Comments on: The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm Scream

argybarg — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:24:01 -0800

Do you know this scream? Originally labeled in studio reels in 1951 as Man Being Eaten by Alligator, the sound effect now known as the Wilhelm has turned up in dozens of films; sound designers have made a game out of sneaking it past the director's notice. This NPR feature (includes link to RealAudio file) tells much of the story of the Wilhelm Scream. Or you could just watch the best of Wilhelm, compliled in this (27MB) video compilation (read the making-of here). (By the way -- an orc in The Two Towers lets out a Wilhelm as he falls to his death.)

By: Satapher

Satapher — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:31:31 -0800

i suppose we have George Lucas to thank..... star wars and indiana jones series

By: Ty Webb

Ty Webb — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:35:08 -0800

Yes, yes, yes, I know that scream! Awesome link, argybarg. I was just talking about this the other day, I thought it was hilarious that it showed up in Two Towers.

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:49:12 -0800

Well crap, I'll never be able to watch any movie again without listening for this. Gee thanks a lot argybarg!

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:49:49 -0800

Gee, thanks for taking all the magic out of it, man. Sound editing, blue screens, cg characters, stock recorded scream effects, pah. (Fingers in ears, humming lah lah lah) It's all real... it's all real... It's all real...

By: machaus

machaus — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:51:29 -0800

This reminds me of the Harlan Ellison short story "Laugh Track", where a man's Aunt is trapped for eternity within a foley artist's reel to reel tapes.

By: RylandDotNet

RylandDotNet — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:52:11 -0800

I suspected something like this was the case... that scream shows up a little too often to be a coincidence. Thanks for the link, argybarg.

By: putzface_dickman

putzface_dickman — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:53:25 -0800

so cool

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:16:23 -0800

I love movies, and I go see more than my fair share, but I'm stunned & impressed by those of you (Ryland, Ty) who knew this scream from casual film watching. Foley obsessive fanatics! Great link, BTW!

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:21:48 -0800

Before I clicked the link, I was thinking of another scream that appears everywhere. It is in the game Doom. It is also in Jedi Knight and I've heard it in a hundred other TV series and movies. Does anyone know of the scream of which I speak? It is heavy on the reverb and is usually used during a great fall. Or maybe it's less a scream and more a yell.

By: SiW

SiW — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:28:14 -0800

As an adolescent I would regularly check out from the library the various BBC Sound Effects Library records and tapes. I got to know them quite well, and it's still funny to hear them today. Like "that one baby cry". They're available today in that ever-so-handy CD form of course, from here, for example. (Quick Google search, I've no idea if this company is reliable, I have no connection with them, etc. etc.) I don't know if they still have the "Death & Horror" series, which was my favorite. The ghoulish artwork just added to the experience of listening to cabbages being molested in various ways.

By: dchase

dchase — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:37:17 -0800

On a related, um, note, Filmsound.org has a great list of audio cliches.

By: sixtwenty3dc

sixtwenty3dc — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:54:53 -0800

i'd noticed them too. great link!

By: KiloHeavy

KiloHeavy — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:58:06 -0800

There are two more sounds that show up again and again--in commercials, in movies, in television shows. One of them is a "large hydraulic door opening" sound that I first heard in Doom--you know the sound if you played the game--and the other is a more artificial sort of sound, kind of like a mellow electronic bubble sound, which I first heard in the original X-Com game. Anyone else recognize these?

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:02:24 -0800

Uh, Wilhelm scream? What are you on about? This is clearly just James Brown doing a soundcheck. Kiloheavy: More Doom SFX trivia.. the exploding barrel sound from Doom features numerous times in 'Where Boys Fear To Tread' by The Smashing Pumpkins.

By: reverendX

reverendX — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:03:31 -0800

I've also noticed that the "doom door" sound is everywhere.

By: DyRE

DyRE — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:03:57 -0800

One of them is a "large hydraulic door opening" sound that I first heard in Doom--you know the sound if you played the game I was going to mention that. I don't know how many times I've heard that sound in places other than Doom but I'm pretty sure Doom's the first place I heard it.

By: scribblative

scribblative — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:09:09 -0800

Like KnitWit, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to *not* hear that scream again, especially after watching that quicktime video compilation. However, I think this is hilarious, and a great post - thanks!

By: Tacodog

Tacodog — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:11:36 -0800

Cool post! I when I saw the Two Towers a few weeks ago, I just knew I heard that Helm's Deep scream before.

By: dnash

dnash — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 13:40:50 -0800

Roller Coaster Tycoon is full of sounds that I hear other places. There's a crowd sound that's also in "Mission Impossible 2" (the Tom Cruise movie). And there's some commercial for, I think, some kind of dog food...it starts with a little kid playing with a little puppy and there's a child's laughter sound that's also in Roller Coaster Tycoon (mostly when the peeps get off a roller coaster they really like.)

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:02:54 -0800

GREAT LINK!! I heard it in TT and recognized it right away... I was just wondering about the history! thanks! nice quicktime too. fun.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:15:13 -0800

Love the filmsound link, dchase. The red-tailed hawk screech is all over the place, even in a recent commercial for the Bat-Wing rollercoaster at Six Flags, IIRC.

By: LinusMines

LinusMines — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:30:55 -0800

Thanks for the link to the compendium, argybarg. Before hearing about the Wilhelm, I had always associated that scream with the film Them!, mostly because it seemed like such an uncharacteristic noise to come out of James Whitmore...even if he was being snacked on by a giant ant.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:32:45 -0800

One of them is a "large hydraulic door opening" sound that I first heard in Doom--you know the sound if you played the game Is it Doom or Marathon? I coulda sworn it was Marathon.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:45:43 -0800

Think Aliens for another uber-copied door sound.

By: matteo

matteo — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:53:32 -0800

One of Brian De Palma's best movies, Blow Out, (check out the great Pino Donaggio soundtrack) is about the search for the perfect movie scream (SPOILER WARNING -- the final part of the story in the last link gives away the movie's ending, by all means watch the film if you haven't yet)

By: Jairus

Jairus — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 15:34:27 -0800

The igniting-flame and screams from The Prophecy are everywhere, too. Command and Conquer used them heavily, and I don't think there's been a movie trailer released in the last four years that doesn't use some of them...

By: anildash

anildash — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 15:44:03 -0800

Thanks for the wilhelm audio link! I'd been looking for one for ages. I know that long-ass scream from Jedi Knight, I used to have an extracted audio file of it. I know it's on one of my music CDs as well, during a segue, so maybe I'll rip that and post it somewhere...

By: kevspace

kevspace — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 15:45:11 -0800

There's a scream I always recognize, usually used when a guy is set on fire... it's the sound a baddie makes in 007 Goldeneye for N64 when you run him over in the tank. A sort of multi-level scream, like, "AAAhhaAAahhhaahhh!" Yeah. Anyone else remember the "robot" sound pack for Windows 95? Those must have been stock sounds because I hear them in low-budget sci-fi all the time.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 15:57:11 -0800

That Wilhelm video compilation was really entertaining, thanks for the great link. And lupus_yonderboy, i always associated that sound with Marathon as well. Weird.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 16:20:29 -0800

How about the "whoosh" from DOOM that was also a weapon sound in Alpha Centauri, town portal in Diablo, and several movies/tv shows (can't think of specific examples unfortunately)?

By: Mwongozi

Mwongozi — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 17:13:14 -0800

If by "whoosh", you mean "schwomp-fshhh" (behold my sound-to-text skills) then I'd also love to know where that comes from. The boss at the end of Doom II makes that sound when he fires rockets, and since hearing there, I must have heard it in hundreds, er, well tens of films, at least.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 17:23:08 -0800

I'd add a sound to the cliché list: women in movies always grunt when doing anything which requires the least amount of muscular effort. It's a helpless, pathetic sound, with slight sexual undertones.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 17:26:55 -0800

For anyone interested, here is one of the doom door sounds, here is another. i'm still looking for the one from Marathon, but this seems to be a pretty good resource. (follow the link 'sound effects' to 'science fiction' to doors...)

By: KiloHeavy

KiloHeavy — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 17:41:15 -0800

Found the sounds. On this page, the "Lift start" and "Lift stop" sounds, when combined, are the door opening sounds I'm thinking of ... I think. Now that I hear them, they sound a little different, but ... well, those are the sounds. Still looking for the X-Com sound. Re: Marathon vs. Doom as the origin of this sound: Doom was out in the third quarter of 1993, and Marathon won the MacWorld Best Game for 1995. Looks like the sound originated with (or before) Doom.

By: teg

teg — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 18:16:53 -0800

Every screen door in the movies makes a sound as it closes that I have never heard from a real screen door. Hearing it yanks me out of my suspension-of-disbelief state every time.

By: jmcmurry

jmcmurry — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 21:50:53 -0800

The Doom door opening sounds have been used a lot, but the "Boss Spit" effect gets around, too. I seem to hear it a lot, especially just the first [swoosh]. I always think of the end of Doom II when I hear it, mostly because it took me a while to get past that level. Going to see The Two Towers again tomorrow, and I'll be on the listenout for the Wilhelm. I'm sure it will stick out. Great post. (Sorry to be late to it.)

By: Down10

Down10 — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 23:32:26 -0800

I don't recall the Wilhelm scream, but it's certainly amusing to see just many films to date that have utilized it since its creation. I know I can recognize another familiar scream; a man making a a deep, guttural yell, like "rrrrrRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!" It's used for when the drug dealer falls off the roof in The Basketball Diaries, and dozens of other films and video games. I wish I could find a link to it, because it's so prevalent that my mind can't get past it when I hear it used in another movie. It must be one of those common "public domain" sound effects.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 02:29:10 -0800

There's an extremely annoying sound-effect something like a bubbly child's laugh that seems to be used quite frequently. I expect that it's another Star-Wars-related effect, as it's used in The Phantom Menace. Once you recognise 'em there's no going back; you'll hear them everywhere.

By: GrahamVM

GrahamVM — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 06:47:53 -0800

A couple that I've heard TOO often: That sound of a car driving over a road blaring out it's horn which undergoes the doppler effect. And one of a baby gurgling a cutesy "AH-ahhh!" which severely grates. As for DooM, don't you remember those WADs that substituted the sounds with the Star Trek and Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy sound effects? Oh, and the original barrel blast from Doom was on the Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie album, with sample credit and all, probably as a nod to the the IDSPISPOPD cheat (Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris), which itself stemmed from a meme started up by people on Usenet getting impatient for DooM to come out. Heh. My, this is getting a tad off-topic...

By: IndigoSkye

IndigoSkye — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 11:11:54 -0800

Coming from a totally different background.... there is one 'I'm falling' scream done by Pinto Colvig that has appeared in any number of Disney films, cartoons, and even some live films. It's Goofy's Yodel of 'Ya who who whooooo', but Pinto Colvig was the original voice of that scream.

By: kavasa

kavasa — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 15:00:50 -0800

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone else find the "X let out a Y" phrasing to be irritating?

By: Mwongozi

Mwongozi — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 18:44:25 -0800

Those links to wavs on web1000.com don't seem to work for me, I get bounced to the front page.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 21:55:39 -0800

I bow with reverence to the majesty of this thread.

By: mmoncur

mmoncur — Sun, 05 Jan 2003 00:10:13 -0800

Posts like this are EXACTLY why I keep reading Metafilter.

By: atholbrose

atholbrose — Sun, 05 Jan 2003 12:03:06 -0800

I used to have The Thrilling Chilling Sounds of the Haunted House, mentioned in a link earlier in this thread. Way fun album. Wish I still had it.