The latest trailer for Black Phone 2 revolves around a phone booth that enables the Grabber, who seemed to have met his demise in the first Black Phone movie, to issue new threats to his intended victims. This is a slightly darker turn than the phone’s usage in the 2021 original, where a mysterious landline allowed the dead to offer survival advice to the living.

However, “scary phone calls” have long been a staple of horror (check out io9’s taxonomy for more). Let’s set aside cell phones, FaceTime, and internet ghosts for now and look at 10 memorable examples of land-line terror on the big screen.

Scream

The film’s opening, which features a fake “wrong number” that’s actually a killer’s way of taunting their next victim, is unsettling; the killer’s meta conversation about favorite horror movies is even more unnerving; and the dying victim’s mother picking up the extension to hear her daughter’s final breaths is the most terrifying. Released in 1996, long before cell phones became ubiquitous, Scream cleverly utilizes this well-known trope, making it a standout in the series.

Black Christmas

The groundbreaking 1974 holiday slasher Black Christmas is not only the most effective on-screen depiction of “the call is coming from inside the house,” but it also features a series of genuinely distressing phone calls. The shrieking, overlapping voices are otherworldly and seem unrelated to the narrative of the freaked-out sorority sisters clinging to the receiver. Black Christmas also explores the call-tracing subplot, showcasing the effort required to track down creeps in the pre-cell phone tower era. The film ends with a ringing phone, emphasizing that, in the right context, there’s no more frightening sound.

When a Stranger Calls

Released in 1979, When a Stranger Calls builds upon the urban legend of the call coming from inside the house, adding the element of a babysitter in peril and, in the story’s flash-forward, the “escaped lunatic” plotline. Although these tropes are familiar now, they weren’t back then, and the opener “Have you checked the children?” remains a gut-punch.

Clown in a Cornfield

This recent release takes place in the present day, where a pair of teenage girls desperately try to call for help, only to be confronted by a rotary-dial phone. This relic of the past seems almost as malevolent as the possessed Fisher Price phone from Skinamarink.

Compliance

This skin-crawling 2021 thriller, starring The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Ann Dowd, is based on a true story, making its disturbing nature even more pronounced. A fast food restaurant manager takes a phone call from someone claiming to be a cop investigating a theft involving an employee, and as the hours pass, the voice on the phone coaxes those involved into doing regrettable things. Although Compliance isn’t technically a horror movie, it might as well be, given the cruelty that ordinary humans can inflict.

Telefon

This 1977 Cold War thriller has action star Charles Bronson driving the narrative, which revolves around a series of sleeper agents activated one by one. The phone plays a crucial role in this Manchurian Candidate-esque plot, as the “on” switch is triggered when a brainwashed agent overhears lines from a specific Robert Frost poem. The title itself highlights the phone’s importance, showcasing how it can be used to turn ordinary people into assassins with just a conversation fragment.

976-Evil

Directed by Robert Englund, this 1988 cautionary tale warns about the dangers of pay-by-the-minute phone lines, which may seem like a novelty but could actually provide a direct link to Satan. Teen cousins learn the hard way what happens when you get too excited by a new, devilish influence in your life, but only one ends up being dragged to hell in the end.

The Ring

Among the most dreaded calls to come through your landline, what could be worse than a demonic child reminding you that, because you watched a certain cursed video tape, you have just seven days to live? Even the Grabber doesn’t have a ticking clock that precise.

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