Seriously, I bought a cell phone plan in a major university town and had no signal except for a blip in between work and my house. I don't think my sister has had reception at her house ever.
Being out in the middle of nowhere and not getting any bars is probably the only believable thing in those horror movies.
Yeah that was the point. It's sort of frustrating when you just grab a ton of examples of one and run them end to end. Don'tsayitdon'tsayit ARGH he said it. And with such bravado.
Because all of these movies would have been maybe twenty minutes long if the phones worked. "Hi, 911? I'm trapped in a warehouse and this guy has chained me to a fucking wall. Please send help. You don't believe me? OKAY WELL THEN I HAVE A BOMB AND A GUN AND I'M GONNA KILL PEOPLE. NOW WILL YOU COME?"
Then again, it's not like roadside assistance totally would have gotten out to bumblefuck breakdown county in fifteen minutes.
That'd actually be an infinitely better source of suspense in one of these joints - the teenagers' car breaks down and they have to wait like, two hours for the tow truck to get out there. In the mean time - TERROR!