History Main / CallingCard

* The titular character in ''Film/TheCrow'' leaves a crow symbol by the bodies of his victims, usually in blood, but on one occasion in fire.

** Paul Millander left his victims in bathtubs in staged suicides.
** The Miniature Killer left detailed miniature replicas of the scene at each scene.
** Another killer left his victims frozen in various poses, even standing up.

** The Compass Killer who left compasses at his scenes.
** Shane Casey uses t-shirts and staged scenes for secret messages.
** In "Crushed," a burglar left small, typed notes at his scenes. It came back to bite him when someone was killed at a house he'd robbed and he became a murder suspect.
* One of the early killers ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' goes after makes the victime's bodies themselves his signature--a frozen, chopped-up, bloodless body. The killer also [[spoiler: left increasingly personalized clues for Dexter himself]].

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' loves this trope.
** One episode featured the VictimOfTheWeek being tied up in a particular way, and there was also the BlondeBrunetteRedhead pattern.
** Another featured a serial killer who considered his killings TrueArt, "critiquing" the work of a copycat, who turned out to be [[spoiler: his PsychoExGirlfriend]].
** Another episode featured ''literal'' cards--prayer cards, to be specific, left with dead prostitutes.

** From UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks through UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, most of Batman's RoguesGallery left calling cards, either explicitly (ComicBook/TheJoker's playing cards and the Riddler's conundrums), or in the form of Signature Crimes: Two-Face's crime sprees [[{{Idiosyncrazy}} always revolved around the number two]], for instance. This was often [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]]; even in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, the Riddler's compulsion was flat-out stated to be his downfall. Several stories have shown that the Riddler is psychologically incapable of committing a crime without the riddles, no matter how hard he tries. In the current comics, however, it's a DeadHorseTrope.

[[TheMoreYouKnow The term comes from]] a largely ForgottenTrope from a time before the invention and proliferation of the home telephone. Back then, if you wanted to talk to your friends in real-time, you had to actually talk to them face-to-face. [[AlwaysFemale Women]] had a system where they would [[DropInCharacter stop at each other's homes unannounced]], to meet with (usually, though not always) the lady of the house just to chat. Needless to say, there was no guarantee of actually getting to do so at that moment, because she might not have been home. If Alice wanted to visit with ("call on") Betty, but Betty wasn't home, then Alice would leave a [[TropeNamer "calling card"]] with her name on it. (Kind of like a modern-day business card, except for personal use.) Like the trope, it was unique to her, and she may have left several of them throughout the neighborhood or town, depending on just how many of her friends she unsuccessfully attempted to call on. She would either leave it in a dish left for this purpose, or if Betty was wealthy enough to have one, leave it with the maid or the butler, and it was expected that Betty would "call on" Alice when she got the chance. When the telephone was invented and came to more and more homes, it simply wasn't necessary to go running around to others' homes ''just'' to chat, and thus both "calling" and ''literal'' "calling cards" died out.

** In ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', ProfessionalKiller Francisco Scaramanga sends Bond a golden bullet with "007" marked on it, signifying him he's his next target.