Of all of the horror films ever made, this sequence is my top choice for the best horror sequence of all time, and number 40 for all time movie sequences. The film itself is not the greatest of horror films, mostly because it cannot live up to its promising first 12 minutes or so, which could have stood on their own as a great and horrifying short film. It plays on the theme I keep saying about horror films -- what we don't see is more frightening than seeing some hockey-masked madman slashing people to shreds. In this sequence that starts this film, a babysitter is alone with the two kids she's sitting for, who are already tucked away in their beds, so we never see the kids. Not long after the parents leave for the night, the babysitter, played by Carol Kane, begins receiving threatening phone calls by a very disturbed man. He begins to ask her "Have you checked the children?" and "Why haven't you checked the children?" His voice is very threatening on its own, and when she asks the man "Can you see me?", he answers "yes" and we see a shot from outside the window looking into her. It plays on our very fears of being alone in a house in the middle of the night, and being seen from someone from outside. She makes sure all the doors are locked and closes the curtains, and finally calls the police, who agree to trace the call but she has to keep him on the line long enough. The next time he calls, she keeps him on the line by asking "What do you want?" to which he horrifyingly replies "Your blood .... all over me!"

The true terror comes when she hangs up the phone, and it immediately rings again, but this time it's the police -- they traced the call and it's coming from another phone line within the house. I don't know anybody who doesn't get chills when we hear that and see the light from a room on the wall when the door from the kid's room opens from upstairs. The police arrive just in time but not enough time to save the two children, who were brutally killed by this madman as he made those calls to the babysitter the entire time from upstairs in the same house. The rest of the film simply falls apart after that, as it evolves into a basic cop-trying-to-find killer routine, and is somewhat rescued in the end when Carol Kane is much older and has her own children and the killer returns to torment her again, this time trying to kill her own kids. But that initial sequence is the finest example of pure horror I have ever seen.