10 Genuinely Terrifying Scenes Trapped In Terrible Horror Movies
2. Did You Check On The Children? - When A Stranger Calls
A direct inspiration for the likes of Scream, as well as countless other imitators, the opening scene to When A Stranger Calls is one of the genre's most influential and downright terrifying scenes.
Based upon the popular urban legend 'The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs', the scene starts with our protagonist Jill Johnson settling in for an easy night of babysitting. Before long, she's subjected to a series of disturbing phone calls in which an unknown caller asks her if she's checked on the children. She initially brushes it off as a prank, but soon begins to question if she's truly alone in the house.
Stretched out over a nerve-shredding twenty minutes, this scene is legendary for all the right reasons, however, once the film jumps ahead seven years, it loses all of its edge and becomes a rather mundane thriller that never recaptures that same illicit fear.
The ending does see a marked upturn in quality, but it's the criminally boring middle section of the film that really lets it down. To some this film is a classic, but more often than not, it's only the film's opening that gets brought up in conversation.