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The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House: Difference between revisions

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The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House (view source)

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* Subverted in ''[[Lost Highway]]'': "I'm there right now. Call me."
* ''[[Black Christmas]]'' was the first known film to use this line.
* Used in the first ''[[Urban Legend (Filmfilm)|Urban Legend]]'' movie. A character gets a call in his house during a party, checks the ID and proclaims it's this trope. He starts up the stairs when the killer on the phone corrects him with: "Wrong legend. This is the one about the old lady who dries her wet dog in the microwave." {{spoiler|Sure enough, Hootie, the dog in question, has been nuked to death in a horrific [[Kick the Dog]] moment when the character arrives}}.
* Spoofed in the first ''[[Scary Movie]]''.
* Spoofed in ''[[Wet Hot American Summer]]''.
* In the 2011 remake of ''[[The Mechanic]]'', the hitman uses this to get the mark out of the building, by making him think the call is coming from a room above -- in actuality the hitman has rigged the switchboard to give a false signal.
* Spoofed in ''[[Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth]]'' when the killer stumbles into the backyard pool while menacing a girl over the phone.
* Used loosely in the first ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|Scream]]''. In the age of cell phones and caller ID, however, the trope was lost in the sequels.
* Near the end of ''Open House'', the killer's call is traced to the very radio station whose show he is phonning into.
 
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Used in the ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' episode 'Modern Man' where Rodney, annoyed with Del Boy, calls an ad in the local paper to apply for another job, not realising that the ad has been placed by Del who is taking the call in the other room. Although Rodney is ignorant to this Del is fully aware of who he is talking to and milks the situation to optimal comic effect.
* Spoofed on ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]''.
* ''[[CSI]]'' did this once. {{spoiler|Justified, because the caller had tapped into the victim's second line.}}
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'': in the episode "Somebody's Watching." Justified because the caller was using a cell phone.
* Frequently spoofed on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', usually when a character in the movie being skewered is holding a phone and looking worried about what they are hearing. For example, in the movie ''[[The Giant Spider Invasion]]'', when a NASA scientist is answering a phone call about giant alien spiders invading northern Wisconsin:
{{quote| '''Tom Servo:''' The calls are coming from inside NASA!}}
** Kevin Murphy continues this joke on [[RifftraxRiff Trax]], as in this quote from one of [[Alien]]'s many cat-seeking scenes.
{{quote| '''Kevin''': The cat noises are coming from '''''INSIDE THE CAT'''''!!!}}
* Spoofed on ''[[The State]]'', with the call {{spoiler|"coming from inside your pants. YOU'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF YOUR PANTS!!!"}}.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'' uses [http://xkcd.com/742/ a modernized version.] (See also the [[Alt Text]].)
* [[Chopping Block|Butch]] tried this once. Caller ID foiled him.
* Variations on this theme are a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Sent From The Moon]]''.
* ''[[Mulberry (Webcomic)|Mulberry]]'' had a variation during a story where [[Straw Feminist]] Jezebel slandered Jack on her website. Eventually, she starts replying to Jack's text messages ''before'' he sends them, causing Mulberry to exclaim that Jezebel's posts are coming from inside the house.
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': At the beginning of the first "[[Halloween Episode|Treehouse of Horror]]" episode, Lisa is seen wrapping up the original story with Bart in the treehouse, but Bart is less than impressed.
* Spoofed by Brak on ''Cartoon Planet''. The operator had made a mistake.
* [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants|"THE MANIAC IS IN THE MAILBOX!"]]
* The episode "Octi-gone" of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' included this trope, but any horror was pretty much passed over for a gasping gag; plus, occurrences like villains breaking into your house and pretending to hold a stuffed octopus hostage are pretty normal in Townsville.
 
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