THE PHONE CALL

By
Toby Griffin
EXT – ON THE STREET – NIGHT

The night sky is pitch black, thunder and clouds start to

build up. Lightning rumbles in the clouds. A title card
moves out from inside the clouds, THE PHONE CALL.
Lightning strikes and the title card disappears. The
thunder and lightning fades and the camera pans down to
reveal a house with a light on inside.

INT – KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

SLAM. A large cutting knife slams onto a cutting board

and cuts up some small tomatoes. MICHAEL is cutting up
some tomatoes alone in his kitchen. RING RING, there is a
phone ringing off screen. MICHAEL puts down the knife and
goes to pick up the phone. He walks past his locked back
door and picks up the phone.

MICHAEL
Hello?

THE STRANGER (O.S)

Hello, Michael. Do you want to play a ga-

MICHAEL
(interrupting)
Who this?

THE STRANGER (O.S)

Who I am is irrelevant, all you need to know
is… I’m inside the house.

MICHAEL’S face drops and then suddenly returns to normal.

 MICHAEL
Ok, bye.

MICHAEL hangs up the phone and goes back into the

kitchen. He passes by the previous closed back door which
is now open. MICHAEL enters the kitchen to start cutting
his tomatoes again, but the knife is missing. RING RING,
his phone is ringing again. He picks up the phone.

THE STRANGER (O.S)

Michael, Michael, Michael. Don’t you know its
rude to just hang up like that, however, I’d
understand if you were feeling scared. Do you
feel scared, Michael?

MICHAEL
No, if you’re inside the house why do you need
to call me.

THE STRANGER (O.S)

I- Uh-

DING DONG, the doorbell rings. MICHAEL looks towards the

door.

THE STRANGER (O.S)

You might want to get that. I think your
delivery is here.

MICHAEL puts down the phone and walks towards the door.

THE STRANGER (O.S)

Strange that you didn’t order anything…Hello?
INT – FRONT ROOM/FRONT DOOR – MOMENTS LATER

MICHAEL opens the doors to see nothing. He looks down to

see the DELIVERY GUY laying dead on the floor covered in
blood, with a box of food placed on top of him. MICHAEL
shakes his head disappointedly.

MICHAEL
Honestly, sleeping on the job, should be
ashamed of yourself.

MICHAEL picks up the box of food and closes the door. He

sits down on the sofa and starts flicking through
different channels. He stops when he sees footage of
himself from outside the window. MICHAEL moves and waves
at the TV to see what is going on. He follows the angle
of the camera and looks towards the window. The channel
suddenly changes recapturing his attention.

MICHAEL
Hmm, weird show.

TAP TAP TAP. There is tapping coming from the window.

MICHAEL looks towards the window. He sees THE STANGER
standing there waving his knife from the kitchen. The
knife is covered in blood, THE STRANGER wipes it of and
writes “HELLO” on the window in the blood. MICHAEL
cautiously approaches the window. MICHAEL and THE
STRANGER stare at each other. MICHAEL nonchalantly closes
the curtain and walks away, leaving THE STRANGER in
confusion.

INT – CLASSROOM – DAY

Bell rings. MICHAEL is sat at the table in the middle of

the classroom, working on his laptop. Sounds of students
working can be heard in the background. Sat next to
MICHAEL is JASON, MICHAEL’S close friend.
 JASON
And you just…closed the curtain.

MICHAEL
Yeah, pretty much

JASON
And you aren’t the slightest bit scared.

MICHAEL shakes his head.

JASON (CONT’D)
You do know what’s going on right? Masked
strangers, missing knives, messages in blood…
you are literally living in a horror movie.

MICHAEL
Is that good or bad?

JASON stares at MICHAEL disappointedly.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
Bad, got it, very bad.

JASON
He could be anywhere right now.

DING, MICHAEL gets a message on his phone from an unknown

number. The message says, “I’d listen to Jason if I were
you, see you soon”. MICHAEL picks up the phone and shows
it to JASON.
 MICHAEL
Im guessing this isn’t very good either.

JASON snatches the phone out of MICHAEL’S hands. He looks

scared and panicked.

JASON
We need to go now.

JASON gets up and starts to leave. MICHAEL stays and

works on his laptop. JASON turns around and starts to
drag MICHAEL.

JASON
Now Michael!

MICHAEL
Ok Jason…

MICHAEL close the laptop and is pulled away by JASON. THE

STRANGER is revealed by the closing of the laptop and has
been sat across the room the whole time.

EXT – BACK OF BUILDING – DAY

The building is old and worn. There is litter everywhere.

The is a small ledge with pillars running up towards the
roof and the rest of the building. MICHAEL is sat down
minding his own business. JASON is pacing back and forth
across the small path.

MICHAEL
I don’t see why your making such a big deal out
of this. If he wanted to kill me, he would’ve
last night.
 JASON
He could have killed you last night, but he
didn’t. So, he must want to mess with you first
before he kills you.

MICHAEL
That’s comforting. But why are we talking about
this when we have much more pressing matters.

JASON stops pacing and standing in front of MICHAEL.

JASON
Like what, Michael? What could possibly worse
than this?

MICHAEL
Well, Jason. For one the delivery guy…

JASON sighs and begins pacing again.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
(defensive) He was sleeping on the job and I
think he need to be held accountable.

JASON
He’s dead Michael! And unless we want to end up
the same, we’ve got to focus.

MICHAEL nods and puts in some headphones.

JASON (CONT’D)
Now the key to surviving any horror scenario is
to stick together, he’s less likely to attack
us if we’re together. We stand a better chance.
JASON continues pacing and starts to pace in front of an
alley. On the final pace in front of the alley THE
STRANGER is standing there.

JASON (CONT’D)
So under no circumstances can we split up

JASON is grabbed by THE STRANGER and dragged off screen.

MICHAEL is still sat on the wall listening to his music,
unaware of JASON being killed of screen. JASON tries to
reach round from the alley but is dragged back and
killed. One of JASON’S screams captures MICHAEL’S
attention, but he does not notice JASON. MICHAEL takes
out one of headphones.

MICHAEL
Jason? Jason?

MICHAEL stands up and looks around.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
(mockingly) Hypocrite, we need to stick
together Michael. Under no circumstances,
Michael.

Michael sits back down. THE STARANGER is crouching behind

him.

THE STRANGER
Yeah, I don’t think he’s coming, Michael.

THE STRANGER knock MICHAEL out.

Cut to black:
EXT – FOREST – DAY

THE STRANGER and MICHAEL are sat in a forest. It is very

quiet, except for a few sounds of birds and wind. MICHAEL
is sat up against a tree, THE STRANGER is crouching in
front of him. MICHAEL wakes up and see that his hands are
tied together with a small piece of rope.

MICHAEL
Just so you know my safe word is mango.

THE STRANGER turns to MICHAEL and leans in.

THE STRANGER
Michael, Michael, Michael. What to do with you.
Tell me, Michael, what is your biggest fear?

MICHAEL
Letting down my friends and family and knowing
that I will always disappoint them no matter
how hard I try… alligators are pretty scary
too.

THE STRANGER
Well, what if I was take this

THE STRANGER pulls out a small saw from his back pocket.

THE STRANGER (CONT’D)

And cut off your legs… (laughs)

MICHAEL
I wouldn’t do that if I were you?
 THE STRANGER
(chuckles) Yeah? And whys that?

MICHAEL
I use to do wood tech GCSE and that saw… would
not recommend.

THE STRANGER rolls his eyes and tosses the small saw over
his shoulder.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
It would blunt easily and it was just a hassle
in general. I would say go on google and just –

THE STRANGER sighs in frustration and grabs the bridge of

his nose. SMACK, THE STRANGER slaps MICHAEL.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
Ow, mango, mango.

THE STRANGER, visibly frustrated, leans in closer to

MICHAEL.

THE STRANGER
(sighs) Have you ever killed anyone, Michael?

MICHAEL
Can’t say that I have, no.
 THE STRANGER
We live in a society where we must be told not
to kill. You see, Michael, fear is the purist
emotion there is and… Are you on twitter?

MICHAEL is sat looking at his phone, he looks up at THE

STRANGER. MICHAEL pockets the phone.

MICHAEL
Yeah, sorry. I was just checking that you
didn’t get that from some deep thoughts page.

THE STRANGER starts to drop his intimidation act.

THE STRANGER
Do you understand what’s going on here?

MICHAEL
Of course, I do. You’re doing what you love.
Its very important to have a hobby.

THE STRANGER
(under breath) ugh, this is torture.

MICHAEL
Hobbies are a great way to keep positive. You
clearly enjoy what you do.

THE STRANGER gets up and walks away in frustration.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
Enjoying a hobby helps your general mental
health. I am truly thankful that you thought to
include me in this.
MICHAEL is now sat alone in the woods, he looks around
for the stranger.

MICHAEL (CONT’D)
Hello?

Cut to black:
Title card and credits

Post credit scene:

EXT – FOREST – DAY

MICHAEL is still sat next to the tree with his hands

tied. He starts to bite at the knot in an attempt to get
free. He stops and looks at the knot.

MICHAEL
Hmm, must be a scout.

End: