Best Opening Credit Sequences

[Wes]

I really love the opening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - that eerie sequence with the shots of the corpse glistening in the light of the flash bulb (and that unforgettable whiney sound), followed by the dissolve to the corpse hung on the gravestone like a puppet, and the voice of the news reporter swallowed up the Hooper & Bell's proto-Industrial score... Even now after seeing the film 20 times, I still get excited by the way the film rolls out.

I'm paraphrasing here but I think Andrzej Zulawski once said that if aliens came to Earth and asked him what is Cinema, he would show them The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I like that...

It's still my favourite Horror film of all time...

[gasteropod]

Originally Posted by Wes

I'm paraphrasing here but I think Andrzej Zulawski once said that if aliens came to Earth and asked him what is Cinema, he would show them The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Haha really? He's a nutter, I love how he just calls most films rubbish in his audio commentaries Shame his last one was rubbish!

[Wes]

I wouldn't be a Zulawski expert by any stretch but Third Part of the Night, The Devil, Possession and The Silver Globe are classics ! Just goes to show film makers are not always the best judge of their works...

[Vampix]

I love the atmospheric opening credit sequences, shot in Highgate cemetery, to both Tales from the Crypt and From Beyond the Grave.

[gasteropod]

Originally Posted by Wes

I wouldn't be a Zulawski expert by any stretch but Third Part of the Night, The Devil, Possession and The Silver Globe are classics ! Just goes to show film makers are not always the best judge of their works...

I didn't mean his own work, I meant everyone else's . My favourite Zulawski film is Szamanka.

[Splatterdragon73]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

Superman 1978: so awesome...

Indeed it is and i also think one of the funniest opening credit sequences belongs to the hilarious Smokey And The Bandit III (yep, that's right! The third film nobody likes but me!!) with Sheriff Buford T. Justice trying to enjoy his retirement only to have everything go wrong!

The senior citizens exercise class moment especially splits the sides everytime!

[Wes]

Originally Posted by gasteropod

I didn't mean his own work, I meant everyone else's . My favourite Zulawski film is Szamanka.

Ah...I see...

Okay... some more favourites...

Once Upon A Time In The West - the perfect marriage of image and sound...

THX-1138 - the descending credits and Lalo Schifrin's haunting theme music...

The Man Who Fell to Earth - David Bowie's arrival on a strange windswept alien world, and the prophetic shot of the drunk and the lamb on the way to the slaughter...

Persona - the veins of Cinema ripped open and the extraordinary cavalcade of surreal imagery that seques into the credits of Bergman's great masterpiece. This is where Tyler Durden got the idea of splicing a cock into a film...

[Phurious]

Persona is such an incredible film and my favourite Bergman. Strikes that bizarre balance of being beautifully refined (acting, cinematography and mis en scene) but equally raw and visceral (script, subject and editing) - a truly remarkable piece of work.

Incidentally Mark Cousin's Bergman's analysis on The Story Of Film last week was superb.

[Splatterdragon73]

Hulk
Alien
Aliens
Speed
Ricochet
Batman ('89)
Superman II
The Warriors
The Shining ('80)
Superman Returns
and The Last Dragon ('85).

Also, more or less any vintage martial arts movie featuring the good and/or bad guys showing their stuff against a red background!

[Wes]

I'm gonna cheat a little and say I love the end credits for Night of the Living Dead - those heavily textured photographs of the zombie squads at work (like old whaling photographs I think), accompanied by that eerie electronic library music... incredible...