History Main / EvilPhone

* The Thai film ''999-9999'' and its Cambodian rip-off ''The Killing Phone'' are both about a telephone number that will grant the wishes of whoever calls it, [[JackassGenie but with deadly consequences]].

* The ''Webvideo/BoardJames'' review of ''Dream Phone'' features James receiving creepy, threatening calls through the game's toy phone even after he removes the batteries. Then people start dying. [[spoiler:Turns out to be a literal Evil Phone as the toy phone itself was making the calls and comitting the murders.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'', while passing through the anomalous [[EldritchLocation River of Fate]] with [[WeirdnessMagnet Khan]], a decades-old utility phone with no visible power source rings. If Artyom picks it up, he can hear the voice of his dead mother calling for him. Subverted in that it's not a negative event, and it even gives the player a [[KarmaMeter morality point]].

* In ''Webcomic/SilentHillPromise'' expect to be unhappy whenever the protagonist's cellphone rings.

The phone might also be a SupernaturalPhone. Sometimes it will continue to receive calls [[ItWontTurnOff even after being disconnected or turned off]]. Compare and contrast HarassingPhoneCall and MistakenForPrankCall.

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[[caption-width-right:250:The line's undead.]]
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* ''WebVideo/TheBillyGoatCaller'', a short film by Dom Fera of WebAnimation/TheLazerCollection fame, features a rather creepy prank caller.

** Another [=SCP=] example is [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2315 SCP-2315]], otherwise known as "The Mother Always Knows". It's an iPhone 6 that rings whenever a person below the age of 30 with their mother alive is present in the same place with it, with the call being identified from "Mother". Picking it up results in a conversation with the person's 'mother', but while the voice is the same, the entity is ''not'' the subject's mother. At the first day, the voice acts supportive yet disapproving. The next day, the voice becomes more hostile and starts bringing up the subjects that distress the person calling. And at the final day, it goes full AbusiveParents mode, with it giving the person [[BreakThemByTalking verbal breakdowns]] and forcing them to commit horrible activities, most of the time involving self-mutilation, until the person either hangs up or dies. And if it gets really pissed off, it gives the person's real mother a life-threatening brain tumor.

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[[caption-width-right:242:[[ShmuckBait Don't answer it!]]]]

* At the end of the first arc of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler:Natsuhi, Battler, George, and Jessica]] are holed up in Kinzo's study. The phone lines have been cut, as they discovered some time before when attempting to contact the police. While they're all sitting there in tense silence, all of a sudden, the phone rings. One of them goes over and picks it up... and all they hear is Maria singing [[CreepyChild creepily]] in the distance.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheDarkside'' featured an episode written by Stephen King in which a woman receives an unsettling phone call from a frantic woman, which turns out to be [[spoiler:herself in the future, after her husband has suddenly died.]]

* ''Manga/HanakoAndTheTerrorOfAllegory'' has a few chapters that revolve around a CreepyDoll named Mary who will call you every five minutes to tell you about how she's hunting you down and preparing to kill you.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

--> "Five. This is five. Ignore the sirens. Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room. Eight. This is eight. We have killed your friends. Every friend is now dead. Six. This is six."

* ''Film/StepsTroddenBlack'' briefly toys with this: we get a long, scary push it on Ryan's bloody phone before Oliver picks it up to check if it has service.

* An unconventional example shows up in ''Film/TheRuins''. The phone itself isn't evil or used by a villain to menace somebody, but [[spoiler:the sadistic ManEatingPlant lures its prey ''by imitating a cellphone's ringtone''.]]
* In ''Film/ChakushinAri'' and all its sequels and the remake, young people receive voicemail messages that detail their final moments, complete with IronicNurseryRhyme ringtone.

* ''Film/TheGate''. The protaganists are not sure what the hell (literally) is up with the huge hole in the backyard. Evidence comes when the phone rings. It seems to be Mom, checking up on the boys, but then 'Mom' screams 'You've been BAAAD!' and the phone melts. Nightmare fuel indeed.
* In the original ''[[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} Halloween]]'', Michael strangles Lydia to death with a phone cord just as she calls Laurie. Michael then picks up the phone to listen to Laurie's frantic cries, before calmly hanging up.
* ''Film/GhostInTheMachine'': The [[VirtualGhost digitized killer]] harasses the heroine over the phone, at first by making her a target of call advertisements, until he directly talks to her.
* The Thai film ''999-9999'' and it's Cambodian rip-off ''The Killing Phone'' are both about a telephone number that will grant the wishes of whoever calls it, [[JackassGenie but with deadly consequences]].

--> '''Phone:''' This is ''nine! Nine!'' This is ''nine! Nine!'' This is ''ten! Ten!'' We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is ''six! Six! ... Eighteen!'' This is now ''eighteen!'' Take cover when the siren sounds! This is ''four! Four! ... Five!'' This is ''five!'' Ignore the siren! Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room! ''Eight!'' This is ''eight! ... Six'', this is ''six'' This is ''goddamn fucking six!''

--> INT. THE PHONE It lies on the carpet, looking both bland and somehow ominous. CAMERA MOVES IN TO ECU- the holes in the receiver once more look like huge dark chasms. We HOLD, then FADE TO BLACK.

[[folder:Videogames]]

-->'''Phone:''' John Mirra?
-->'''John:''' Yes, this is he.
-->'''Phone:''' This is John Mirra. Welcome to the next level.

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

** An in the Sequel's ShowWithinAShow, ''Address Unknown.''

* The killers from the ''Franchise/{{Scream}}'' series were quite fond of messing with their victims over the phone.

** This appears quite often in the Classic Series. For instance, the First Doctor was attacked with a sort of hypnotising beam sent via phone. One of the Master's very first attempts to kill the Doctor was carried out with an Auton-plastic phone cord that attempted to strangle Three.
** "Father's Day" had the Doctor receive creepy, cryptic speech... that turned out to be ''the first phone call ever.'' It was the first sign that they officially [[TimeCrash broke time]].
** Throughout the two-parter "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", the Child demonstrates the ability to control things like radios, telephones and even typewriters. When he takes over the TARDIS' Police Box telephone (back before the Doctor patched an ''actual'' phone through it), the Doctor is perturbed and notes, "Ringing? What's that about, ringing? You're not even a real phone and you're ringing?!"
** In "The Impossible Planet", Rose gets a call from Satan himself on her mobile, which understandably freaks her out a bit.

* Spoofed in ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall.'' A guy refuses to answer the phone. Reasoning it must be a wrong number. But as the phone keeps on ringing, it causes increasing hysteria in his friends. They convince themselves that something sinister about the call. "Or it's a very wrong number. 42 rings? What kind of FREAK is sitting there by that phone?"
* The TV adaptation of ''Series/{{Scream}}'', much like the films, has the killer taunting victims through their phones, though here, it's more through text messages and videos.

** Also near the end of the fourth arc, after [[spoiler:Jessica, George, and Maria]] are sent off, the phone rings, and greets Battler with..."Congratulations."

* Personified: the revolution of London's appliances and electrical devices in the ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' episode "Mechanised Mayhem" is staged by the phone on DM's living room table top.

* Creator/StephenKing's original idea for the phone in "Film/FourteenOhEight" was actually ''more'' disturbing than that used on film -- the voice, as described in the original short story, doesn't so much resemble a human being as an electric razor that has learned to talk. His performance of it in the audiobook is memorable, to say the least.

* In ''Literature/TheRegulators'' (also by Creator/StephenKing, or rather Richard Bachman) we have the Tak phone, which is not easily described but may well be the most subtly frightening example of the trope ever.
* Also also by Creator/StephenKing, there is "[[Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes Sorry, Right Number]]", in which the phone isn't precisely evil, but creepy.

* ALSO also also by Creator/StephenKing is the novel ''Literature/{{Cell}}'', in which cell phones initiate a ZombieApocalypse.

The phone might also be a SupernaturalPhone. Compare and contrast HarassingPhoneCall and MistakenForPrankCall.

* ''Film/BlackChristmas1974'' practically started this trope, and was the first film to use the urban legend-based trope of [[spoiler:the killer being in the house with his victims]], which was pretty cutting edge back then.

* In the original ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'', Michael strangles Lydia to death with a phone cord just as she calls Laurie. Michael then picks up the phone to listen to Laurie's frantic cries, before calmly hanging up.