The Waterphone: Hollywood’s spookiest sound effect

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For nearly half a century, one eerie sound has been showing up again and again in movies and TV shows. It’s typically used when something spooky or mysterious happens—and it can be heard in Poltergeist, The Matrix, Let the Right One In, and countless episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. So where did this strange sound come from, and how did it spread across Hollywood? This story comes from the podcast Every Little Thing. We’ve been nominated for 2 Webby Awards! Vote for Twenty Thousand Hertz in the Business and Television & Film categories. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Click here to leave us a voice message about your experiences with movie dialogue. Subscribe to Every Little Thing in Spotify. Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp online therapy at betterhelp.com/20k. Visit zocdoc.com/20k to download the Zocdoc app and sign up for free. Get one month free of Headspace at headspace.com/20k. Find coupon codes on over 30,000 sites with Honey. Sign up for free at joinhoney.com/20k. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/liquidterror Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:04.0	When it comes to sound effects and movies and television, there's one category that I spend a lot of time thinking about.
0:13.0	It's what I like to call cerebral sound design. Unlike traditional sound effects that may be tied to something you see on screen,
0:20.0	cerebral sound effects help to
0:21.4	nudge you emotionally. They're kind of like a gray area between sound effects and music.
0:26.7	For example, if you're watching a movie trailer and you hear a booge, then you know something
0:34.0	epic is about to happen.
0:35.6	In a world of generic CGI blockbusters,
0:39.3	one trailer sound gets butts into seats every time.
0:50.3	Now, this sort of sound design is really obvious in trailers, but there's one genre that
0:56.1	wouldn't be the same without these types of sounds. Reality TV. In reality shows, they use
1:02.1	these sounds all the time to add some drama to the dialogue. For instance, there's a harsh
1:07.2	sounding bode symbol.
1:12.6	Here it is on Survivor. Dreams.
1:13.6	You have the immunity necklace.
1:16.6	It is yours to keep
1:17.6	or to assign to anyone else you want.
1:20.6	There's also the reverse symbol.
1:23.6	And lots of different types of hits.
1:25.6	Here's a clip from the show and lots of different types of hits.
1:32.3	Here's a clip from the show Love is Blind. In it, you'll hear a reverse symbol going into a low hit,
1:35.3	followed by a few thumping heartbeats.
	...

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