There's nothing new about screaming — early man's encounters with a dinosaurs (and sharp rocks) undoubtedly kept this form of communication effective and alive to this day, where it mutates, thrives and, almost always, gets its point across.

In honor of this week's Taste of Chaos tour, where the throats and ears are put to the test, we've compiled a totally unscientific list of our top five favorite screams.

1.) Edvard Munch's "The Scream": Only the Norwegians know true existential angst, and this is probably the most famous silent scream of all. If you look closely, however, it appears the screamer probably is upset because he dropped his library book over the guard rail.

1a.) Macauley Culkin's "Home Alone" pose is an obvious homage, and hardly original, so we'll lump the two together.

2.) Roger Daltrey: The Who frontman is our choice to represent all rock 'n' roll screamers, and his "Won't Get Fooled Again" shriek is among the best.

2a.) James Brown's short and sweet signature screech earns its own honorable mention.

3) The Wilhelm Scream: You may not know it, but you've heard it — this is a sound editor's inside joke, first used in the 1951 film "Distant Drums" when a guy named Wilhelm was shot with an arrow. The same scream (and it's not that impressive, honestly) has been used in "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" flicks, as well as dozens of others. A complete list can be found on The Wilhelm Scream's Wikipedia entry; YouTube has a couple of compilation shorts that are worth checking out.

4) Newt: In space no one can hear you scream, or so the marketing folk decided when promoting 1979's "Alien." Fortunately, nobody told Newt, the little stowaway who showed up seven years later in "Aliens." When she let loose, both aliens and predators should have given up.

5) Scream Queens: Pick your favorite, defined as an attractive damsel in distress. They run the gamut from Fay Wray's vocal horror at being King Kong's playmate to Jamie Lee Curtis' fear at the more realistic terror caused by babysitting. The list is long and illustrious.