10 Terrifying Horror Movie Phone Calls You'll Never Forget

2. Black Christmas

Ring Ringu
Warner Bros.

Black Christmas has a place amongst horror movie royalty. After all, despite many believing John Carpenter's Halloween as being the movie to start the slasher subgenre, it's actually 1974's Black Christmas that is the rightful launching pad of the humble slasher.

Not only is Black Christmas famed for being the jumping off point for one of horror's most beloved and popular subgenres, but the movie also has one of the most notable uses of the telephone in the history of horror.

Centred on a sorority house, Black Christmas sees the residents of said house begin to receive a variety of threatening phone calls. Being young carefree sorts, however, the girls pay little attention to these calls and play them down as just somebody goofing around. That is until the body count starts to pile up.

Not only did Black Christmas introduce moviegoers to the notion of the slasher, but the picture also gave us all one of the first uses of the eventually-overplayed trope of 'the call is coming from inside the house' that would become a staple of horror for years to come.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.