Line #96 Main/EvilPhone


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1608842455028320100
2	%% Previous thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1590350528053481200
3	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
4	%%
5	[[quoteright:313:[[Film/WhenAStrangerCalls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stranger_calls_2006_cover.png]]]]
6	%%
7	->''"That's not my ringtone..."''
8	-->-- ''Film/OneMissedCall''
9
10	The phone is ringing. Dear God, THE PHONE IS RINGING! The camera slowly closes in on the phone. The noise is deafening. Cut to the protagonist, who has terror in her eyes. She answers the phone. "Hello?!"
11
12	Roughly half the time, the call is not from who she thought it would be (instead being, say, someone who wants to switch her long distance or some equivalent of a CatScare).
13
14	This guarantees the second call, immediately afterward. She picks up the phone and says, "I'M HAPPY WITH MY LONG DISTANCE, DAMMIT".
15
16	Then she hears the voice of evil on the other end of the line.
17
18	If upon answering the phone, she hears dead air, she is required to say, "It's dead," and someone else [[StockPhrase is then required to say]], "Could you ''please'' not put it that way?"
19
20	One specific variant of this trope that now lives in UrbanLegend territory is TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse.
21
22	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. May overlap with PhoneCallFromTheDead.
23	----
24	!!Examples:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Advertisement]]
29	* A faux horror movie had the obligatory pretty young things relating an UrbanLegend (accompanied by creepy music) about the advertised Samsung flip phone that compels you to switch to it the moment you lay eyes on it. [[TemptingFate One scoffs at the idea only to immediately fall under its power]], so the others flee while trying to shield their eyes from all the other Samsung flip phones. They make it to their car and drive off...only to discover the jacket they used to cover their eyes had a Samsung phone in the pocket!
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* ''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.
34	* At the end of one episode of ''{{Anime/Noein}}'', the old house phone starts ringing even though it's unplugged. After a lot of weird noises, it turns out the protagonist [[MindScrew is calling herself from an alternate future timeline with some advice.]] Not quite evil, but still creepy as hell, especially because her future self sounds [[TearJerker so sad...]]
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
38	* In ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse'' DJ gets a phone call from the house across the street the night after he saw its sole inhabitant suffer an apparently-fatal heart attack. All he hears on the line is spooky creaking and groaning noises.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
42	* The hotel room phone in ''Film/FourteenOhEight''. Not only did it talk in a nightmarishly calm and pleasing woman's voice, it also melted for some reason.
43	-->"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."
44	* The Thai film ''Film/NineNineNineNineNineNineNine'' and its Cambodian rip-off ''Film/TheKillingPhone'' are both about a telephone number that will grant the wishes of whoever calls it, [[JackassGenie but with deadly consequences]].
45	* ''Film/BlackChristmas1974'' practically started this trope, and was the first film to use the urban legend-based trope of [[spoiler:the killer [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse being in the house with his victims]]]], which was pretty cutting edge back then.
46	* In ''Film/OneMissedCall'', all its sequels and the remake, young people receive voicemail messages that detail their final moments, complete with IronicNurseryRhyme ringtone.
47	* Played with a little bit of actual creepiness in the intentionally cheesy ''Doom House''. Determined to defuse the creepiness by any means necessary, Reginald picks up the phone with a goofy hand gesture, then discovers that the aforementioned voice of evil sounds utterly ridiculous. The gratuitous presence of his cat doesn't hurt, either.
48	* ''Film/TheFifthElement'' reveals that CorruptCorporateExecutive Zorg is allied with the EldritchAbomination who calls him over the phone using the moniker "Mister Shadow". Zorg is terrified when those calls come. Not the least because Mister Shadow can make people bleed out of their foreheads over the phone.
49	** Also the phones made by Zorg's company appear to have semtex installed, as standard, ready to be detonated whenever Zorg is disappointed.
50	* ''Film/TheGate'': The protagonists 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.
51	* ''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.
52	* In ''Film/Halloween1978'', 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.
53	* ''Film/MarthaMarcyMayMarlene'': The suggested reason why Martha disconnected the phone is because the call was from someone at the cult who would seek to get her back in.
54	* Inverted in ''Film/TheMatrix''. [[MessianicArchetype Neo]] receives a [=FedEx=] package. There's a phone inside, and it starts freaking ringing the moment he pulls it out. Neo's eyes bug out and he answers it. Turns out it was [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Morpheus]], exactly who Neo expected it to be.
55	* In the film [[InNameOnly vaguely inspired by]] ''Film/TheMothmanProphecies'', Richard Gere gets phone calls from [[CompositeCharacter someone who is either Indrid Cold or the Mothman]]. Not quite evil, but thoroughly creepy, since his voice patterns were "outside of human vocal range".
56	** Also, the phone calls that may be from [[spoiler:Klein's dead wife, although you never know due to him refusing to answer the phone]] and that even come through when the phone is unplugged.
57	* Nancy in the original ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'' tries to call her boyfriend, Glen Lantz, to warn him not to go to sleep. Then the phone rings. She picks it up. It's [[spoiler:the sound of Freddy's claws being sharpened.]] She (understandably) freaks out, tears the phone out of the plug, and throws it across the room. Then, despite being unplugged, it starts ringing ''again''. ''This'' time, it's [[spoiler:Freddy again, telling her that "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy," - and then he sticks his tongue ''out'' of the phone and wags it at her.]]
58	* In ''Film/OusamaGame'', the eponymous King Curse uses cell phones as its sole method of communication, including for giving death orders and announcing its executions.
59	* Averted in ''Film/RedEye'', where the phone call is the police saying that they're right on their way. Though the phone calls Rippner wants her to make for him are fairly sinister themselves.
60	* 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''.]]
61	* And then spoofed to hell in ''Film/ScaryMovie 3''. Aside from the Evil Phone getting dragged into actual conversations, it tries to contact the female protagonist's son and gets her instead, gets hung up on, calls back and poses as a solicitor, and then finally asks her to take a message for him.
62	* The killers from the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' series were quite fond of messing with their victims over the phone.
63	* ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'': "Well, Clarice, have the little lambs stopped screaming?" [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs The book]] has Lecter send Clarice a letter instead.
64	* ''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.
65	* In ''Film/SatsujinNet'', the eponymous Web of Death service is a supernatural web mainly distributed through the cell phones and kills anyone whose name gets sent there.
66	* ''Film/WhenAStrangerCalls'' plays with the urban legend of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Babysitter_and_the_Man_Upstairs The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs]].
67	* In ''Film/WhenEvilCalls'', the evil wishes are spread via text message. Every time 'new message' sound occurs, it means someone is about to make a wish which will destroy their life.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Literature]]
71	* A ''very'' common trope for Creator/StephenKing:
72	** His original idea for the phone in ''Literature/FourteenOhEight'' was actually ''more'' disturbing than that used [[Film/FourteenOhEight 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.
73	--->'''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!''
74	** In ''Literature/TheRegulators'' (one of King's works published as 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.
75	** There is "[[Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes Sorry, Right Number]]", in which the phone isn't precisely evil, but creepy.
76	---> 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.
77	** Then we have ''Literature/{{Cell}}'', in which cell phones initiate a ZombieApocalypse.
78	** In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone", Craig, a teen, befriends an old man, the Mr. Harrigan of the title, and eventually gives him his first [=iPhone=]. When Craig finds Mr. Harrigan dead, he takes his phone out of some strange instinct, then feels guilty about it and slips the phone into Harrigan's pocket at his funeral. He soon starts calling the phone just to listen to Mr. Harrigan's outgoing message and leave voicemails about whatever's on his mind... then he starts getting cryptic text messages ''back''... [[spoiler: Then he leaves a message on the phone about being bullied, and his bully is found dead under mysterious circumstances the next day]].
79	* Subverted in the ''Literature/TwentiethCenturyGhosts'' short story "The Black Phone" (ironically enough, given that [[Creator/JoeHill the author]] is the above King's son), in which a kidnapping victim receives calls from dead children on the titular phone who give him advice on how to escape his captor.
80	* In ''Literature/GirlsWithSharpSticks'', the phone that the students use to contact their families is actually connected to a computer at the school, where an AI system poses as their parents' housekeeper while relaying information about the calls to the administration. All other calls go straight to voicemail, which lets the school know that a student is trying to contact the outside world. [[spoiler:Mena eventually steals Guardian Bose's CellPhone in order to get around this.]]
81	* In ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}'', the titular [[EldritchAbomination phantom]] likes doing this to the protagonists.
82	* Creator/AnthonyHorowitz's short story "The Phone Goes Dead" has a woman struck by lightning and killed while using her mobile phone. The phone's next owner, a teenage boy, soon starts receiving calls on it from beyond the grave.
83	* ''Literature/TheRing'' has the phone call that always follows someone watching the haunted tape, warning them that [[YourDaysAreNumbered their days are numbered]]. ("Seven days!") Both the 1998 and 2002 film adaptations also pull the "first call is fake" variant, as the first victim tells her tale of the tape, and then receives a call from her mother just to unnerve the audience. Unfortunately, the 2002 film also [[NightmareRetardant takes the edge off the horror]] by having one of the real calls intercepted... by Rachel's voicemail, which she then deletes.
84	* The classic anthology ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'' features a story called "The Viper", which subverts this trope. A woman working late in her office receives a series of mysterious phone calls from a man with a strange voice who refers to himself as "The Viper", and tells her that he is getting progressively closer to her, and will be there soon. Finally, [[spoiler: he arrives with a bucket of soapy water, and announces that he has come to [[FunetikAksent vipe the office vindows.]]]] All the more unexpected and effective because it comes immediately after a fairly straightforward and effective "TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse"-type story.
85	* In ''Literature/{{Spellbent}}'', Jessie's cellphone briefly behaves this way while she's in close proximity to a {{Hellgate}}.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
89	* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' had the "Phone Police" and their insane prisoner Billy Baxter.
90	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
91	** This appears quite often in the classic series. For instance, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines "The War Machines"]], the First Doctor is attacked with a sort of hypnotizing beam sent via phone. One of the Master's very first attempts to kill the Doctor is carried out with an Auton-plastic phone cord that attempts to strangle Three in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E1TerrorOfTheAutons "Terror of the Autons"]].
92	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E8FathersDay "Father's Day"]]: Rose, and later others, get creepy, cryptic phone calls ... that turned out to be ''the first phone call ever.'' It was the first sign that they officially [[TimeCrash broke time]].
93	** Throughout [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "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 (long 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?!"
94	** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]], Rose gets a call from Satan himself on her mobile, which understandably freaks her out a bit.
95	* 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?"
96	* ''Series/ScreamTheTVSeries'', much like the films, has the killer taunting victims through their phones, though here, it's more through text messages and videos.
97	* ''Series/TalesFromTheDarkside'' featured an episode, "Sorry, Right Number" cited above in Literature, 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.]]
98	** ''Tales'' also had an episode where a woman is annoyed by a constantly ringing phone in the apartment next to hers. Later this escalates to what sounds like someone in the apartment trying to break through her bedroom wall. Finally she steels her nerves and goes over there...
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Music]]
102	* The track "Telephone" from Music/CaptainBeefheart 's Music/DocAtTheRadarStation (1980) describes a telephone in a horrific way: "It's like a plastic horned devil."
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
106	* ''[[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening The Unbidden]]'' gives us the Fear-Powered Cell Phone, a phone that has Awakened and which draws charge from paranoia. It sends itself text messages that attempt to scare its current owner; however, it ''also'' sends itself texts that give very good advice, so that the owner comes to trust it.
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Video Games]]
110	* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': At [[NGOSuperpower The Consortium]]'s inner hall, one of the [[OurMonstersAreDifferent variants]] kept in containment is called The Midnight Telephone, which is a red-colored telephone that can be used to contact anyone. If it is used eleven times in succession, the phone will randomly contact a random person and they will immediately die, leaving it to be within an enclosed metal container to prevent it from making any kind of contact.
111	* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'': An AnonymousBenefactor contacted Spamton over the phone and seems to attack him for trying to warn Kris about important things. After Spamton's defeat, one of the Addisons mourning him states he could make out a voice on a phone he left hanging on the mansion before all that remained was "garbage noise", the same term used when Kris themself attempts to make calls in the Dark World during Chapter 2.
112	* {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick''; [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Sissel can possess phones and use the phone lines for transportation]], but cannot talk to people through them, even if they're holding the receiver or calling the phone he's possessing.
113	* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series has had several Evil Phones, and a few merely spooky ones.
114	* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'': Sometimes nearby phones ring. Don't answer. Don't even pick up the non-ringing ones. On rare occasions, you need to pick them up anyway to advance the story, and on even rarer occasions, they're ''helpful''. Granted, the help comes from [[MadDoctor Doctor Killjoy]], and usually only in the "Good" morality; but those rare bits of necessity can unfortunately instill [[PlayerTic a similar response for every other phone]]...
115	* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' has this as one of the Sanity-based freak outs. ''"Remember me, Alex?"''
116	* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh'', when you call yourself or your [[spoiler:murdered coworkers]].
117	* In ''VideoGame/ShiversTwoHarvestOfSouls'', the villain often calls to gloat and give you unsettling messages whenever you move to a different room or building. Extra creepiness comes from the implication that he must be watching you (or ''following'' you) very closely to know where to call each time.
118	* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': Shortly after arriving in Paris, JC Denton enters an empty office with the phone ringing. Upon answering the phone, he has a short, cryptic conversation with [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Icarus]]. The use of the phone can be assumed to be pure MindScrew on Icarus' part since he can (and does) message directly to JC in other points of the game.
119	* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'':
120	** In the prologue of [[VideoGame/MaxPayne1 the first game]], Max gets home and notices his house has been broken into. Then the phone rings, and he picks up only to hear some scratchy voice going "Is this the Payne residence?" -- when he tries to get help there, all the voice says is "Good. I'm afraid I cannot help you," and hangs up. Max heads into the house and finds some drugged-up addicts having a psychotic episode who kill his wife Michelle and daughter Rose. The voice on the phone turns out to be the BigBad [[spoiler:Nicole Horne, CEO of the Aesir Corporation, who's been peddling the drugs to get massively rich and had sent the druggies to kill Michelle after she accidentally found incriminating evidence of Horne's involvement while working as an office clerk]].
121	** [[VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne The sequel]]'s ShowWithinAShow ''Address Unknown'' has this at the end of the series:
122	--->'''Phone:''' John Mirra?\
123	'''John:''' Yes, this is he.\
124	'''Phone:''' This is John Mirra. Welcome to the next level.
125	* A variant in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', when Phoenix gets angry at [[spoiler:(by then revealed to be the big villain)]] Matt Engarde for phoning him.
126	--> ''(Phoenix's phone rings)''\
127	'''Phoenix:''' (Auugh! It's that Engarde again!) ''(Answers)'' Would you stop calling me already?!\
128	'''Gumshoe:''' ...You're kinda mean, pal...\
129	'''Phoenix:''' GAH! Detective Gumshoe! I'm really, really sorry!
130	* You can ''be'' one, briefly, in ''VideoGame/{{Geist}}'', in order to scare a janitor so you can possess him.
131	* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'': Answering a certain phone in ''F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point'' will result in an Alma scream that shakes the room.
132	* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', Victor Zsasz begins a series of serial killings in which he calls random payphones and kills whomever answers them. In Batman's case he makes him track down another payphone somewhere else or else he kills innocents.
133	* In ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'', your phone is mainly used as a flashlight in the game (which is always night). However, it's also used to [[spoiler:lure Simon into the dark, abomination filled apartments through a series of text messages]].
134	* In ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'', there's an old-fashioned home phone that can be found in Miroku Mansion. It appears in a room that Akira [[RevealingContinuityLapse already searched]], and when he answers it he's hit with intense nausea. After that point, the chapter's spirit continues to harass him through his own mobile and home phones.
135	* ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'': "Knock-Knock." "Who's there?" "A smartphone hacking the local media art to play your betrayal over and over and over..."
136	-->'''Bedbug:''' ''panicked]'' WHAT YOU WANT?! STOP IT! WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME?!
137	* ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'' has a Cursed Artifact called "Asmodeus' Hotline," a glowing red telephone whose busy signal is accompanied by screams and evil laughter.
138	* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'':
139	** At the end of the first arc, [[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.
140	** 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."
141	** In the fifth arc, Natsuhi receives calls from 'the man from nineteen years ago', who blackmails her into incriminating behaviors. He continues to call even after the mainland lines are down. There are no other clues regarding him in any other arc, so it can't be certain that he is who he claims, or that he wasn't just Natsuhi's lie or delusion.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Web Comics]]
145	%%* In ''Webcomic/SilentHillPromise'' expect to be unhappy whenever the protagonist's cellphone rings.
146	* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': At the beginning of Chapter 10, Kokoro receives a phone call, and is threatened by the seemingly inhuman presence that had previously been stalking Undine. At first, she [[MistakenForPrankCall assumes it's some kind of joke]] -- until the voice mentions her mother. ''This'' unsettles Kokoro, as [[spoiler:her mother was killed in a monster attack shortly after she was born, and the CDD forced Kokoro to cover up their connection]]. Shortly after hanging up, she receives ''another'' phone call, which turns out to be from Undine herself; Kokoro decides to invite her to discuss what just happened in person.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Web Originals]]
150	* ''WebVideo/TribeTwelve'' features the video titled "Unknown Caller", where protagonist Noah Maxwell receives a call from the Observer in his dead cousin's broken phone. Scared by the first one, Noah ends the call, just to be called again. After listening to the message, Noah panics and completely destroys the phone.
151	* 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 committing the murders... [[TheKillerInMe or so it seems]].]]
152	* In the ''WebAnimation/BarbieLifeInTheDreamhouse'' episode "A Spooky Sleepover", a scary story Nikki tells during Barbie's SlumberParty gets interrupted by Raquelle's phone ringing. When Raquelle answers it, [[spoiler:she learns that [[FauxHorrific her hair appointment was cancelled!]]]]
153	* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has a chilling example in the form of [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-145 SCP-145,]] otherwise known as the "Man-Absorbing Phone". It constantly rings despite not being plugged to anything. Picking the phone up results in conversation with a woman pleading for help as she details gruesome acts of torture performed on unknown victims - and if you just so happen to be alone when you pick up the phone, ''[[NightmareFuel you're going to be joining the victims yourself]]''.
154	** 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, [[spoiler: it gives the person's real mother a life-threatening brain tumor.]]
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Western Animation]]
158	* 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.
159	* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. In "Sorry, Wrong Ed", Eddy gets a phone that Rolf desperately wants to get rid of. As soon as Eddy gets the phone, it starts ringing... ''without being plugged in'', and every time he (or anyone else!) picks up the receiver, something bad happens to him.
160	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptkeeper'' a crank caller, in a form of karmic comeuppance, ends up crank-calling a seemingly kindly old lady who turns his phone into one. No matter what he does to his phone she'll just keep calling him over and over insisting "but you called ''me''", and if he goes elsewhere ''any'' phone he comes within range of will ring for him with her on the other end. Needless to say, things [[FromBadToWorse get a hell of a lot worse]] when he goes to her home to apologise.
161	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EvilPhone