That article kind of confuses a few different kinds of sounds. Just because there's a staccato ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9v-UpM9flY ) sound happening doesn't mean it serves the same function. The loud meme they're talking about is a loud horn meant to overwhelm. The sound at 0:40 in the video is clearly a meant to create suspense: it's an earlier trope in movies and other media: scary staccato strings backed by all sorts of random sybilant string sounds that create a nervous atmosphere (like starting at 2:52 here https://youtu.be/_nVkHXTeiOg?list=PL7F72E09D4C28FECD&t=172 ). My favourite use of these is in the Dead Space soundtrack. Note that in the clip I linked you first get the sybilant strings building nervous tension, then some overwhelming loud bangs, but then at 3:50 you get slower sounds which are not meant to overwhelm, just maintain a scary atmosphere. You get both of those uses of sound in one passage.

BTW, here's what the timbre of the "BRAM" sound is based on for the most part: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32886196

I recommend people watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) to test that. I was impressed with the sound in general and the fact that I felt no need to turn on subtitles. But in particular there's a least one scene where characters are whispering to each other. I didn't need subtitles or to adjust the audio, every word was perfectly intelligble.

It's also a clear sign that it's not my ears, it's not my setup, it's the sound mix of modern movies.

Dune sounds great on my 2.0 system at home (low mid-range receiver and ~$200 yamaha floorstanders). Sicario too, from the same director, I generally think he does a fantastic job with audio mixes.

Strange that article doesn’t talk about the tripod noise from the ‘05 War of the Worlds.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jzY099ihULs

The '05 tripod noises are meant to sound like V1 bomb scare-sounds, which is originally made to sound like mythical Horns of Jericho:

https://www.factmag.com/2016/10/09/sound-fear-room40-boss-la...

Listen to the V1 bomb sound in the clip on that page - there's no surprise they're being referred to in following works of fiction.

V1 sound comes from the pulse jet engine that runs with a "batch mode" cycle, ie there's a valve at the front that opens and closes at something like 30 Hz.

The Stuka had the scare sound siren and it had a much higher pitch.

Huh, that’s neat. You can definitely see the influence of that sound then following on into Inception which seemed to really popularise it.

It's always been around. In fact it's been very popular in games like the Modern Warfare series, which have major popular appeal.

Those were definitely not a big deal (compared to now) and were a very different game back in ‘05