10 Terrifying Horror Movie Phone Calls You'll Never Forget
Exploring those times where answering the phone is the worst thing you could possibly do.
Few genres are based around so many familiar tropes as horror.
For better or worse, when something works in horror, that element gets hammered home - whether that's through sequels, remakes, or through copycat films looking to capitalise on something that works.
In amongst this pantheon of familiar horror beats, there is the use of the simple phone call.
While the telephone has clearly evolved over the decades, filmmakers have likewise managed to move with the times and find fresh and outright terrifying ways to insert the telephone as a pivotal plot point of their pictures.
Throughout the decades, there have been so many examples of horror capitalising on a basic phone call to amp up the tension, the atmosphere, and the scares. And let's face it, if you can capture tension, atmosphere, and scares, you're already well on your way to creating a brilliant horror offering.
Here then, we're looking at the ten most chilling, terrifying, and impactful uses of the simple phone call in the horror genre.
10. A Nightmare On Elm Street
Getting a phone call from Freddy Krueger is never a welcoming proposition - but even more so when the fedora-adorned murderer is slipping his slimy tongue in on the action.
Famously, 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street not only introduced the world to Freddy, it also gave us Krueger's tongue coming directly through a phone line to torment somebody - in this case, Heather Langenkamp's Nancy.
Whilst the Elm Street franchise eventually began to veer a little too much towards cheese and humour, this creepy call with Krueger had some genuine dread and shock to it due to the property still being fresh and unique at that point.
That first Elm Street picture is obviously the best entry in the seven-film run of the original franchise, and likely in second place in that standing is 1994's Wes Craven's New Nightmare. And wouldn't you know it, but New Nightmare - the seventh of the original run of movies - likewise saw Freddy causing havoc by telephone.
In New Nightmare, the meta element of the film meant that it was actress Heather Langenkamp getting directly targeted by Freddy Krueger - rather than merely the character of Nancy Thompson.