Hollywood's squeezed a lot of mileage out of the Wilhelm Scream, the classic "wailing-guy" sound effect. It's become cinema's ultimate audio cliche. Originally created for a death-by-alligator scene in the 1951 movie Distant Drums, it was resurrected by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt who put it to good use in dozens of movies. Think melting Nazis, cliff-diving stormtroopers, Howard the Duck, and so forth. (Yes, even Batman Returns got in on the action.) Tarantino, Jackson and others followed suit, leading to widespread use/abuse of the effect throughout the industry.
Fortunately, some kind soul in the videoverse has compiled a hilarious montage of known occurences of the scream. Recognize it?
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