| “ | The trick to the Screamer was that if he saw you, you had a moment to kill him before he ran away. Once the Screamer got away from the Survivors to a hiding place, he would emit a loud howling scream that would cause a huge mob of zombies to attack the Survivors. | „ |
| ~ A Developer Commentary on the Screamer. |
The Screamer was a supporting antagonist in the 2008 zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead.
It was intended to be a sixth Special Infected, who apparently had a similar behaviour to the Roaming Witches and the Fallen Survivors from the second game, that being that he would lurk in random places and, if aggravated for long enough, would run off in a panic and let out a bloodcurdling scream that would alert a horde once it successfully got to safety, seemingly for an indefinite amount of times. However, he could not directly attack the survivors.
Early into development, the Screamer proved to be too difficult for beta testers to successfully kill, as he would blend into the horde that he just summoned or be too cryptic for them to figure out how he worked. Instead, the horde-summoning attack was given to the Boomer, who at the time could just explode and temporarily cover the survivor's vision.
Like the Hunter, who reuses his screams, he is voiced by Mike Patton.
Information[]
The Screamer would've been one of the Special Infected that was the less affected by the Green Flu, as he still looks like a regular Infected without any signs of notable mutation, unlike the Smoker or the Boomer. To make up for this, the Screamer would've been easily identifiable by his straitjacket and long hair.
To help the Survivors know that a Screamer was nearby, he would've had the quirk of chuckling and maniacally cackle from time to time. It's likely that this trait was what inspired the Jockey from the second game.
Trivia[]
- The Screamer summoning a horde can be heard in the very first trailer for the videogame.
- In the Team Fortress 2 Community Game mode Super Zombie Fortress, The Screamer is among the Special Infected in the from of a zombie Medic in a Straitjacket.