“THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE” is an oft-quoted line that reveals a relationship between horror, the home, and gender. From the muttering prank calls of Black Christmas (1974) to the frantic opening scene of Scream (2022), the telephone is often a source of intrusion and terror inflicted upon women in places culturally coded as feminine: places where, in theory, they should be safe).

In this lecture, we will examine the historical relationship between gender and the telephone, specifically the telephone as an instrument of femininity and domesticity. Through this historical grounding, we will explore a selection of 20th century American horror films (with exceptions from Italy, Korea, Japan, and the early 21st century) to dissect the ways in which the phone is weaponized against women specifically in arenas in which they are supposedly blameless or safe. By interrogating this relationship, we can start to construct an understanding of the phone as a site of technological anxiety while we simultaneously deconstruct our understanding of how women become victims, and why, in these films.

Since the number of films in which the telephone is a conduit of fear is remarkably vast, we will take some key detours throughout the lecture to consider other ways that gender and sexuality are policed by an unknown assailant using telephones and communications technology. As our technologies and understandings of gender evolve, so do the ways that our films reflect their attendant anxieties.

Reference texts include scholarly articles on the history of labor and telephone, as well as the role of telephone in film. Films discussed include (but are not limited to): SORRY WRONG NUMBER, DIAL M FOR MURDER, DISCONNECTED, BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974), PERSONAL SHOPPER, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, LISA, BLACK SABBATH, SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!, ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE ALONE?, DIAL: HELP, THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN, and the SCREAM franchise.