10 Movie Openings That Wanted To Piss You Off
These movies pushed your buttons and they knew it.
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00:00Obviously, there are many examples of films getting off on the wrong foot with viewers
00:03from minute one.
00:04But every so often, a director might intentionally invoke the audience's ire with a willfully
00:08challenging opening scene.
00:10These opening scenes generally put entertainment value to the backburner, and instead prided
00:15themselves on raising your blood pressure, stoking your rage, and getting you worked
00:19up for the movie ahead.
00:20So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Movie Openings That Wanted To
00:25Piss You Off
00:2610.
00:27Adrian Mellon's murder in It Chapter 2
00:30It Chapter 2 received a considerable amount of flak for its savage opening sequence, which
00:34adapted one of the more contentious and unforgettable sequences from Stephen King's book, The Death
00:39of Adrian Mellon.
00:41The film picks up in Derry 27 years after the original, where Adrian, a young gay man,
00:46is attending a carnival with his boyfriend.
00:48The pair are attacked by a group of homophobic youngsters, culminating in Adrian being thrown
00:52into the nearby river while his boyfriend helplessly watches.
00:56That's not the end of it, though.
00:57Adrian just barely reaches the shoreline, where he's intercepted by a returning Pennywise,
01:02who promptly bites out his heart as his boyfriend watches from across the riverbank.
01:06Some criticised director Andy Muschietti for lingering on the homophobic abuse suffered
01:10by Adrian, that it was excessive and unnecessary to convey Pennywise's return to Derry.
01:15Yet beyond the fact that this scene appears in King's novel, our anger is precisely
01:19the point.
01:20It's supposed to be nauseatingly brutal, while exposing the ugly undercurrent that
01:23still exists in modern Derry, beyond the shapeshifting ancient predator that's just re-materialised
01:28there.
01:299.
01:30Death Metal Out of Nowhere in Funny Games
01:33Mikael Haneke's Funny Games, both its 1997 original and 2007 English-language remake,
01:39are committed exercises in pissing the audience off as much as possible.
01:42Though sold to viewers as standard home-invasion thrillers, both films take that simple setup
01:47to deliver a savage takedown of both sadistic entertainment and our own complicity in it.
01:53The films not only betray the expected narrative structure of such a story, spoiler, the outcome's
01:57not a happy one, but one of the antagonists even reveals the ability to break the fourth
02:01wall and literally rewind the movie for a more favourable outcome.
02:05Haneke makes it clear from the film's very first scene, however, that he's going to
02:09be messing with us throughout.
02:10The opening credits of both films show the fateful family driving to their holiday home,
02:14accompanied by quaint, peaceful music.
02:17But then, all of a sudden, the soundtrack changes to an ear-splittingly cacophonous
02:21death metal song, Bonehead, by Naked City, to be precise, all while the family continues
02:26their seemingly peaceful drive.
02:27Basically, Haneke wanted to draw attention to the movie's artifice, to remind audiences
02:32of the falseness of cinema by assaulting them with the least conventional musical choice
02:36possible.
02:37And it certainly works, pissing a lot of people off, as was clearly the intent.
02:418.
02:42The Autobot Massacre in The Transformers The Movie
02:45There are many, many ways that filmmakers can piss off millions of people in record
02:49time, but few as efficient as brutally killing off numerous beloved characters in the movie
02:53adaptation of a classic kid's cartoon.
02:55And that's precisely what happened in the opening sequence of The Transformers The Movie,
03:00what with Autobot Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet and Brawn all being smoked by the Decepticons
03:05like the director's life depended on it.
03:07The quartet is grimly shot to death by the invading Decepticons, memorably culminating
03:11in a mortally wounded Ironhide getting callously put down by Megatron.
03:15Like the TV series featuring no Autobot deaths, Hasbro reportedly mandated a slew of dead
03:21Autobots in the movie in order to refresh the cast, that is, give them a host of new
03:24Transformer toys they could sell.
03:26These deaths, combined with the most shocking demise of Optimus Prime a little while later,
03:30left kids traumatized and their parents angry at seeing their children shaken so thoroughly
03:35by a seemingly harmless cartoon.
03:37The backlash was significant enough that home video releases of the film included a closing
03:41tag assuring kids that Optimus would return, as he did in the next season of the TV series.
03:477.
03:48Telly coerces a girl into sex in Kids
03:51Larry Clark's Kids is undeniably one of the most controversial films of the entire
03:551990s, a bewilderingly frank depiction of young teenagers exploring their sexuality
04:00in New York City.
04:01The debate over the film's artistic merits, namely whether it was exploitation or a fearless
04:05probe of teenage sexuality, still rages today and is exemplified from Kid's harrowing
04:10opening scene.
04:11The very first scene in the movie features a teenage boy, Telly, coercing a girl, who
04:15is both 12 years old and a virgin, into having sex with him.
04:19Despite the girl's clear reservations about losing her virginity, Telly basically pressures
04:23her into acquiescing, yet in a subtle enough way that feels depressingly realistic.
04:27It's a stomach-churning sequence, and one that absolutely wants to confront the viewer
04:31with a deeply discomforting scenario, to make them consider what the youth of today might
04:35be up to in bedrooms around the world.
04:37Things certainly get far more infuriating later in the movie, but this opening scene
04:41assures audiences of the enervating time ahead if they keep watching.
04:456.
04:46Mickey and Mallory's Diner Massacre in Natural Born Killers
04:50Oliver Stone's highly controversial thriller Natural Born Killers was massively polarizing
04:54due to not only its extreme depictions of violence, but also its intentionally surreal
04:58visual style, lending the entire film a disconcertingly heightened feel.
05:03And Stone makes this stunningly clear in the film's gut-wrenching opening scene, where
05:07on-the-lam murderous couple Mickey and Mallory Knox swing by a diner for some killin'.
05:12While dancing by the jukebox, Mallory is set upon by a group of rapey rednecks, prompting
05:16her to get defensive and beat the group's leader to a bloody pulp.
05:19When the rest of the group comes to their ringleader's defence, Mickey steps in, knifing
05:23one to death, shooting a line cook in the head, and throwing a knife at another while
05:27Mallory snaps the leader's neck.
05:28The scene wraps up with the duo executing the diner's waitress, and deciding to leave
05:32one of the diner's customers alive as a witness to tell the cops what they did.
05:36The violent nihilism leaking out from every frame of this sequence is palpable, and while
05:41Stone's dynamic visuals might threaten to paint the scene as cool, that's ultimately
05:45just part of the film's pointed social commentary about the mass media's troubling relationship
05:49with violence.
05:50If Mickey and Mallory's murderous actions don't make you feel at least a little bit
05:54ill, no matter that most of their victims were human garbage, are you really paying
05:57attention?
05:585.
05:59Paul Kersey's life is ruined in Death Wish
06:02The entire Death Wish franchise is built on the idea of pissing the audience off in the
06:06opening scene, which then gives vigilante protagonist Paul Kersey apparently free license
06:10to mow down every violent criminal in his radius, all while the audience cheers the
06:15carnage guilt-free.
06:16The series never did it better than in the original movie, long before the formula ran
06:20dry and became an outright parody of itself.
06:22The first film opens with Kersey's wife and daughter being attacked by a trio of thugs
06:26in their Manhattan apartment, one of whom is played by a young Jeff Goldblum, in fact.
06:30Kersey's wife is brutally beaten while his daughter is raped, and when he rushes to the
06:34hospital after learning of this, he is told that his wife died from her injuries.
06:37Regardless of the series' increasingly icky politics, the initial assault itself is horrifyingly
06:42cruel, director Michael Winner refusing to cut away from the sexual indignities inflicted
06:47upon Kersey's daughter, who herself dies in Death Wish 2.
06:50Again, the anger is precisely the point.
06:52The business model of this film and its sequels was to weaponise the audience's rage, such
06:57that they'd find tremendous joy in watching Charlie Bronson wipe the floor with an endless
07:01fleet of goons and creeps for the runtime's remainder.
07:04The sequels took this to comical levels, impossible to take seriously, especially the brilliantly
07:09campy Death Wish 3, but the original at least fully produced the desired enraging result.
07:144.
07:15A Child Dies in Slow Motion in Antichrist
07:18Lars von Trier is a cinematic provocateur, if there ever was one, and his 2009 experimental
07:24horror film Antichrist certainly sought to grind the audience's gears from its very first
07:29moments.
07:30It opens with a traumatic incident in which a husband and wife are having sex in their
07:33apartment while their toddler son climbs up to an open window and falls out to his death.
07:37The juxtaposition of beautiful monochrome slow motion visuals and calming orchestral
07:41music with the horrific sight of this child's death is enough to jostle audiences, but the
07:46fact that it happened while their parents were rutting is ultimately the rage-filled
07:50cherry on top.
07:51While there are certainly far more graphic and innately disturbing scenes later in the
07:54movie, none stoke quite so much anger among audiences, aghast that a couple's absent-mindedness
08:00led to the death of their child and, uh, every other horrible thing that happens in the film
08:04afterwards.
08:05Von Trier has proven time and time again that he knows how to push the audience's buttons,
08:09and in that regard, this opening might well be his mini masterpiece.
08:133.
08:14Driving Round and Round in Somewhere
08:17An opening shot is generally designed to immediately grab the viewer's attention, though for her
08:21low-key 2010 drama Somewhere, Sofia Coppola came up with something intentionally aggravating.
08:28The first two minutes of the movie consist of a single, unbroken shot of a Ferrari repeatedly
08:32driving round a racetrack, before finally coming to a stop in front of the camera as
08:36protagonist Johnny Marco steps out.
08:39Somewhere is a film about Marco, a famous actor who feels little purpose or joy in his
08:43life, and this opening shot perfectly envisions the rut he's found himself in, going around
08:48and around, dispassionately doing the same thing over and over again.
08:52That doesn't mean it's not an annoying sequence, though, hammering the point home for two whole
08:56minutes while audiences get increasingly fidgety waiting for the movie to really start.
09:00It's certainly effective, despite its patent lack of subtlety, even if you couldn't be
09:04blamed for fast-forwarding through the repetitive image on repeat viewings.
09:072.
09:08Don Runs For It in 28 Weeks Later
09:1028 Weeks Later may not quite live up to the brilliance of 28 Days Later, but it's still
09:15a worthy sequel that boasts one of the most intense and infuriating openings to any movie
09:20ever.
09:21The film kicks off with Don and his wife Alice holed up in a remote cottage with other survivors
09:25on the outskirts of London.
09:27When a boy shows up on their doorstep, however, Alice lets him in, bringing with him a horde
09:30of the rage-infected, who quickly overrun the cottage and slaughter most of the survivors
09:35inside.
09:36Don begs Alice to leave the boy for their own survival, but when she refuses, Don abandons
09:40them as the infected swarm the cottage.
09:42Don makes a mad dash to a nearby boat, just barely escaping before the infected are able
09:46to catch him.
09:47It's a dizzying sequence, and one which left many immediately pissed off with Don for fleeing
09:51his wife and a terrified little boy.
09:54But that's precisely the point.
09:55It's a provocation, to consider that while we all like to think of ourselves as courageous,
09:59brave people, we're far more likely to be overpowered by the fight-or-flight response
10:03and hightail it.
10:04That a zombie film of all things broaches such a discomforting truth of human nature
10:08surely only makes it that much more maddening to watch.
10:121.
10:13The No Reason Principle in Rubber
10:15Quentin Duprieu's surreal 2010 horror-comedy Rubber is, in a word, insane.
10:20If the premise of a killer tire that blows people's heads up with its telekinetic powers
10:23seems appealing to you, know that Duprieu has far more on his mind than that mere schlocky
10:28setup suggests.
10:29The film opens with a deeply bizarre sequence in which a host of people gather in the Californian
10:33desert to watch a film, that film being the very one we ourselves are watching.
10:38One of the individuals is a police officer, Lieutenant Chad, who walks towards the camera
10:41and addresses us, the viewers, directly.
10:44He discusses the fact that many moments in the history of cinema, E.T. being brown, happen
10:49for no reason.
10:50That most great movies contain a strong element of no reason to reflect the fact that things
10:54happen in life for no reason, and that this film itself is an homage to the no reason
10:58principle.
10:59This was Duprieu throwing the gauntlet down to audiences, actively attempting to piss
11:03off as many people as possible who expected a more conventional slasher movie, while also
11:07weeding out those who would actually find this experimental vision meaningful.
11:11And that concludes our list.
11:12If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below, and
11:16while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:19Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:23just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:25I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you
11:28real soon.