I still like comics with speech-balloons containing “Agh!” etc., combined with written-on sound-effects (Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat) and the right facial expressions and bucking, heaving body-attitudes—multiple, almost-simultaneous machine-gun killings always preferred.
I’m fussy, and there are plenty that I dislike: they must be wordless single sounds—no last speeches please! “Oh!” or “No!” etc are not favourites, for example; nor is the letter r as in Argh Urgh etc., but the following would be good (some are inventions of my own that I have never seen):
“Ah!”
“Ahh!”
“Aaah”
“Agh!”
“Aaagh!”
“Anh”
“Aanh!”
“Aahhnn”
“Uh!”
“Ugh”
“Uhh!”
“Unh!”
“Uhhnn!”
On live soundtracks, it’s the sound of the gunfire that I appreciate: never silencers! A single clattering, jolting, belt-fed Vickers machine-gun is ideal, every shot individually audible and sounding like a nearby clap of thunder, with enough echo to emphasise the malevolence of the bullet-spitting barrel—and especially, as the camera switches to the girls on the receiving end, a chorus of ricochets that almost drowns out the human cries. (Meanwhile, the torrent of spent bullet-cases spilling onto the ground in a growing heap is neatly juxtaposed with the spinning, dropping bodies piling up out on the battlefield—with the ever-fresh supply of sharp, shiny bullets in the belt, being carefully fed into the gun by the delicate hands of an earnest accomplice, answering to the fresh waves of soldierettes running on to the scene, taking the place of their comrades pathetically strewn about, quite at peace as the bullets fly above them and the vicious action continues. Yes, off-topic, sorry; got carried away…)
Update of previous: I’ve just come across some very fetching death-sighs uttered by some of the actresses in Olaf Winter’s Pontus Media production Tribal War 14: Barbarians! This presents a frontal attack with mass slaughter by arrows, so the sound at first seems a problem, since sound effects from the nearly-silent arrows will be subdued. However, everything possible is done to render the soundscape vivid. The vocals are everything, and a huge effort has gone into making them dramatic—the favourites I mentioned are a lovely blonde with ponytail, who goes down with a brief but delicious “Uh-unnh!” at 1'08" and a copper-redhead who utters a beguilingly brief “Oh-hh” at 1'35" as she sinks to the ground. They’re seen and heard again, multiple times—yet each time differently—as the Amazon army is here cleverly cloned to make up the numbers needed for an effective attack…successfully repulsed in a welter of kills! Bodies don’t just disappear, either, but accumulate convincingly, lying strewn around with much pathos as the fresh waves run in for more of the same—and afterwards too as the camera wanders and lingers, while the victorious defenders have their wicked way finishing off any last flicker of life in the bodypiles. Bravo, Herr Winter!
