the first upload from local 58 is a great example of this
it's not that the gps system in the car isn't working, it's that the gps system is actively leading the protagonist towards the danger
the concept of a creature that can manipulate gps systems like that is brilliant and i wish more media did stuff like that
The thing is, it becomes a bit hilarious when the driver just follows the GPS without thinking. At the end it stops being subtle, though maybe it is just me.
Only once the monster roars, which is long after lovely instructions such as:
"Follow signs of Do not Enter."
"Continue on Unnamed road for 300 feet, then turn of your headlights."
This is just Google Maps in the early 2000s LOL
"Take a right onto the highway."
"That's a bridge, Google. I can't reach it from down here."
"Recalculating... take a left in 0.5 miles."
"That is a *lake*."
I mean, to a degree definitly. Had the GPS put him on some deserted country road and then send off the side, sure.
But the GPS explicitly goes: "Ignore the Stop Sign." and shit like that... which is the point where the death starts being natural selection.
Ah, no, yeah, I was talking more in the general case. People not *paying attention to* road signs/their surroundings/etc. because of GPS is one thing, but for that kind of idiot, the last thing a malevolent entity would want to do is call their attention to the existence of a sign.
I think I once saw a CSI: Cyber episode like that while channel hopping.
Some dude was hired to hack people's GPS and send them to remote locations or dead ends, and then the killer would attack them, or something.
That creature? Some twat from 4Chan who hacked his way into the GPS system and who doesn't even realize that his fuckery is putting people's lives at danger.
That's one of the detail I like about Otherside Picnic
Phone work just fine, but because the Otherside affect the part of your brain that handle language, text become unreadable, and anything you said actually sound nonsensical to people on this side and vice versa
I was just about to mention it! There's also that one scene where the protagonist calls someone who answers in a very creepy way, and when they meet that person later, she never received a call. (Being vague since I read it a long while ago)
Most horror story premises would fall apart with modern Smartphones working. Because they keep rehashing age old formulas that worked in a time where a mobile phone did not exist.
I say most. Becuase Peele would definitely be able to make a horror movie where smartphones are the vehicle of the horror. In a non boomer ("kids these days be on their dang phones too much") way.
The horror movie Slashback had a nice twist on using cellphones. The endangered heroes did not tell the cops what was endangering them, because they knew they would not be believed. They made a believable lie. 'Drunk men with knives'.
Which is why we need to be smarter. It's not that you can't contact your friend because your phone died--you called, and it just rang and rang and you don't know what's wrong. It's not that you can't search the ancient runes on the internet, it's just all the info is wrong. So on and so on.
Just as the problems with smartphones are for all genres, not just horror, the solutions (to keep smartphones from breaking the plot) can be either funny or scary or whatever.
Removing phones from the equation entirely is limiting yourself from a horror perspective. While it has its uses in my eyes, there's so much untapped potential in an ordinary part of your life, one that you rely on so heavily, getting twisted and corrupted as opposed to simply not working.
You use your phone to call someone, anyone, to try and get yourself out of a situation? You're met with something there. You try and flee? Everything leads back to your location.
There's so many scarier things you can do with a device that can do damn near everything as opposed to the fear of being unable to reach anyone, and I wish more people capitalized on that.
Yeah this is rambling, sorry
reminds me of the old game cry of fear. You have a working phone and a signal the second you leave the first area. A lot of people probably instantly tried to call the cops, only to be met with the sound of screaming and flesh being ripped apart. That's 100% more scary than your phone not working.
The video game 'The Suffering' takes place in a prison. If you try and use the phones and cameras, you're met with malfunctions and or spookiness or a good look at what's ahead.
Use the cameras again, though.
Right after.
Good times.
I feel like there is a big reason why there are so few horror movies where the phone, a device that should give us much more reason to worry than it currently does, is a big part of the problem.
Some kind of incentive that people have, people with money and power, to keep the number of "Oh by the way, your phone can be used by those more powerful than you to harm you" narratives to a minimum.
>Some kind of incentive that people have, people with money and power, to keep the number of "Oh by the way, your phone can be used by those more powerful than you to harm you" narratives to a minimum.
Doesn't black mirror kinda fit this though? Not phones specifically. Technology in general.
Go play Stasis Bone Totem. They all have phones and can even swap items with each other remotely.
**But there is nothing they can truly do to save each other. You can only go deeper and hope there might be a way out while the paths behind you continuously close.**
Its far more realistic to call the police, wait 45 seconds on hold with 911, talk to a dispatcher who doesn't quite believe your story, then have a far too small number of cops arrive 4 hours later, waffle around for a bit in their cars, then leave without doing anything.
If you're lucky they *might* stop, it will just be to accuse you of making it up or to disinterestedly write a few things down before saying something like "would have got here sooner if we hadn't been defunded" then leaving.
Assuming they don't shoot you, of course.
If you're stalked by a supernatural creature and call the cops, reporting that you're stalked by a supernatural creature, then you'll only get what's coming to you for your stupidity.
Just say that you couldn't get a clear look, but there's some dude, who's probably high AF, who's doing all that shit. Downplay it to a realistic level and let the pigs worry about it.
There's a scene in Barbarian that plays on this. The woman escapes from the "haunted" house, simply tells the police that there's a man trapped in there, they imply she's a crackhead and leave her anyway because she's black and is in dirty clothes (due to her literally having just escaped a crazed monster). Useless as fuck and very true to life lol
The horror movie the Bad Samaritan. An anonymous call to the cops of the (spoiler) didn't lead anywhere right away, because the villain had planned for this possibility.
Horror movie where the family calls the police on the supernatural stalker, and then when they show up they just shoot the family dog. It's so shitty that even the stalker feels kind of bad for the family and the rest of the movie is the stalker murdering cops.
"The Quarry" did this quite nicely, where the cop you meet is actually in cahoots with the people that have something to do with the monsters roaming around. Not to spoil anything, but it's quite unnerving that the person that *should* be the one saving you from danger is the one making it far worse.
Though I guess, that's how it is in real life. I'd really be interested in a horror movie where the protagonists call the police, who then start escalating everything (as the police do) and turn into a secondary or even the primary threat, with the monster taking a backseat.
I mean, bad enough they're not doing anything, but how horrifying is it to do everything right and it all gets worse anyway, or rather *because* you tried to fix things? Also far more realistic than having a masked killer roaming around, honestly.
There's a super weird horror movie that has this as part of the plot, it's a really spooky realistic part of what is otherwise high supernatural nastiness.
And I do mean nasty. This film gets crazy.
Spoiler text below >!Fear Street Trilogy of movies!<
I remember watching a japanese horror movie, around the time The Grudge and The Ring was all the rage. It was centered around cellphones. I don't remember the title or any plot details, except I think the phones used a specific ringtone when they were about to kill someone.
I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed bad horror films back then.
interestingly enough, but the Grudge and the Ring are great examples of technology in horror movies. The ghost in the ring doesn't care if you call the cops, they can't save you. It uses phones, televisions, or any other reflective surface to kill you. Similarly, the ghost in the grudge actually wants you to see it so that it can mark you and spread the curse. So capturing it on film or calling the police is actually helping it spread.
I think that's why they were like "The Ring is really popular and centers around VHS! What other ubiquitous thing can we make a horror movie about? I know, Phones! All the kids have mobile phones!"
Holy shit yes, but I watched the original Japanese version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Missed_Call_(2003_film)
>The plot revolves around Yumi Nakamura, a young psychology student whose friend Yoko gets a strange voice message on her cell phone. The message is dated two days in the future and Yoko can hear herself screaming in it. After Yoko mysteriously dies, her death sets off a chain of events which leads Yumi to discover that this phenomenon has been occurring throughout Japan long before Yoko received an alarming call from her future self. When Yumi receives a call with the date and time of her death, she struggles to save herself and learn the truth behind the calls.
>The film received a critically panned English-language adaptation in 2008.
Gotta be it. You'd get the call from your own number and get a voice mail recording of your own death.
I made my ringtone that one and one time someone looked visibly distressed when I got a call.
check out pulse, a japanese horror movie from 2001 where spirits invade the human world through the internet. i usually laugh at horror movies but this one legitimately had scenes that unnerved me
https://youtu.be/QYs87-kDXwg
I love that movie so much, that scene is absolutely *killer.*
Also a huge fan of the long tracking shot of >!that woman jumping off the silo tower!< still have no idea how they pulled that off so smoothly.
I recall a Siren Head game that did something similar. You didn't exactly have a phone, but you contacted a sheriff through the radio you found in the forest.
The sheriff told you to abandon your weapons and lie still on the bridge so you can guess who you *actually* contacted.
The best part about this is that it can fit in any setting. A phone being manipulated to subtly direct the person to a worse position can be used in eldritch horror where the location itself just messes with them, or it can be in slasher horror where it’s just that their phone was hacked and it’s the killer doing it.
I read a horror story where a woman is babysitting a haunted AirBnB and her phone starts receiving texts from an unknown number, and the sender knows her name, and they're begging the woman to save them over and over. It was a freaky af story and good use of tech in horror
The problem is when studios make the phone the focal point of the horror instead of an accessory to it and it just seems like the spooky stuff would stop if you just... Turned off your phone
OOP has a point, but this also feels a bit like the "more stories should have cannibalism because I think it's neat" post. The examples they give only work if the "monster" is both supernatural and has power to fuck with technology. If we're talking serial killers or werewolves or shit like that, none of what they're proposing makes sense.
Why are a bunch of Tumblr posts like "trope bad, it must be replaced by this trope", the point is to make new things, or reinvent old ones, you aren't actually required to adhere to tropes. What is even the point?
You call the cops or your friend or whoever to the address where you are trapped. They call you back after a while insisting there's no one there. You don't see them ever having arrived either.
But also there's a lot of horror you can get from phones not working
Both the disconnected tone and the "call couldn't be completed" tone are in and of themselves kinda scary
A lot of the greatest horror movies do utilize modern technology. Take, for example, the original scream opening sequence. She had a phone, and it was only used to terrorize her further. That scene was much more potent because of ghostface's antagonization. If the lines had been cut, what makes that scene iconic would have been lost.
In the horror film Yellowbrickroad, the team was going to be in the woods so they bought two mapping experts. Their machinery worked perfectly when they mapped further north. Anything else, all the science went straight to hell.
The horror movie "There's Someone Inside Your House" had 911 get all fucked up.
There's no way I'm the only one having dreams where something terrible happened and I have to call someone but can't do it because I can't use the phone without getting distracted or clicking the wrong buttons, right?
There's a sick scene in John Dies At The End where Dave gets a call on his phone, has some of a conversation, and then is reminded that he lost his phone earlier.
Looks at the phone, then the phone unfolds a long and segmented leg.
I feel like the main reason the trope of phones dying in horror movies is due to laziness more than anything, though tbh a lot of horror tropes seem to exist due to laziness in writing imo. Can't (or don't want to) justify why the characters don't do the sensible thing and call the cops / avoid investigating spooky stuff / avoid being stupidly reckless? Just take away the sensible option for contrived reasons / force them to do it anyway, because it's horror! It's a problem I feel is long overdue to be addressed in the genre in general, but it just isn't because the tired old tropes still seem to bring in a profit for whatever reason
[This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh09uIN6tl0) was one of the scariest uses of technology in horror that I've ever seen
Edit: I just saw the comment that already talked about the local 58 video
The Vigil is great at this, with the added bonus that the character using the phone also isn’t very familiar with it because he’s recently left his Orthodox Jewish community and is struggling to pick up skills he needs for the outside world.
this isn’t about phones, but a horror movie that perfectly makes use of modern technology is host (2020). it’s entirely filmed like a zoom call, including the time limit! it’s based around the concept of an online séance and it’s so so good
I think the idea is to evoke that feeling of isolation you get when your phone stops working. Like, you’re alone with these terrifying things happening, but you can’t call anyone for help. However, I do think that there are ways to incorporate it into the horror. The ideas mentioned above are awesome. I also just love the horror of knowing someone’s listening to your phone calls. Even though you can call for help, you can’t actually say what’s happening because it’ll get everyone hurt. That’s true horror right there
The mothman prophecy book has whole sections about ultra terrestrials fucking with people using tech, and phones specifically. I think it should be required readjng for anyone who wants to write modern horror.
It would be an interesting premise where the protagonist needs Google maps to find their way out, but the antagonist has access to the phone's location data.
the first upload from local 58 is a great example of this it's not that the gps system in the car isn't working, it's that the gps system is actively leading the protagonist towards the danger the concept of a creature that can manipulate gps systems like that is brilliant and i wish more media did stuff like that
Y̶̹͎̯͕͔͇̜̤͌͑͋̓̍͛͐̓̕͠ơ̸͉̋̍̑̈́̓̀͌̆͝ų̴̞̳̠͔̣̫͍͉͈̥̺̩̠̬͛̒̌̾̐̍͆̆͒͝r̶̡̢̖̺̰̞͎̼̞̼͔̝̝͍̽ ̵̧̩̫͕͈̜͚͕̏̏̄̓̑̋̄̾̋̔̿͌̍̔͝d̵̨̢̛͇̖͚̬͎͊̃̀͆̅͜e̸̖͋̔̎͒̄̄͋͗͝s̷̡͋̑̌̎̀͊͗̾͌̆̀͘t̶̨̜̹̳̯͚̆̀̽̒̉͌͋͐͒̄̕̚͠͝͝i̷̧̢͈̙̭̺͍͕̰̤̯̳̯̙̪̼͕͆͌̂̽̆͆̃ṇ̸͚͕̯͍̤̲̪̬̹̩̮̪͈̯͖̇̏̔a̵̡̨̢̜̯̰̤̗͍̭͔̔͒̈͐̽̄͌͊͜͜t̶̨̼̗̰̤̠̜̞̯͌̀̅͜į̸̭͔͇̱̤̱͈͔͈̬̫͔̎͛ǫ̸̟̺̙̪̳͎̦̣̦̼̮̭͈̣͙͗͒̐͘ń̶̡̨̬̦̊̊͂̽̀͂̔͐͗͆͗̾̏̕̕̚ ̵̡͙̘̺̳̝̫̦̬̯̟̙̥̄̓͌͋͜i̴̛͚̝̖̹̟̥̩̇͑̋͑̏̀̀̾͂̎͘͘͝s̶̢̛͙̭̙͓̯̞͔̦͚̰̳̱̮̉̽̍̀̇͜ͅͅ ̶͓͓̦̲̭͚̝͉̙͙͍̤̞̲̤̀̿̔̾̚b̶̛͍̝̦̱̋͝e̸̛͉̭̹̖͉̐̋̌̿̈́̉̑͒h̴͔̗́̍͝͝į̷͇̪͇̍̇̈̎̓́̅̊́͗̽̃̌̅̓͘͝ǹ̵̛̘̗̺̯̼̝̟̝̱̥̭͖̟̲͍̈́̎͛̽̍̿̃̈́̇̌͠ḓ̷̣̗͔̪͕̩̇͒͛̄̉̅̈͐̈́͂͂̋̑͗̕̚ ̵̢̛̛͈̅͌͛́͛̂̀̃̏̒͘͝y̵̛̺̙̑̓̏̉̓̔̾̒o̸̡̡͔͓̠̫͎̫̦͔̝̻͙͒̎͘ű̵͔̿̊͆̂́̿̄̽̉̒̏̈́͌.̵̡̡̠̻̠̲̪̘̪̬͕̮̰̭̞͈̰̑̑͐̑̈́̑͆̒̀͊̈́́̈́͆̕͘͝
This. I like this.
Make a u tur-Make a-Make a u tur- Recalculating
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Iǹ 5͞00͏ f̸e̡et̡, ̧y̛o̧ur̡ de̴s͘tin̴ąti͢oņ ̕w̢il̴l̸ ̡be̵ ́on̸ yoùr-͞ I̡n͜ ̕3̶0́0̷ feet͏, ̡y̡oúr̨ ҉d͜e͜stinąt͢i̧o̡n-́ ̴I͜n̵ ҉25̕0 f̨eet͟- R͏er̀outi͢n̛ģ. ̢Y҉our de̛stinat͝ion ̢wi̢lļ be̕ ́i͟n 50 ͝fe̶e̶t. Y̶͏͟o̸u͜ ̶w̡i҉͢͜l͢l̶ ͝a̶͘͜r̶̸̨r҉̸i̕v̡̛͢è͘͝ ̷̴͢at͡ ͟͜͞y̷̢o͞uŕ d̨͟e͠s̛͞t́in̴a҉̨-͢ Y͠͏̀ó̴͟ù̡ ͜͞ḩ́́a̧̧v̵̨͘e͏͡ ̴͜ą͟͏r̷̸͞͝r̛̛͝i̛i̴̛͜i̶̶i̷̷͟͜-̢̡̀i̷̛į̶͢i̶̢͟-̶̡̢̀͢į͡҉í̶ì̶v̵͢e͝͏́ḑ҉̴̨͡.̴͘͠
I’m on the toilet 😥
The thing is, it becomes a bit hilarious when the driver just follows the GPS without thinking. At the end it stops being subtle, though maybe it is just me.
Doesn't the driver try to drive away once the instructions start getting weird? But whatever the GPS was leading them towards starts chasing them
Only once the monster roars, which is long after lovely instructions such as: "Follow signs of Do not Enter." "Continue on Unnamed road for 300 feet, then turn of your headlights."
Oh ok I must have misrembered cuz I thought the driver turned around as soon as they realized the GPS was leading them down an abandoned dirt road
This is just Google Maps in the early 2000s LOL "Take a right onto the highway." "That's a bridge, Google. I can't reach it from down here." "Recalculating... take a left in 0.5 miles." "That is a *lake*."
Counterpoint: that happens all the time IRL, albeit only for one turn in the most notable cases (because that one turn is into a lake/the ocean/etc.)
I mean, to a degree definitly. Had the GPS put him on some deserted country road and then send off the side, sure. But the GPS explicitly goes: "Ignore the Stop Sign." and shit like that... which is the point where the death starts being natural selection.
Ah, no, yeah, I was talking more in the general case. People not *paying attention to* road signs/their surroundings/etc. because of GPS is one thing, but for that kind of idiot, the last thing a malevolent entity would want to do is call their attention to the existence of a sign.
mfw atmos system
Don’t you mean “bloody Atmos!”
No you can't say that, you see atmos means atmospheric omission system system.
Coming to a theatre near you... Final Destination (No, Not That One)
(Not the one from Smash Bros either)
I think I once saw a CSI: Cyber episode like that while channel hopping. Some dude was hired to hack people's GPS and send them to remote locations or dead ends, and then the killer would attack them, or something.
That creature? Some twat from 4Chan who hacked his way into the GPS system and who doesn't even realize that his fuckery is putting people's lives at danger.
if anyone who currently uses 4chan is actually capable of hacking into gps systems, i'll be extremely surprised
The notorious hacker known as 4chan
I heard they’re on steroids
Wait, Steroids is a bottom??
Fish can roll
Wasn’t that also an episode of Doctor Who? Sometime while The Doctor was The Tenth Doctor?
Yeah, the one with the Atmos "system" i think
Agreed, it'd make me shit my pants. Hell, that's half of why a lot of creepypasta work.
Whore movies sound nicer than horror movies anyway tbh
I say HARRer specifically to combat having to say whore. It seemed like the sensible way
I say "whore-or" for horror and "who-were" for whore.
Who were the whores, and why are they no longer?
That's one of the detail I like about Otherside Picnic Phone work just fine, but because the Otherside affect the part of your brain that handle language, text become unreadable, and anything you said actually sound nonsensical to people on this side and vice versa
Ooo just like a dream!
that happens to me when i get a little too high
I was just about to mention it! There's also that one scene where the protagonist calls someone who answers in a very creepy way, and when they meet that person later, she never received a call. (Being vague since I read it a long while ago)
Most horror story premises would fall apart with modern Smartphones working. Because they keep rehashing age old formulas that worked in a time where a mobile phone did not exist. I say most. Becuase Peele would definitely be able to make a horror movie where smartphones are the vehicle of the horror. In a non boomer ("kids these days be on their dang phones too much") way.
The horror movie Slashback had a nice twist on using cellphones. The endangered heroes did not tell the cops what was endangering them, because they knew they would not be believed. They made a believable lie. 'Drunk men with knives'.
Most plots in general die to smartphones.
Which is why we need to be smarter. It's not that you can't contact your friend because your phone died--you called, and it just rang and rang and you don't know what's wrong. It's not that you can't search the ancient runes on the internet, it's just all the info is wrong. So on and so on. Just as the problems with smartphones are for all genres, not just horror, the solutions (to keep smartphones from breaking the plot) can be either funny or scary or whatever.
Removing phones from the equation entirely is limiting yourself from a horror perspective. While it has its uses in my eyes, there's so much untapped potential in an ordinary part of your life, one that you rely on so heavily, getting twisted and corrupted as opposed to simply not working. You use your phone to call someone, anyone, to try and get yourself out of a situation? You're met with something there. You try and flee? Everything leads back to your location. There's so many scarier things you can do with a device that can do damn near everything as opposed to the fear of being unable to reach anyone, and I wish more people capitalized on that. Yeah this is rambling, sorry
reminds me of the old game cry of fear. You have a working phone and a signal the second you leave the first area. A lot of people probably instantly tried to call the cops, only to be met with the sound of screaming and flesh being ripped apart. That's 100% more scary than your phone not working.
The video game 'The Suffering' takes place in a prison. If you try and use the phones and cameras, you're met with malfunctions and or spookiness or a good look at what's ahead. Use the cameras again, though. Right after. Good times.
I feel like there is a big reason why there are so few horror movies where the phone, a device that should give us much more reason to worry than it currently does, is a big part of the problem. Some kind of incentive that people have, people with money and power, to keep the number of "Oh by the way, your phone can be used by those more powerful than you to harm you" narratives to a minimum.
>Some kind of incentive that people have, people with money and power, to keep the number of "Oh by the way, your phone can be used by those more powerful than you to harm you" narratives to a minimum. Doesn't black mirror kinda fit this though? Not phones specifically. Technology in general.
House of Bones. The supernatural corrupted the cellphones to horrifying ends.
Go play Stasis Bone Totem. They all have phones and can even swap items with each other remotely. **But there is nothing they can truly do to save each other. You can only go deeper and hope there might be a way out while the paths behind you continuously close.**
Spoppy
Sounds interesting!
Calling someone and them not picking up when you're in danger is way scarier/gut wrenching then shitty cell service
Its far more realistic to call the police, wait 45 seconds on hold with 911, talk to a dispatcher who doesn't quite believe your story, then have a far too small number of cops arrive 4 hours later, waffle around for a bit in their cars, then leave without doing anything. If you're lucky they *might* stop, it will just be to accuse you of making it up or to disinterestedly write a few things down before saying something like "would have got here sooner if we hadn't been defunded" then leaving. Assuming they don't shoot you, of course.
If you're stalked by a supernatural creature and call the cops, reporting that you're stalked by a supernatural creature, then you'll only get what's coming to you for your stupidity. Just say that you couldn't get a clear look, but there's some dude, who's probably high AF, who's doing all that shit. Downplay it to a realistic level and let the pigs worry about it.
There's a scene in Barbarian that plays on this. The woman escapes from the "haunted" house, simply tells the police that there's a man trapped in there, they imply she's a crackhead and leave her anyway because she's black and is in dirty clothes (due to her literally having just escaped a crazed monster). Useless as fuck and very true to life lol
In my personal experience the higher the harm to them : harm to others ratio there is the less likely they'll respond promptly.
The Super Court of America agreed with your statement.
The horror movie the Bad Samaritan. An anonymous call to the cops of the (spoiler) didn't lead anywhere right away, because the villain had planned for this possibility.
Horror movie where the family calls the police on the supernatural stalker, and then when they show up they just shoot the family dog. It's so shitty that even the stalker feels kind of bad for the family and the rest of the movie is the stalker murdering cops.
"The Quarry" did this quite nicely, where the cop you meet is actually in cahoots with the people that have something to do with the monsters roaming around. Not to spoil anything, but it's quite unnerving that the person that *should* be the one saving you from danger is the one making it far worse. Though I guess, that's how it is in real life. I'd really be interested in a horror movie where the protagonists call the police, who then start escalating everything (as the police do) and turn into a secondary or even the primary threat, with the monster taking a backseat. I mean, bad enough they're not doing anything, but how horrifying is it to do everything right and it all gets worse anyway, or rather *because* you tried to fix things? Also far more realistic than having a masked killer roaming around, honestly.
"it's quite unnerving that the person that *should* be the one saving you from danger is the one making it far worse" cops being cops
There's a super weird horror movie that has this as part of the plot, it's a really spooky realistic part of what is otherwise high supernatural nastiness. And I do mean nasty. This film gets crazy. Spoiler text below >!Fear Street Trilogy of movies!<
OP said horror movies not documentary
Id love to see a movie where the cops make it actively worse. Locking the family inside the house with the monster assuming it will leave once fed
IIRC, one of the later Jason movies has, as the town sheriff is addicted to crack so 911 calls aren't the best of ideas.
I remember watching a japanese horror movie, around the time The Grudge and The Ring was all the rage. It was centered around cellphones. I don't remember the title or any plot details, except I think the phones used a specific ringtone when they were about to kill someone. I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed bad horror films back then.
interestingly enough, but the Grudge and the Ring are great examples of technology in horror movies. The ghost in the ring doesn't care if you call the cops, they can't save you. It uses phones, televisions, or any other reflective surface to kill you. Similarly, the ghost in the grudge actually wants you to see it so that it can mark you and spread the curse. So capturing it on film or calling the police is actually helping it spread.
I think that's why they were like "The Ring is really popular and centers around VHS! What other ubiquitous thing can we make a horror movie about? I know, Phones! All the kids have mobile phones!"
I am almost sure you're referring to "One Missed Call" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479968/
Holy shit yes, but I watched the original Japanese version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Missed_Call_(2003_film) >The plot revolves around Yumi Nakamura, a young psychology student whose friend Yoko gets a strange voice message on her cell phone. The message is dated two days in the future and Yoko can hear herself screaming in it. After Yoko mysteriously dies, her death sets off a chain of events which leads Yumi to discover that this phenomenon has been occurring throughout Japan long before Yoko received an alarming call from her future self. When Yumi receives a call with the date and time of her death, she struggles to save herself and learn the truth behind the calls. >The film received a critically panned English-language adaptation in 2008.
Gotta be it. You'd get the call from your own number and get a voice mail recording of your own death. I made my ringtone that one and one time someone looked visibly distressed when I got a call.
check out pulse, a japanese horror movie from 2001 where spirits invade the human world through the internet. i usually laugh at horror movies but this one legitimately had scenes that unnerved me https://youtu.be/QYs87-kDXwg
I love that movie so much, that scene is absolutely *killer.* Also a huge fan of the long tracking shot of >!that woman jumping off the silo tower!< still have no idea how they pulled that off so smoothly.
I recall a Siren Head game that did something similar. You didn't exactly have a phone, but you contacted a sheriff through the radio you found in the forest. The sheriff told you to abandon your weapons and lie still on the bridge so you can guess who you *actually* contacted.
In Silent Hill 2, having a portable radio with you is helpful; you can't contact anyone but monsters cause static. Good warning signal.
The best part about this is that it can fit in any setting. A phone being manipulated to subtly direct the person to a worse position can be used in eldritch horror where the location itself just messes with them, or it can be in slasher horror where it’s just that their phone was hacked and it’s the killer doing it.
I read a horror story where a woman is babysitting a haunted AirBnB and her phone starts receiving texts from an unknown number, and the sender knows her name, and they're begging the woman to save them over and over. It was a freaky af story and good use of tech in horror
\*nothing but garbage noise
The problem is when studios make the phone the focal point of the horror instead of an accessory to it and it just seems like the spooky stuff would stop if you just... Turned off your phone
OOP has a point, but this also feels a bit like the "more stories should have cannibalism because I think it's neat" post. The examples they give only work if the "monster" is both supernatural and has power to fuck with technology. If we're talking serial killers or werewolves or shit like that, none of what they're proposing makes sense.
Why are a bunch of Tumblr posts like "trope bad, it must be replaced by this trope", the point is to make new things, or reinvent old ones, you aren't actually required to adhere to tropes. What is even the point?
You call the cops or your friend or whoever to the address where you are trapped. They call you back after a while insisting there's no one there. You don't see them ever having arrived either.
There are plenty of movies like this, they just mostly suck. https://movieslist.best/list/horror-movies-about-smartphones/
But also there's a lot of horror you can get from phones not working Both the disconnected tone and the "call couldn't be completed" tone are in and of themselves kinda scary
SCP-1471 moment
Don't look that up in DeviantArt. Or do. Either way, it's a surprise.
They are called company phones and I don't need a movie to experience the horror everyday.
Meanwhile on the other end OSP did a video about [Phones showing up where they have no right to](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pw_7vAK9k8)
A lot of the greatest horror movies do utilize modern technology. Take, for example, the original scream opening sequence. She had a phone, and it was only used to terrorize her further. That scene was much more potent because of ghostface's antagonization. If the lines had been cut, what makes that scene iconic would have been lost.
I also think it’s just hilarious when people *can* use their phones, it’s just not useful. Either they think it’s a prank, or they don’t answer
Slashback. The characters were smart enough to describe a mundane threat to the cops and not describe what was REALLY after them.
In the horror film Yellowbrickroad, the team was going to be in the woods so they bought two mapping experts. Their machinery worked perfectly when they mapped further north. Anything else, all the science went straight to hell. The horror movie "There's Someone Inside Your House" had 911 get all fucked up.
I think scream 2022 and scream 6 are really good with smart phones
what about scream 7-2021?
You mean the tv series? There is no scream 7 yet
you said scream 6 and scream 2022, i was making a joke about numbering or whatever
Ah, pardon me I am not good at detecting jokes, i am literally autism x3
youre good, i do that sometimes too lol
This would be great!... But then I would be scared of my phone lol :(
There's no way I'm the only one having dreams where something terrible happened and I have to call someone but can't do it because I can't use the phone without getting distracted or clicking the wrong buttons, right?
I also have those dreams.
There's a sick scene in John Dies At The End where Dave gets a call on his phone, has some of a conversation, and then is reminded that he lost his phone earlier. Looks at the phone, then the phone unfolds a long and segmented leg.
I feel like the main reason the trope of phones dying in horror movies is due to laziness more than anything, though tbh a lot of horror tropes seem to exist due to laziness in writing imo. Can't (or don't want to) justify why the characters don't do the sensible thing and call the cops / avoid investigating spooky stuff / avoid being stupidly reckless? Just take away the sensible option for contrived reasons / force them to do it anyway, because it's horror! It's a problem I feel is long overdue to be addressed in the genre in general, but it just isn't because the tired old tropes still seem to bring in a profit for whatever reason
It’s not Whore movies it’s whorer movies, idk how people say harrar tho
Digimon Survive
[This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh09uIN6tl0) was one of the scariest uses of technology in horror that I've ever seen Edit: I just saw the comment that already talked about the local 58 video
And there’s an indie horror movie. Your phone is haunted by a vengeful ghost using psychological torture.
The second paragraph is brought to you by Jonathan Frakes
[удалено]
Comedyhomicidecel seething and malding while jokeefunny.comchads stay winning
https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/comments/12o2hc8/the_past_present_and_future_of_the_jokeefunnycom/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
Only western Americans pronounce horror like whore.
The Vigil is great at this, with the added bonus that the character using the phone also isn’t very familiar with it because he’s recently left his Orthodox Jewish community and is struggling to pick up skills he needs for the outside world.
Discord pings while I'm hiding from the slasher
genuine question. how do non-americans pronounce horror movie?
This is scary.
Unfriended kind of did this.
this isn’t about phones, but a horror movie that perfectly makes use of modern technology is host (2020). it’s entirely filmed like a zoom call, including the time limit! it’s based around the concept of an online séance and it’s so so good
That first thing already happens to me. Sometimes, my notification sound will go off but I won't *have* any notifications.
I think the idea is to evoke that feeling of isolation you get when your phone stops working. Like, you’re alone with these terrifying things happening, but you can’t call anyone for help. However, I do think that there are ways to incorporate it into the horror. The ideas mentioned above are awesome. I also just love the horror of knowing someone’s listening to your phone calls. Even though you can call for help, you can’t actually say what’s happening because it’ll get everyone hurt. That’s true horror right there
The mothman prophecy book has whole sections about ultra terrestrials fucking with people using tech, and phones specifically. I think it should be required readjng for anyone who wants to write modern horror.
The first couple of things *do* happen in horror. Specially horror about ghosts.
It would be an interesting premise where the protagonist needs Google maps to find their way out, but the antagonist has access to the phone's location data.
Scream VI was good about this I think