Harassing Phone Call: Difference between revisions

[[File:cindy1.png|link=Scream (Filmfilm)|rightframe|"I'd like to order a large pepperoni."]]

There's nothing more unnerving than receiving a unknown phone call in the middle of the night. Except, of course, receiving an phone call that consists of silence for a moment before you start to detect sounds of [[Vader Breath|heavy breathing]] or [[Evil Laugh|fiendish laughter]] on the other end before the caller hangs up; the caller may even be an obsessive [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|stalker]] that will keep calling you, even after you tell them to stop it. Sometimes there may just be a phone ringing and no one answers on the other line or someone just called and hung up without even talking.

Sometimes the voice initially sounds so charming and trustworthy that you can't help but strike up a conversation with the person. When this happens, the caller then switches their kind tone for a more menacing tone and [[Nightmare Fuel|you suddenly find yourself wishing that you had not answered the phone at all.]] Particularly when you find out that [[The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House|the calls are coming from inside the house]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* One of the more disturbing scenes in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'' involves Keiichi taking a phone call from a distressed Shion, who supposedly went missing a number of days previously. He has only recently found this out, and pleads with her to tell him that he's wrong. All she can do is sob. He then begins to poke holes in her confession that she spoke to another person who went missing around the same time; if she's telling the truth, the only way she could have spoken to them is to have done so after they went missing. There's a moment of silence after he points this out to her, and then she begins to laugh hysterically. Without another word, she hangs up.

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': Near keeps calling and harassing Light at odd hours of the day and night and hanging up.

* ''[[Law and& Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'' and other [[Crime Drama]] often use the fact that the [[Red Herring]] is getting them (after it's become clear that they're innocent) to show that their life has been ruined (I recall a specific example in SVU where a care worker is [[Driven to Suicide]] by them after the detectives discover she's failed to make checks, leading to the death of a child and the torture of another).

* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'': In the episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" the character Josh is talking to his friend on the phone when the [[Monster Clown]] [[Big Bad]] of the episode suddenly speaks up on the other line "If you don't give it back, I'll come up and get it!"

* The killer in ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|Scream]]'' does this several times, most notably in the opening "Casey's Nightmare" sequence.

* ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street (Film)|A Nightmare Onon Elm Street]]'', before it got all schlocky. Nancy tries to call Johnny Depp to warn him not to go to sleep. Then the phone rings. She picks it up. It's {{spoiler|the sound of Fred's claws being sharpened.}} She (understandably) freaks out, tears the phone out of the plug, and throws it across the room. Then, despite being unplugged, it starts ringing ''again''. ''This'' time, it's {{spoiler|Freddy again, telling her that "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy,'' and then he sticks his tongue down her throat, through the phone.}}

* Alex calls Dan repeatedly in ''[[Fatal Attraction (Filmfilm)|Fatal Attraction]]'', but when he keeps ignoring her, she gets more and more [[Yandere|unhinged]].

* ''[[Spider -Man (Filmfilm)|Spider Man]]'': Peter is worried about Mary-Jane and calls her home to make sure she's okay but instead of Mary-Jane he gets the Green Goblin on the other line who giggles and says in a creepy sing-song voice, ''"Can Spiderman come out to play?"''

* ''[[Lost Highway]]'': At Andy's party Fred meets a [[Uncanny Valley|strange]] [[Uncanny Valley Makeup|looking]] Mystery Man in Black who tells Fred that he is at his house right now and is the one who sent the videotapes to him. He then tells Fred to phone his house, Fred does so, and the voice of the Mystery Man answers at the house while he's standing right in front of Fred.

* In ''[[The Crush]]'' [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|Darian]] does this to Nick.

* Referenced in the ''Temps'' story "[[The Noun and Thethe Noun|Sortilege And Serendipity]]" by Brian Stableford, where one of the Talented kids has the superpower to [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|pick up a telephone and tell you where everyone who used it in the last day is now]]. He's nicknamed "the Phone Freak Kid", because tracing these people is the only use anyone can see for his powers.

* In ''[[Dirk GentlysGently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', Susan Way gets a number of phone calls with nothing but the sound of faint wind whistling. She's more perplexed and annoyed than frightened, describing it as a minimalist heavy breather. {{spoiler|It's actually the ghost of her recently-deceased brother Gordon, trying to complete [[Disconnected Byby Death|the phone call he was making when he died]].}}

{{quote| Call you every night and hang up/ Gonna carve your name in my leg/ In my leg, oh, oh! }}

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Peter gets these from his boss Angela in the episode "Peter-assment". Also, while the Griffin's were out on vacation [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|Herbert]] kept calling the house and leaving creepy messages for Chris.

* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'': In one episode Spongebob gets a phone call which consists of a jelly fish breathing heavily on the other line before hanging up.

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'': One of the ways Helga keeps reminding Arnold he has "24 Hours To Live" is by repeatedly calling him.

* One Halloween Special episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' hilariously subverted this trope when the family accidental ran over and killed Ned Flanders. Homer later receives a creepy stalkerish phone call from a raspy-voiced psycho, but when he replies to the caller it turns out that the caller is his friend Moe the bartender, who accidentally dialled a wrong number while trying to stalk Ned's wife Maude.

* ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'': Francine tries to prove to Roger that Stan cares about him by using a voice modulator and pretending to hold Roger for ransom. When she returns home, Stan is nonchalant and gives surprisingly elaborate explanations for Roger's absence. Ultimately he tells Francine that [[But Now I Must Go|Roger's people came back for him]], and if they stood on the roof waving kitchen utensils they'd receive a special telepathic message. While they're waiting, {{spoiler|Stan points out that they have [[Discredited Trope|caller I.D.]] and Francine was using her own phone}}.

* ''[[Silent Hill: Promise]]'': Vanessa is continually harassed by a "Weird phone lady" (later revealed to be named Marissa) who wants her to leave town. Admittedly, given [[Survival Horror|the]] [[Psychological Horror|very]] [[Genius Loci|nature]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|of]] [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret|Silent Hill]], Marissa ''could'' be trying to save Vanessa's life, depending on how the story unfolds.

* ''Senior Power'', an old movie meant to teach old people to defend themselves from crime ([http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/senior-power/ and mockingly reviewed here]), includes the "obscene phone call" scene. Apparently, when someone harasses you over the phone, the right thing to do is to... whistle really loud into the phone. So that the harassing caller will freak out and fall over.

*** When the sports whistle failed to deter the little freaks calling my teenage cousin, my uncle went to the next level; a handheld air-horn. He used it once-- andonce—and they never got another call after. (Nowadays, he'd probably get sued, but this was in the early eighties, and he never heard a word about it.)

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