat takes refuge at a friend's apartment but is attacked by a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows who stabs her repeatedly before hanging her with a noose by throwing her through the apartment building's skylight. Pat's friend is also killed after as she is impaled by a falling shard of glass.

So, in this scene we briefly meet the main protagonist Suzie, who really doesn’t factor in the scene other than being denied entry to the school and starts asking questions the next day about Pat.

This scene focuses on Pat. Why is she fleeing, who or what is chasing her and why? Those are questions that haunts us throughout the movie. The tension and the buildup to not one but two murders is incredible do to Argento’s artistic color schemes and Goblin’s music score.

The practical effects of the kills are terror-filled and terrific. You wonder who is responsible and why. But most importantly the audience is hooked. It may very well start off looking like a Giallo film, it obviously is something totally different.

Halloween (1978) directed by John Carpenter

The scene that made us all say, “Did that kid just kill his sister?” Yes, young Michael Meyers indeed did. After her boyfriend abruptly leaves after engaging in sex, seventeen-year-old Judith Meyers is upstairs in her room brushing her hair. To be honest I have never seen a woman brush her hair right after sex especially at night but oh well. Lurking in the house a six-year-old boy grabs a large kitchen knife, puts on a clown mask and proceeds to walk upstairs through the POV lens of cinematographer, Dean Cundey. The young child, Michael Meyers, startles his sister, Judith, and stabs her repeatedly and finally kills her. And the rest is history.

What is on the surface a simple scene is still both suspenseful and for many terrifying. We are introduced to the main antagonist, Michael as a young child before seeing him later as a full-grown force of evil. The audience is shocked and invested giving us time to get to know characters like Dr. Loomis, Laurie, Annie, Linda and two kids; Tommy and Lyndsey, before the his reign of terror accelerates in the second half of the movie.

Even when there isn’t much going on in the movie, that sense of dread continues to consume the audience. All because of the opening scene.

Scanners (1981) directed by David Cronenberg

Ok, maybe this wasn’t the opening scene in the movie but it comes pretty early and talk about starting a movie off with a big bang.

The setting is a conference; you know the type of boring conferences you might have to attend if you work in the corporate world. Of course, there was nothing boring on how the conference ended when the speaker asks scanner, Darryl Revok, to demonstrate his powers, which Revok obliges by using his telepathic powers to make the speaker’s head explode in one of the most what the fuck moments in horror history. How I wished, I could have been in the audience of one of the early viewings of Scanners. I bet half the audience walked out in disgust while the other half were like, “ok then let’s see where this movie leads us.” Talk about an attention getter.

Hellraiser (1987) directed by Clive Barker

In the opening moments of Clive Barker’s directorial debut, we meet Frank Cotton, who as just acquired a mysterious puzzle box. Frank is looking for extreme sensations of pleasure and pain, which is exactly what he gets. Once he solves the box he is tortured and ripped apart by the Cenobites whom we get brief glimpses of.

This scene is effective for a few reasons. For starters, we get a gruesome kill. Though we do not see the whole kill in it’s entirety unlike the novella which far more descriptive, but we see as much as the MPAA will allow us to see. The audience is certainly horrified and in wonder, “Who were those leather clad beings. But this scene also subverts expectations. We think that Frank was just some innocent victim, and these demons must be the main villains. Well, not quite. The Cenobites aren’t exactly waving the flag for goodness and virtue, but it is Frank and later on his willing accomplice Julia who are the real villains of the story, as Julia helps Frank regain his form after his grotesque and magnificent resurrection.

House of a 1000 Corpses (2003) directed by Rob Zombie

This movie starts off with the owner of this roadside gas station/museum/ fried chicken restaurant by the name of Captain Spaulding who is dressed up like a clown shooting the shit with one of his regulars when two masked men barge into the store with the intent of robbing him. Not a smart move as Spaulding with the aid of one of his employees (we assume he is but never really learn much about this guy) disarms the robbers and killing them without hesitation.

The whole scene is quite the attention getter for sure as while he is being held at gun point, Captain Spaulding is talking trash to the robbers right up until he shoots them. To quote Captain Spaulding;

“Fuck your mama”

“Fuck your sister”

“Fuck your grandma”

“And most of all, Fuck You”

Now what do we learn from this comedic, yet brutal scene. Not a whole lot really. Is Captain Spaulding one of the antagonists or is he just an honest shopkeeper who doesn’t take shit from anyone. Possibly both. One thing we do know in Rob Zombie’s directorial debut is that we are in for one wild ride and it certainly was.

It: Chapter 1(2017) directed by Andy Muschietti

We all knew what was going to happen when the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s It premiered in 2017. Most of us saw the 1990 television miniseries and some of us read the book. We knew Georgie’s fate was that of doom, but the opening scene was still frightening and terrifying to watch. Keep in mind this scene which builds slowly was not the opening scene in either the miniseries or the book.

Once Georgie comes face to face with Pennywise who appears in the sewer drain, it is just a matter of time before the demonic entity who has taken the shape of a clown sinks his teeth into the poor boy. We know its coming. We know what is going to happen. It is just a matter of when. Watching this in the theater I could feel the tension and anxiety of the scene slowly building up. Right up to the kill. A defining elevator pitch if there ever was one.

If I didn’t list some of your favorites. Sorry maybe next time. But here are a few other I didn’t mention that are fairly iconic; Scream, A Bay of Blood, Deep Red, Friday the 13^th Part 2 and Sleepy Hollow.

Thanks for reading and right now, I could use some caffeine so: