Monday, 5 June 2006

Monday, 5 June 2006
THE WILHELM SCREAM

Have you ever heard a sound in a film that you recognize? Chances are you've just heard a stock effect from a sound library. There are hundreds of sounds that are re-used in movies, but most are quite generic and don't stick out as being ubiquitous -- such as the "castle thunder" sound effect, that originated in Frankenstein (1931), but has been used in countless movies since, including Citizen Cane, Ghostbusters, Back To The Future and Big Trouble In Little China, to name just four.

However, the most famous sound effect in movie history is undoubtedly The Wilhelm Scream. You've heard it hundreds of times (without possibly noticing), although because it's a human voice the Wilhelm Scream is easier to recognise than the hundreds of stock telephone rings, door slams and thunder claps that populate films.

The Wilhelm Scream was a sound effect first used in the movie Distant Drums (1951) when a man was eaten by an alligator. The sound was locked away for years before sound designer Ben Burtt discovered it (labelled "man being eaten by alligator"), renamed it "Pvt. Wilhelm" after a minor character in The Charge At Feather River (1953), and used it in a little film called Star Wars (1977)...

After its revival in Star Wars, the scream became an in-joke amongst insiders working at Skywalker Sound for George Lucas. They incorporated the scream into dozens of other movies -- including every Star Wars sequel/prequel and the Indiana Jones trilogy (where it was most famously used for its original purpose, in the Temple Of Doom sequence with people being eaten by alligators!)

Word spread amongst the sound effects community, and soon other sound designers were using the same scream in their own movies, such as: RoboCop, Willow, Beauty & The Beast, Toy Story, Batman Returns, Dante's Peak, Kill Bill, Hellboy, Sin City, Fantastic Four, The Lord Of The Rings, King Kong, and dozens more.

The Wilhelm Scream even appears in video-games such as Mortal Kombat, Spider-Man 2 and most Star Wars titles. Television shows even got in on the action, with the Wilhem heard in American Dad, Doctor Who, Invasion, Family Guy, and others.

Still not sure you've heard it? Well, take a look at this 3-minute montage of classic moments to feature the Wilhelm Scream...