It's For You: Movies That Open on a Phone Call

Before the title card, before the credits, before you've found the popcorn: somebody's phone is ringing, and it's never good news.

Entries
12
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A TV showing static in a dark living room, a cordless phone on the couch lighting up as it rings.

    12. The Ring

    Gore Verbinski · 2002

    Two teens trade urban legends about a cursed tape, one admits she's watched it, and the house phone rings right on cue. Nobody in the audience breathes. The second-scariest landline in the genre, after Scream's.

  2. A lone glass phone booth on a busy Manhattan corner with its receiver dangling.

    11. Phone Booth

    Joel Schumacher · 2002

    Colin Farrell's publicist storms through Midtown in a frenzy of cell-phone lies before ducking into a booth to make one call he'd like kept off his bill. It's a movie about phone etiquette as a matter of life and death.

  3. A luxury car interior at night with a glowing car phone on the console and freeway lights streaking past.

    10. Scream 3

    Wes Craven · 2000

    Liev Schreiber's Cotton Weary, now hosting a talk show called 100% Cotton, is juggling calls in his car when one turns out to be Ghostface. A franchise in on the joke about its own gimmick, and still ringing.

  4. A landline phone on a wall in a modern kitchen, a smart-lock keypad glowing on the door beside it.

    09. Scream (2022)

    Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett · 2022

    Jenna Ortega's Tara answers a landline, and Ghostface quizzes her on the Stab movies while she insists she prefers 'elevated horror.' A sequel opening that knows exactly whose call it's returning.

  5. A cracked cell phone half-buried in desert sand beside a lone tuxedo shoe.

    08. The Hangover

    Todd Phillips · 2009

    A bride is getting ready, the phone rings, and it's Phil, beat up and stuck in the Mojave, admitting they've lost the groom. Then the movie jumps back two days. A phone call as the trailer, the hook and the premise.

  6. A car dashboard with a flip phone on speaker and a high-school yearbook on the passenger seat.

    07. Superbad

    Greg Mottola · 2007

    Seth drives over to Evan's house while debating, at length and by cell phone, the merits of a certain kind of website subscription. The first line of character work is a sales pitch for something no one should be selling, and it is perfect.

  7. A dispatcher's headset resting on a desk in a dim control room, a single red line light blinking.

    06. The Guilty

    Gustav Möller · 2018

    A Danish emergency dispatcher, an extreme close-up of a headset, and a frantic voice. The film never leaves two rooms at the dispatch station and never needs to. You see nothing of the crime and somehow see all of it.

  8. A diner wall phone beside a counter of coffee mugs, a fishing rod leaning against the stool.

    05. Thelma & Louise

    Ridley Scott · 1991

    Louise, slinging coffee at an Arkansas diner, calls Thelma to confirm a weekend fishing trip. The friendliest call on this list, which is how you know the road ahead will be anything but. The diner was shot at Du-par's in Los Angeles.

  9. A 1940s bedside telephone on a lace doily beside a bed and a ticking alarm clock reading 11:15.

    04. Sorry, Wrong Number

    Anatole Litvak · 1948

    Barbara Stanwyck, bedridden and alone, tries to reach her husband and hits a crossed line where two men are planning a murder for 11:15 that night. Based on Lucille Fletcher's radio play, and Stanwyck got an Oscar nomination for basically yelling at operators.

  10. A beige wall phone in a suburban kitchen at night, a staircase rising into darkness behind it.

    03. When a Stranger Calls

    Fred Walton · 1979

    A babysitter (Carol Kane) gets call after call asking whether she's checked the children. Its first 23 minutes are routinely ranked among the scariest openings ever, which is a backhanded compliment to the rest of the movie, but those 23 are a perfect short film.

  11. An old payphone hanging off the hook in a dim hallway, cascading green numbers glowing behind it.

    02. The Matrix

    Lana & Lilly Wachowski · 1999

    Over a screen of racing green numbers, a call: Cypher and Trinity talking about 'the One' while a trace program runs. The movie's entire premise, delivered over a phone line before you've seen a single face.

  12. A cordless phone lying on a kitchen floor next to an overturned bowl of popcorn, a glass patio door behind.

    01. Scream

    Wes Craven · 1996

    Drew Barrymore's Casey picks up a cordless phone, flirts with a wrong number about scary movies, and the trivia quiz turns lethal. The poster's biggest name, and the movie dares you to assume she's safe. Every opening on this list is in its debt.

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