The cold opening to Terrified is both ambiguous and haunting: a ghost town, an overgrown graveyard, coyotes and unknown creatures of the night at its edges. Amongst the tombstones, a masked villain taunts a bound man as he slowly drowns him in an open grave. Its title sequence is an extension of his terror, zooming in on his bloodshot eyes, then his dilating pupils to frame the main title card and subsequent credits.

Little more than a glorified version of static horror title sequences common in the ’30s and ’40s, it builds on the template with narrative context and strong type design.