You May Have Heard Me Before

Thanks to the "Screen Worlds" exhibition at the ACMI centre in Federation Sqauare, I've been introduced to the Wilhelm Scream: that scream you hear in almost every movie when a guy gets shot, blown-up or falls off a really big cliff. Most easily recognisable as the Stormtrooper Scream from Star Wars whenever a rebel shoots a stormtrooper's guts out. Don't know what it sounds like? Here's a lovely medly running from 1953-1999 by Pablo Hidalgo:



The scream was first recorded in the 1951 Warner Bros movie Distant Drums, recorded as six short, terrorised screams that stayed in the Warner Bros sound effects library. The scream got its name when Private Wilhelm was shot in the leg in The Charge at Feather River. It featured regularly in Warner Bros action movies for the next twenty years until effects master Ben Burtt picked it up for The Scarlet Blade and later for the first three Star Wars movies.

You can also hear old Wilhelm in major action films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Batman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kill Bill and Lord of the Rings; it's used in all the Star Wars video games too. The scream is sort of like a lovechild and a running joke for Hollywood sound people - it's been in around 90 movies since the new century!

If you're intrigued, the complete list of Wilhelm Scream movies is recorded in Hollywood Lost and Found. Even better, check out the amazing "Screen Worlds" exhibit at ACMI - you can giggle anonymously in their private Wilhelm tribute booth and see a whole heap of other awesome filmy stuff.