For the opening of 2020’s The Invisible Man, director and screenwriter Leigh Whannell’s retelling of the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells, studio Greenhaus GFX created a simple, spine-tingling title reveal. What’s remarkable here is what’s missing. From the first moments of the picture, when the massive letters of “Universal” rotate around the globe amid silence and an ominous rumbling, it’s all systems go on atmosphere. At the bottom of a cliff, in the half-light of evening, waves crash against rock, revealing the opening production credits, only visible thanks to the splash of the tide.

To create the sequence, Greenhaus worked with a crew from Beverly Hills Aerials to capture drone footage off the coast of Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, chosen to match the look of the film’s shooting location in Australia. It’s the “best modern re-imagining of the low budget horror movie title,” says panel judge Robin Nishio. “It sets up the opening act well and, on second viewing, captures the gaslighting horror that is the rest of the film.” The eerie opening both foreshadows the film’s climactic battle in which water and liquids play a vital role and nods at a central tenet of horror storytelling: what is monstrous can be vanquished only once it’s revealed.

* Voted one of Art of the Title's Top 10 Title Sequences of 2020