Creepy statue at top of stairs

They focused on this quite a lot.

There is an urban legend which is very similar to the story in When A Stranger Calls about a babysitter being freaked out by a grotesque statue in the house she is babysitting in. When the parents call to check in, she asks if she can cover the statue because it's freaking her out. They tell her to collect the kids and get out of the house - they don't have a statue.

I know it's a different story but it has a lot of the same themes as the urban legend used in this movie - babysitting, phonecalls, intruder.

Do you think the lingering shots of the statue in this movie were a deliberate reference to that other urban legend?