|
|
History
The history of this popular (yet impossible to find) sound effect began in the 1990s as sound effects libraries where coming out on CDs. As many sound editors began having the same sound libraries, they started using the same sounds; this is why sometimes we can hear the same sounds over and over again in movies and shows. Many famous examples of repeated sound effects include, the "Wilhelm Scream", the "Goofy Holler" and the "Castle Thunder".
But, a new sound effect began to appear; a long loud scream similar sounding to a "TIE Fighter" from Star Wars.
Many people first remember the sound effect when it was played at the end of the theme song to "Ahh! Real Monsters!", a cartoon show on the kid channel Nickelodeon. Video gamers also remember first hearing it in the video game, "Star Wars: Dark Forces" for DOS. And without warning, it began to appear in many different movies, such as "Basketball Diaries", "Face/Off", "Broken Arrow", "Serial Mom", "The Last Action Hero", and "Last of the Finest". Many sound effect enthusiasts stood up and took notice at this new scream that just started to appear at random. But, where did it originally came from? Who made it?
Thanks to hours upon hours of research and constant searching, I found the answer.
After contacting famous sound effects historian Steve Lee, owner of HollywoodLostandFound.com (absolutely great website!), he told me that the scream sounded familiar to a scream heard in the movie, "The Princess Bride", where the main character, Wesley, receives "The Ultimate Suffering". I quickly rented the DVD, and lo and behold, the scream was there, however heavily edited (played backwards and slower). This brought the sound effect's first appearance to 1987.
After more research, I read on IMDB's forums that it appeared in a movie from 1980 called, "The Ninth Configuration", during the bar fight scene near the end of the movie. I watched a clip of the scene on YouTube and there it was! This movie marks the earliest appearance of the scream. Thanks to IMDB, I found out that one man by the name of Lon Bender worked on both The Ninth Configuration and The Princess Bride! He had to have created the sound effect! Some research on Google led me to Soundelux, a company he co-founded with several other Hollywood sound designers. Soundelux is owned by Ascent Media, which owns the Hollywood Edge Sound Libraries!
Aha! We finally got somewhere! After looking for hours, I found in their most popular library, "The Premiere Edition". The full sound effect's name is called, "Screams 3; Man, Gut-wrenching Scream And Fall Into Distance". After contacting someone who I knew had the library, he sent me a copy of the sound effect and as they say, the rest is history!
|
