Stock movie screams.
 

I'm sure you've probably heard these sounds at least once before, I mean they've been used in 100s of movies. These sound effects used to annoy me so much as a kid. I think that was mostly due to my dad never believing me when I told him I kept hearing the exact same scream in different movies. The first is called the "Wilhelm Scream" and the second video is the "Howie Long Scream" both of the videos only offer small samples of their uses. I'm making this thread because I just heard the Howie Scream in Natural Born Killers.

Also there's a sound of a stiff metal door or gate being opened with a very recognisable grinding/squeaking sound I want to found. It's been used in countless movies and tv shows for years. This is not a very good, i.e. clear, instance but you can hear it at 1:44 in this clip.

Yeah, nothing pulls me out of the moment quite like a Wilhelm.

There are times when it's used ironically or as an in-joke, and then I quite enjoy it--like the Family Guy clip. I pretty much assume everything on that show is done with a wink, so having the piano guy dive off the stage and give a Wilhelm is quite a nice little gag, for all three of us who caught it. But when a movie's trying to be serious and they throw down a fifty year old stock "I'm falling" scream.... Suddenly I'm not on the (multi-million-dollar) fields of Pelenor, instead I'm sitting in a movie theater wondering how they could be so lazy.

There's a great song about this: That Calls for a Wilhelm Scream. (It is streamable, but I can't embed it.)

Goddmamnt it Reese now I have to download Lord of the Rings I through III, Kill Bill both Volumes and Star Wars ... you and seaver did this to me the last time, ... because of you I had to watch the Matrix again and Seaver made me watch Farscape ... all episodes!!!

The Wilhelm is so overrated. It sounds more like something crawled up into your pants than anything life-threatening.

The "Youarrgggahhh" is by far the best one for effect, even if it is just as repetitive as the first.

I've noticed the gate sound too. I couldn't find a compilation of clips that use it though. Funny, I had a gate that sounded exactly like it. We called it our Resident Evil gate because that's where we heard it the most.

Yup. After that game, every movie I heard it in (and it's in a surprisingly large amount of movies), I was reminded of opening doors in the game.

Well damnit. I watched Inglorious Basterds tonight and it had the Wilhelm scream near the end of it. Coincidentally or not it also had a character named Wilhelm in it. I waited for the scream as soon as I heard his name. :) After the movie goes off I'm changing the channels and Kill Bill Vol 1 is on IFC and it's about 5 minutes to go until the fight scene with not 1, but 2 Wilhelm screams! I really shouldn't have made this thread. I saw Last Action Hero up on Starz or Encore or something too but it was already past the Howie scream part.

---------- Post added at 01:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 AM ----------

WTF Cracked.com mentioned the Wilhelm scream in their "5 things hollywood reuses" article that was posted the same day as my little thread? Coincidence? I think not! Ok, Who's the cracked.com writer being inspired by my threads?

5 Things Hollywood Reuses More Than Plots | Cracked.com

There is a lot of this sort of thing going on. That said, some is cost effective, some is lazy and some are done as a wink and a nod to people in the know (or so my friend who does sound design tells me).

I believe ever since reading this thread I have started hearing this scream more and more in my action flicks. That and I recently heard the sound you make when you knock down pins while bowling.

Disappointed, I am.


I also used to be huge childhood fan of Disney animated motion pictures. The unoriginality featured in the video above is staggering!

If you look most of those shots are from Robin Hood, which had an extremely small budget.