Halloween III: Season of the Witch

A lot of foley artists and sound designers in the ’70s and ’80s seemed to have this fetishistic preoccupation with footsteps. In any scene where people were on the move, the soundtrack focused on footfalls to the exclusion of all else. The foley was produced with what I’m guessing was a maximum of three different kinds of shoes (loafers, heels, tennis shoes) on two different surfaces (asphalt, linoleum-tiled concrete). Despite being thoroughly unconvincing, it dominated the audio mix every chance it got.

The closest parallel I can draw is the outrageously unnatural sound effects in low budget kung fu movies from the same era. Those, of course, were a clear stylistic choice meant to echo the equally outrageous visuals. Maybe lavishing the same kind of aural attention on something as mundane as walking was intended to make a statement. Maybe there was a collective of foley artists who recognized their craft as the final frontier of Dada.

Anyway, films that were heavy on foot chases in quiet, desolate locations were goldmines for these footfall fetishists, and Halloween III was one such film. And there is nothing else to say about it. It is a pile of shit.