That's an interesting find, in an odd sort of way.

BufSlyAngel | January 12, 03:58 CET

nixygirl, you need to start checking your posts a little more closely. I've added a period/full stop after the link title, and corrected spelling and punctuation. Thems the rules of the site. Thanks.

But, yes indeed, that is quite a find.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 12, 04:36 CET

eeeekkk...sorry.
yes punctutation and spelling are not my strongest point.
will try harder.

nixygirl | January 12, 04:43 CET

thats very funny...
it sounds to me like the sound people are just going out of their way to use that...
kind of like a good luck charm
or some weird sound-man tradition...
very funny.

embers | January 12, 04:52 CET

not added on there...is the fact that it was also used in Shaun of the Dead, by the armless zombie that Nick Frost hit in the head with an ashtray...

nixygirl | January 12, 05:01 CET

Pretty funny. There is a 2001 "On the Media" story about the scream -- with sound clips from several on the movies it's been in -- here. (This also reminds me of stories I once heard about a particular laugh in the laugh track from the "I Love Lucy" series that keeps re-surfacing in contemporary comedy laugh tracks.) So, my guess is that its inclusion in Angel was a kind of sound track hommage, like so many other references to Hollywood movies in Joss's work. I'll have to go back and listen to that episode of Angel again.

Oops -- I was typing the "sound track hommage" idea while embers was saying essentially the same thing.

[ edited by palehorse on 2005-01-12 03:04 ]

palehorse | January 12, 05:02 CET

Yes, how odd and obscure. Exactly the kind of stuff I love!

Willowy | January 12, 05:06 CET

Ben Burtt, a modern sound effects pioneer, who is mentioned in the top quote is responsible for a large number sound effects living on year after year,and most are his creation. The Lucasfilm effects library is a valuable resource for alot of post suites.

herb | January 12, 05:15 CET

yea I love that kinda stuff too Willowy...and THANX for the sound clip palehorse!!

nixygirl | January 12, 05:20 CET

If you just want the scream itself go to www.nerf-herders-anonymous.net/WilhelmScream.html

[ edited by adventures in spelling on 2005-01-12 03:55 ]

adventures in spelling | January 12, 05:54 CET

For no real reason I feel compelled to add: Darla's scream in 'The Harvest' (when Wilow tosses Holy Water on her) sounds exactly like one of the screams in TimeSplitters 2 when a female character gets set on fire.

Gouki | January 12, 06:02 CET

The scream can be found 01:12:25 into Animatrix, as a man is crushed by a sentinel in the background. It can also be found at 01:24:40 into Star Wars: A New Hope.

In Angel, it is found at 14:49 into the episode mentioned on the site, as Connor throws a knife into a man's arm.

And I checked The Harvest, and the scream sounds entirely different to me.

EDIT:

Okay, further to my above comments, I've put together a zip file which contains four short movie clips (none of which are more than a few seconds long). One of the movie clips is of the scream in the Animatrix, one is of it Star Wars, one is of it in Angel, and the fourth is the scream from "The Harvest" that Gouki mentioned (which is different).

The videos are encoded in the latest version of the popular DivX codec (http://www.divx.com). If you ever download any kind of video online, you should already have it. If not, there's a free version available for download from the above link.

The file is in zip format, and can be opened using WinZIP or any similar program. It's is 1.57MB in size, and shouldn't take more than a minute to download if you have broadband.

Finally, before anyone says it, these clips are not in breach of any copyright law. Allowances are made for "fair use", and showing a few seconds of the aforementioned films is not in breach of anything. Plus, you know, I'm the one hosting it. If anyone wants to sue anyone, it'll be me :). I also own all the DVDs of the TV shows/films involved, and have simply ripped them to my computer for easy access (really helpful when Whedonesque refers to a specific moment in a specific episode, yet I still can't find that door handle and Room Number that was supposed to be from the last episode of Angel).

Hope someone finds this interesting, but to be honest I'm just bored and it didn't take long to do.

You can download the file here: http://gonnas.nerdtundra.com/scream.zip

[ edited by Gonnas on 2005-01-12 05:14 ]

Gonnas | January 12, 06:44 CET

Thanks Gonnas, I'm having trouble with my divx at the moment but as soon as I fix it I will check out your file. Very nice of you to do that for us all!

buffbuff | January 12, 10:42 CET

That scream Darla makes, as Gouki mentioned, is a very, very commonly used one. I actually have it on a SFX CD. If you listen closely, you can hear it used in Firefly, as well.

Ocular | January 12, 18:12 CET

Those screams have also been used in countless video games as well.

DarenG | January 12, 19:30 CET