I must admit, before I saw this montage I didn’t know about the Wilhelm Scream. I was actually naïve enough to think that human sounds were just made during a movie shoot.
But I’ve been duped. Movie producers have been recycling this particular sound effect since 1951. It’s used in action epics like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, cartoons like The Family Guy and Toy Story, and it even gets a run in Howard The Duck.
The scream does get a little repetitive, but I was amazed by the variety of ways it was used. I’m definitely going to listen out for it in future!