13 Phones of Halloween #1

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That's right, it's time for this year's All Hallows celebration! In previous years we've done the 13 Snakes of Halloween, the 13 Whores of Halloween, and the 31 Sacrificial Virgins of Halloween (that was back when we had way more drive, clearly) - right around the time I was trying to figure out what to list this year I sat down to randomly re-watch a certain movie...

... and hello, inspiration. (Also hello, frizz.) 1979's When a Stranger Calls with Carol Kane will usually get a giddy yelp from somebody who remembers it fondly if you mention it -- "I remember being scared by that," they'll cry! Yes we all remember... only the first half an hour of the movie. The part where Carol Kane is a babysitter getting scary phone calls. "Have you checked the children?"

But what about the next hour where Colleen Dewhurst plays a drunk who keeps letting strange men just hang out in her apartment? And Charles Durning runs...

... and runs...

... and runs?

That might be my favorite chase scene of all time, actually.

Kane does show up again at the end though for a bookend set of scenes that brings everything full circle, creepy phone call and everything, and it has got another great scare up its sleeve.

Anyway re-watching the movie got me thinking about all the great phone calls there are in horror movies, and how vital a phone - or the absence of one (those damned signal losses in the woods!) - is to the genre. So here we are! One down, 12 more to go!