There’s nothing so chilling in a movie when someone utters that type of blood-curdling scream that just freezes your innards and causes you to stop dead in your tracks. Many movies have this type of scream whether they’re of the horror genre or not, and nearly all of these screams have the ability to make people sit up and pay attention. Horror movies however are one of the best known sources of such screams because the whole premise is designed to make one of the cast scream in such a way that death or some equally horrible fate seems imminent only moments later.
Here are some of the best screams in cinema.
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers-Donald Sutherland
Just when you think everything is okay, that everything is safe, you realize the horrible truth that nothing is as it seems and that you’ve just walked into the virtual nightmare you’ve been trying to avoid for the whole movie. The final survivor of the invasion in this classic film thought that the man she was running towards was the same man she could trust, too bad she didn’t think twice.
4. The Shining-Shelly Duvall
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. As a writer this kind of strikes a little too close to home since if we want to eat we’ve got to work. But there’s a big difference between working at home and working in a resort high up in the mountains well away from civilization. Wendy had a right to be terrified since Jack was beyond the point of being unhinged.
3. The Wilhelm Scream
You’ve likely heard this scream in so many different venues that you recognize it each and every time it plays. The Wilhelm scream has popped up in TV, movies, video games, and even in social media from time to time. It’s such a simple sound but it’s also a very catchy scream, weird as that might sound. Some things just become instant classics for the strangest reasons.
2. The Wizard of Oz-Wicked Witch
Who would have ever thought that fire-flinging witch would be hydrophobic? Plus, think of how hard she was to fight. You would almost think that Glinda would have known her weakness and be able to tell Dorothy or any other person for that matter how to take her out. If nothing else a mild drizzle could have done the trick, unless it never rains in Oz.
1. Scream-Casey’s Mom
I almost went with Drew Barrymore for this entry but her screams were more out of fright than true horror. When Casey’s poor mother, who is already freaked out and on the verge of collapse, walks out the front door and sees her daughter strung up from a tree it’s more than she can handle and that scream is just raw and unabated as she lets loose. It’s stunning to think though that the parents could be so self-involved that they’d miss two bodies sprawled out on the lawn as they made their way up to the front porch.
Those raw, nerve-rending screams are hard to forget.
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