Well, today's post is a complete surprise to me! I was going to write a posting about Disney movies. I decided to focus on a few of my favourite Disney movies, and I kept finding "WILHELM SCREAM" in the IMDb movie Trivia. I did not know what it was, but each trivia post mentions where the scream can be found in the movie. It was hard to miss "WILHELM SCREAM" listed under "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", "Toy Story" and "Cars".
I found a video which explained that the Wilhelm Scream is a stock sound effect from Warner Bros. that was first used in the 1951 film "Distant Drums" when a man is attacked by an alligator. After the movie, the sound recording was used in another movie, "The Charge at Feather River" when a soldier, Private Wilhelm, is shot in the leg with an arrow. From this point on, the recording was tagged "Wilhelm" and used in numerous movies in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. I have never even heard of these movies, let alone seen them, so I have no intention of listing them. However, some sound effects fans (there are sound effects fans?) started to notice the same scream popping up in movies, and they borrowed it off a film's audio track to use in their own movies.
One such sound effects fan, Ben Burtt, was hired to create the sound effects for a small film called "Star Wars". Maybe you have heard of it? Ben adopted the Wilhelm Scream as a personal calling card, and used it in all of the Star Wars movies. And then for good measure, he included it in all of the Indiana Jones movies. He and his friends thought that it was a funny inside joke, so they added it in to movies whenever they could: "Willow", "Poltergeist", "Batman Returns", and "Planet of the Apes" (the lame Mark Wahlberg version) to name a few. Before long, other sound effects fans started to put it in to their movies: "Gremlins 2", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Fifth Element", "Reservoir Dogs", "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"and "Return of the King", "Kill Bill" and "Team America: World Police". It really is not worth trying to list all of the movies with the Wilhelm Scream, because it has been used in AT LEAST 130 movies! It has even been in tv shows such as "Family Guy" and "The X-Files". Apparently, it is the least "inside" of all Hollywood "inside jokes".
The Wilhelm Scream even inspired a Wilhelm Game. Next time you are at the theater and the movie has a Wilhelm Scream, point at the screen and yell "Wilhelm!" Just don't do it if you are there with me, because when the annoyed theater staff comes to kick you out, I will shrug and say, "I don't know that person", and wave as you are escorted away.
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