Millennium
Chris Carter's other series, opened with the same Mark Snow unease as The X-Files and none of its wit — thirty-four seconds that promise a much worse world.
Millennium opens with a main title sequence of 34 seconds.
At 34 seconds, it opens well under the 50-second median for horror sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Fox in 1996, when America's Most Wanted, The X-Files and MADtv were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
34sThe first season's opening.
More horror opening titles from the 1990s
7 sequences
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
An organ sting, a shot of the moon, and then Nerf Herder's surf-punk theme over black-and-white monster-movie footage that bursts into colour. The design never changed in seven years; the fifty seconds behind it were re-cut every one of them.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 4 more
5 sequences
Angel
The spinoff takes the parent show's structure and drops the jokes: Darling Violetta's 'Sanctuary' instead of surf-punk, city at night instead of monster movies. Like Buffy, the design holds for five years while the names in front of it keep moving.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 2 more
1 sequenceAre You Afraid of the Dark?
A campfire, a handful of powder thrown into it, and a children's anthology that frightened a generation on a Saturday teatime.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe League of Gentlemen
Royston Vasey, a local shop, and a radio series that arrived on television already knowing exactly what it looked like.
- Season 1
8 sequences
Charmed
Love Spit Love's cover of 'How Soon Is Now?' over the Book of Shadows and three sisters, re-cut every season. It goes further than that, though: the credits were rebuilt whenever the cast of an episode changed, so a season carries several versions rather than one — eight of them in the second year alone.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 5 more
1 sequenceGoosebumps
A briefcase blowing open in a wind that follows a dog down a street — thirty seconds of genuine dread aimed at nine-year-olds.
- Season 1