The Wilhelm Scream Heard All Around Hollywood

After hearing it in various scenes over and over, the Wilhelm Scream becomes hilarious. It’s an infamous scream born out of necessity back at the beginning of filmmaking and it’s still being used today.

Throughout the history of filmmaking, there have been plenty of shortcuts directors have taken to cut costs and speed things up a bit. Stock characters are that sort of gimmick. They are easily identifiable because they are in one movie after another. That makes them easier to write into a story to keep the writing moving along.

There are even sets that have been used in various films. Oddly enough, Friends and Full House shared the same set, although it was hidden very well. Gilmore Girls and The Waltons are another odd combination to have shared the same set. It happens more times than you can imagine, and that’s Hollywood for you. All they ever promise is to bring you entertainment. They never said how or that they wouldn’t recycle old stuff.

Sound effects get recycled too. I’m sure you’ve heard about the laugh tracks that some television shows insert into their filming quite obnoxiously, I might add. They even pat stupid jokes on the back with a laugh track. Sometimes, it’s too much laughing, like some kid in the sound room is just pushing the button to have something to do.

Think of all the sound effects that you can obtain online. Thunder, gunfire, and car crashes in various modes. Haunted laughing, crowds applauding, and crashing waves can be downloaded from hundreds of sites. Of course, there’s a scream track. There are probably millions.

But the one that’s the most famous is the Wilhelm Scream because it has been used the most. From the first time Sheb Wooley recorded it back in the 1940s, it has been a very popular goto scream that’s still being used today. You won’t believe all the movies.