Weekly Wiki: Wilhelm Scream


HA, I remember the article that I was going to feature here a couple weeks ago!

If you’ve ever watched a movie or TV, you’ve probably been privy to the Wilhelm scream, a stock sound effect first used in 1951 and has since been audible in over 225 movies and TV shows (often as an in-joke).

The scream was first heard in the 1950s movie Distant Drums and gained popularity after George Lucas and Quentin Tarantino began to slide it into almost every movie they made (yes, including Star Wars). The fact that the scream is publically available has caused it to propagate throughout online media created by amateur film/media makers.

Compilation!

4 responses

  1. Matt Farnsworth's avatar

    I have heard that thing EVERYWHERE but didn’t know it had an official name.

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    1. Claudia's avatar

      It’s in EVERYTHING!

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  2. ladyfi's avatar

    This is new to me.

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    1. Claudia's avatar

      It was new to me too in the sense that I was never aware of the scream in movies until I’d read that so many movies used it. Now I purposely try to listen for it whenever I watch a new film.

      Thanks for the comment!

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