As part of our post-production process for Hauntology, we’re developing a title card and title sequence that will introduce the movie to audiences properly. While we will share more on that process later, in the meantime we’d like to take a look at some of the most iconic and exciting title cards from horror projects past!
Alien (1979)
The exciting thing about Alien‘s title card is that it announces exactly how director Ridley Scott is about to toy with you. The title takes its time, slowly revealing itself piece by piece as the opening credits roll. It’s an impressively deliberate rollout, presenting you with disparate pieces until they are slowly drawn together into a coherent, eerie whole, echoing the journey that the storyline of the movie is about to take you on.
Chucky (2021- )
The Chucky show, which is about to unveil its third season, has a devilishly clever opening gambit, arranging a collection of different objects (which change every episode to reflect that week’s overarching theme) into an eerie collage forming the name of the series.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The Cabin in the Woods boasts another title card that teaches you exactly how the movie is going to play its beats. Things that seem like one thing (for instance, a rather tepid day at the office) could very well turn on a dime and reveal themselves to be another (a screeching jump scare of a title card).
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
This is the most contemporary entry on the list, but Evil Dead Rise‘s proud and bombastic announcement of itself simply cannot be ignored. Keep in mind, this sequence comes at the end of a nerve-jangling prologue, just as it has reached its grisly crescendo.
The Thing (1982)
There’s just no messing with perfection, is there? John Carpenter’s title card for The Thing is the place where he pays his closest homage to the original The Thing from Another World, updating its unique 1951 title card with exciting 1982 effects that bely just how much the movie is about to bowl the audience over visually.
