The History Behind the Iconic ‘Wilhelm Scream’ EffectThe music and audio channel Mixed Signals looked at the history behind the famous “Wilhelm Scream”, a sound effect widely used to portray abject fear. Because the sound effect didn’t really have a name or a use for a long time, it sat in the archives for decades. However, a couple of film students who went to work for George Lucas decided to insert it into the first Star Wars movie. Over the years the two started sneaking it into tons of films as an Easter egg for each other, casually referring to the sound as the Wilhelm scream named after Private Wilhelm. Mixed Signals came back with more finely tuned information about the very first utterance of the Wilhelm Scream.