Halloween | 1978
- Locations |
- Los Angeles, California
- DIRECTOR |
- John Carpenter
Discover the filming locations for the original 1978 Halloween around Hollywood, Pasadena and Sierra Madre, including the famous 'Michael Myers hedge'.
John Carpenter’s 1978 original, and best, stalk’n’slash, with more scary stalking than gratuitous slashing, is set in the fictitious Illinois suburb of ‘Haddonfield’ (producer Debra Hill grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey), the movie blends locales in Hollywood and South Pasadena into one neighbourhood.
The house of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is 1103 Fairview Avenue at Oxley Street in South Pasadena. As ever, I have to stress that these locations are private homes so please, take a photo but don't do anything to disturb residents. We locationeers are better than that.
It's on the corner here that Laurie waits, with a pumpkin in her lap, watching th kids in their Halloween costumes as she waits for Annie (Nancy Loomis).
‘Haddonfield High’ is South Pasadena High School, Lyndon Street at Fremont Avenue. The school has found screen fame again, with its gym appearing Greta Gerwig's acclaimed Lady Bird.
As Laurie, Annie and Lynda (PJ Soles) share a crafty cigarette as they walk home from school, dropping off Lynda at her house, 1027 Montrose Avenue in South Pasadena.
It's here that Laurie gets her first glimpse of Michael Myers, half hidden by a hedge. This must be the only hedge marked on Google Maps ('Halloween Hedge') and it's great to report it's been kept neat and trimmed exactly as it was back in 1978.
Yes, this is the required place for all fans to stop for that all-important photo op and, yes, of course I did.
'Haddonfield Cemetery' is Pioneer Cemetery, 553 East Sierra Madre Boulevard, in Sierra Madre, a few miles east of Pasadena.
This was previously seen as 'Barlow Creek Cemetery', where George (Bruce Dern) discovers the graves of the Shoebridge family in 1976's Family Plot, the final film of Alfred Hitchcock.
‘Nichol’s Hardware Store’, robbed by Michael Myers (“just some rope, a knife and a Halloween mask... must be kids”) was The Frame Shop. The property has been through various incarnations over the years but currently houses Indian restaurant Radhika, 966 Mission Street at Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena.
And on the opposite corner of Meridian is Century House, 1000 Mission Street, the now-bright-and-renovated Myers house. If the angle of the house looks a little odd, that’s because the entire building was moved from its former position around the corner at 707 Meridian Avenue.
I visited the spot where it used to stand on Meridian but since several houses here were demolished, there's nothing recognisable left to see.
The Doyle and Wallace houses can be found in Hollywood, on the 1500 block of Orange Grove Avenue between Sunset Boulevard and Selma Avenue. The Doyle house, where Laurie babysits, is 1530 Orange Grove Avenue, and the Wallace house, scene of the murders, is across the street at 1537 Orange Grove Avenue.
• Many thanks to Peter Paulsen for help with this section.
