When a Killer Calls

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Hmmm...

"Have you checked on the girl?" —The Caller

When a Killer Calls is a 2006 Slasher Film released by The Asylum, the company's rip-off of (what else?) the When a Stranger Calls remake released the same year.

Just after sunset, a woman named Linda Hewitt and her two young children, Holly and Ryan, are brutally butchered by a sadistic knife wielding psychopath, who documents the family's deaths and the moments leading up to them with his camera phone. After the slaughter, the killer methodically washes up, and leaves.

Elsewhere, a young woman named Trisha Glass, former babysitter for the Hewitts, has taken a sitting job for the Hewitts' friends the Walkers, who are on their way to a speaking engagement and in need of someone to look after their young daughter, Molly. As Trisha and Molly get to know each other, the Walkers leave, but on the way to their appointment, are murdered by the Hewitts' killer, who they stopped to aid upon spotting his pulled over car, and who they obviously knew. With the Walkers dead, the killer disposes of their bodies, and heads to their home, killing their neighbor, Charlie, when he arrives. During this time, the killer begins sending creepy phone calls and text messages to Trisha, starting with just heavy breathing before escalating to threats. Trisha initially thinks nothing of this, dismissing the calls as jokes, possibly perpetrated by her boyfriend Matt, but as they continue, she calls the police, who inform her that they may be able to trace the caller's location if he continues his harassment.

Put at ease by this, Trisha is overjoyed when Matt shows up, but that quickly turns to disappointment when he reveals he has dragged his obnoxious stoner friend Frank, and Frank's equally over the top girlfriend Chrissy, along with him, due to the two needing to lie low after Frank pulled a gun on some rival punks outside a bowling alley. As both couples decide to get comfortable and wait out both the police who are after Frank, and an oncoming storm, the killer enters the house after sending Trisha photos of his victims, and begins to stalk and systematically whittle down the stragglers, while still continuing to taunt Trisha, saying he is doing this all for her, that he will eventually get to her too, very soon.

Tropes used in When a Killer Calls include:

• A Handful for an Eye: Matt briefly incapacitates the killer by throwing liquid into his face.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: "Matt's not brooding, but he's definitely no goodie-goodie."
• Alliterative Name: Holly Hewitt.
• Ax Crazy
• Babysitter From Hell: According to Molly, her old babysitter stunk.
• Badly-Battered Babysitter
• Bare Your Midriff: Chrissy.
• Based on a Great Big Lie
• Bloodbath Villain Origin: Torture-murdering an entire family.
• Blood From the Mouth: Several deaths.
• Boom! Headshot!: The killer's death.
• Bound and Gagged: The first three victims, and Trisha, Matt and Chrissy.
• Breast Attack: The killer slashes Chrissy's breasts, then throws burning liquid on the wounds.
• The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House
• Cell Phone
• Chase Scene: At the end.
• Cheerful Child: Molly.
• Chekhov's Gun: Frank's gun.
• Cold-Blooded Torture
• Collared by Fashion: Chrissy.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Bad girl Chrissy has trashy red underwear, while good girl Trisha has all white.
• Coincidental Broadcast
• Creator Cameo: Director and co-writer Peter Mervis plays one of the responding police officers.
• Creepy Basement
• Criminal Mind Games
• Cue the Sun
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: Frank is killed checking out a noise in a closet, and Chrissy is captured while looking for him.
• Death by Mocking: Frank.
• Death by Sex: Frank and Chrissy.
• Direct to Video
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The killers murders his wife by thrusting a knife into her mouth, while she is inexplicably without pants, on a bed, and after lovingly stroking her face.
• Dull Surprise: Frank. As Horror Movie a Day wrote about his actor in their review of Halloween Night:

"He doesn't act in the film so much as he just sort of hangs out in it, and nearly all of his lines are delivered in a sort of muttering, half-assed manner. It's pretty much the exact way I would act if I was the lead actor in a direct to video movie about yet another escaped mental patient hacking up some folks in an isolated house. I was completely entranced by his pseudo-performance throughout the entire film."

• Evil Gloating
• Evil Phone/Harassing Phone Call
• Evil Sounds Deep: The killer's phone voice.
• Eye Scream: Charlie is stabbed through the head and out an eye.
• Face Framed in Shadow
• Fan Disservice: The breast torture, and the killer forcing Matt to molest Trisha (the only scene containing actual nudity).
• Fan Service: Chrissy and Trisha in their undergarments, and Matt shirtless.
• Fear of Thunder: Molly.
• Final Girl: Trisha.
• Fingore: Matt's hands are broken.
• Flash Back: How the deaths of the Hewitt children are shown.
• Foot Focus: For some reason, Trisha is barefoot while tied up.
• Gorn
• Gross Up Close-Up
• Hair of Gold: Trisha.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack
• Hope Spot: The police showing up, and Matt getting free.
• Hostile Weather
• Hand of Death
• Happily Married: The Walkers.
• The Hyena: Chrissy, probably because she seems intoxicated.
• I Can See You
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Matt's death.
• Impersonating an Officer: After killing two police officers, the killer randomly takes one's uniform.
• Improvised Weapon: Trisha bashes the killer with a lamp.
• I Never Told You My Name
• In the Hood: Worn by the killer, Frank and Charlie.
• Jittercam
• The Klutz: Frank somehow smashed the Hewitts' china cabinet.
• Knife Nut
• Leave the Camera Running: While it's presumably prolonged to create tension, the scene where Trisha wakes up after being knocked out seems very... draggy.
• Mistaken for Prank Call
• The Mockbuster
• Monster Misogyny: The killer targets both genders, but the female victims tend to get it worse.
• Motive Rant: Richard became obsessed with Trisha after raping her, and claims he did all this for her.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The film has weird editing. Just watch that popcorn scene.
• Nice Guy: Charlie.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Molly is found dead, leaving what the killer may have done to her up to the viewer's imagination.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: Frank has a knife strapped to his ankle.
• Oh Crap
• Once Is Not Enough: Frank splashes stuff in the killer's face, then kicks him, but instead of finishing him off with Frank's knife, focuses on freeing Trisha.
• Pater Familicide: The family killed in the opening was the killer's own.
• Phone Trace Race
• Pipe Pain: The only other weapon the killer wields, using it beat both Chrissy and Matt.
• Police Are Useless: They knock on doors, walk around a bit, then get stabbed before they knew what hit 'em.
• Precision F-Strike
• Pretty Little Headshots
• Pummeling the Corpse: After shooting the killer in the face, Trisha opens fire on his body a few more times.
• Punk in the Trunk: The killer stuffs Mr. Walker into the trunk of his own car.
• Rape by Proxy: The killer forcing Matt to molest Trisha at knifepoint.
• Rape Is Love: Richard thinks so, having done it to Trisha.
• Rape as Drama
• Rapunzel Hair: Molly.
• Reaction Shot
• Reality Is Unrealistic: The pictures of his victims that the killer sends to Trisha are deemed fake (but "sick as Hell") by her and Matt.
• Red Herring: Charlie.
• The Reveal: The killer is Richard Hewitt, Trisha's old employer.
• Rousing Speech: One has to be given by Mr. Walker.
• Self-Deprecation: Dead Men Walking, another film made by The Asylum, is shown airing on TV. Trisha's response to it?

"This is terrible."

• Sexy Discretion Shot: Frank could have been eating out Chrissy.
• Shadow Archetype: Frank and Chrissy, who are like more obnoxious, irresponsible and loutish versions of Matt and Trisha.
• Shirtless Scene: Matt.
• Slashed Throat: Every non-stabbing death.
• Slashers Prefer Blondes
• Staircase Tumble: The killer falls down some twice.
• Stalker with a Crush: The Central Theme of the song that plays over the credits.
• The Stoner: Frank.
• Tap on the Head: Lots of blows to the head.
• Teeth Flying: Matt loses some teeth after being smashed across the face with a pipe.
• Torture Porn: The finale.
• Turn of the Millennium
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: And sometimes it's purple.
• Unusual Dysphemism: "I think I would like to play a game I invented called Fuck Frank... The Game."
• Unwilling Suspension: Happens to Trisha.
• Vader Breath
• Villain Opening Scene: The killer stalking, torturing and finally murdering Mrs. Hewitt.
• Voice Changeling: The killer sounds different on the phone.
• Wet Sari Scene: Provided by Trisha.
• Wild Teen Party: What Trisha is missing out on, due to babysitting.
• Would Hurt a Child: Three, to be exact.
• You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: The killer taunts Trisha with this, after she sees the newcast about his earlier victims.