It’s a pretty common trope, especially in older movies. A woman sees something frightening and…just screams. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie where a man screamed.)
But in real life, does this really happen? Have you ever been present when someone screamed in fright?
I can’t picture myself screaming under any circumstances. To be honest, if I tried to scream right now I’m pretty certain that I could not do it.
And if I ever did react to something legitimately frightening by screaming I’d feel sort of ridiculous (and not only because I’m a guy, it just seems a silly reaction).
Yeah, I have. I mean it’s more like it was cut-off mid-scream. I once screamed when my husband came into the bathroom when I thought I was home alone. I’ve woken up screaming. But like I said, it gets cut off pretty sharply as soon as I realize there’s no danger.
And yes, it does feel ridiculous. I’d like to imagine my default response to danger would be a battle cry.
The only time I can remember screaming out of fright as an adult (18), I was asleep!
I was sleeping and dreaming that I was being chased by a ghost. My dog jumped on my bed in real life and I screamed out loud thinking the ghost got me. I woke myself up and was like “hmm did I just scream out loud?” And went back to sleep. But then I heard my parents call from the other room asking if I was all right. I scared the shit out of them.
One time pre-COVID I was in the office, working with several other coworkers in a small room on a particularly intense project. One coworker (let’s call her “Ashley”) was sitting to my immediate left. Another coworker (let’s call her “Beth”) had brought her cat to the office earlier and I saw it roaming around, so when I felt a strange furry sensation rub across my legs while I was coding, I was a bit taken aback, but not terribly surprised because the possibility of the cat being present loomed in the back of my mind.
Several seconds later, I hear a loud “AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” pierce the air, and nearly made me jump out of my seat.
Ashley did NOT know that Beth brought the cat to the office.
Ashley recovered fairly quickly though, and all was forgiven.
Personally, I’ve never screamed out of fear in my adult life, because I’ve trained myself to be so emotionless that I couldn’t scream even if my life depended on it. Can’t really recall if I ever screamed when I was a child either.
Not so much of a long drawn out scream as it was something more like what a dog sounds like when you accidentally step on it, but my cashier let out quite a loud yelp when she turned around to find a gun pointed at her and someone telling her to empty the registers.
The only time I ever heard a woman do a full blown Hollywood scream in real life was 1988. I was working in a four-story condo in an upscale area of San Diego (Banker’s Hill). Each floor had eight apartments, all facing inward to an inner courtyard. I was on the fourth floor. Owner had left me there to do some work on his piano, late one October afternoon. About 5pm I suddenly heard a woman screaming, an extended scream of utter terror, sounded like Fay Wray in “King Kong.” Two yells, then quiet. The sound was from the entry door facing the common area. I went out, looked around, down into courtyard, didn’t see or hear anything.
Didn’t really know what to do so I just went back inside to my work. About an hour later I’d finished, got in the elevator, door opened into the courtyard where I saw at least a dozen police standing around talking. I stopped, made eye contact, nobody approached me so I left for home.
The next day I called my client to ask what had happened. He said “Oh that’s right, I forgot you were there!” and told me about it.
One of the ground floor units was for sale, a female realtor had an appointment to show the place to a guy she’d only talked to on the phone. They met outside, went in to the inner court, she unlocked the apartment and walked in ahead of him.
Next thing she knew there was a cord around her neck and she was being strangled. She kicked and struggled, managed to make the two of them fall down together. He lost his grip on the cord (whatever it was), and that was when she screamed for her life. It worked. The guy took off, she called the police and laid there waiting for them with a broken ankle. So the scream I heard was exactly what it had sounded like.
Some weeks later I learned that the attacker had been considerate (stupid) enough to give her his real name and phone number when making the appointment, and the police easily located and arrested him.
That’s quite the story, thanks for sharing. Did you ever find out what the attacker’s motive was? Seems out of character for him to strangle his realtor when they ostensibly never knew each other before their appointment. Or perhaps he had a mental illness?
I scream on occasion - typically either because I see a mouse running across the floor or because I’m suddenly plunged into pitch darkness. Both of those things will cause me to scream involuntarily. Yes, I am the cliche woman who screams at a mouse - it’s not that I’m terrified of them; it’s just some primitive thing in my brain that reacts with a scream to the sudden appearance of a small furry animal.
Many years ago, I lived in a cute little lanai apartment in Hawaii and had great neighbors. I was single, young and cute at that time. I also sleep unclothed.
So, one night, I woke up and wanted to get a drink of water. I grabbed my robe from the end of the bed and went to the kitchen. Suddenly, I felt something scratching my left boob and pulled my robe open to find a HUGE water beetle (monster cockroach that can fly) hanging on the inside of my robe and reaching out to do whatever, I didn’t know.
I started screaming like Fay Ray and ripped my robe off and threw it on the floor. Then I stomped on the lump in my robe and the damn thing just weezed. I screamed some more while running around and kicking at my robe.
Suddenly, my neighbor ran over holding his baseball bat and pounded on my door. I threw the door open (totally naked) and hysterically screamed about it being in there while pointing at the kitchen and running out the front door. Heroic neighbor ran into the kitchen with baseball bat held high, then the roach FLEW at him and he ran out the front door screaming almost as loudly as me.
Happily, the neighbor on the other side came over with a big towel and saved the day.
I have exclaimed in surprise, but I don’t think it would be considered a scream. More of a “Wagh!” or as Wile E Coyote might have on a sign “Yipe!”
I have heard other people cry out in pain, and a couple of years ago my Mother tripped, fell, and injured herself, and as she did so let out an exclamation. None of them were a high-pitched horror movie type scream, though.
Years ago, when I was living in NYC, I was awakened late one night by a woman screaming from across the small courtyard. Her screams were punctuated by cursing and “Get the hell off me!”. I immediately called 911, as did several neighbors. The screaming stopped, and in very little time the courtyard was filled with cops, searching all the fire escapes and alleys. I don’t think they ever found the guy.
