Halloween Movie Trivia-1978
Attention Baby Boomers, where were you when Halloween came out in October 1978?
I was 15 years old and dating my first husband. I remember sitting in the theater holding on tightly to his arm.
Halloween is one of those movies that just knew how to scare you. It didn't take oodles of blood, gore and blood-curdling screams to scare you. It took you behind the mask of a pyschotic killer and let you see the world through his eyes and hear his breath. That's creepy stuff.
With Halloween rapidly approaching, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the trivia about the movie that you probably were not aware of it. I think you'll be impressed.
Interesting Halloween Movie Trivia
- Halloween takes place in a fictional suburban town called Haddonfield, Illinois which was named after Haddonfield, New Jersey wehre the co-producer Debra Hill grew up.
- The original screenplay draft was called "The Babysitter Murders"
- The budget for the movie was a whopping $320,000
- The movie was filmed in 21 days in the April 1978 in South Pasadena, California and at a cemetery in Sierra Madre, California
- Fake fall leaves were used and re-used in the scenes and pumpkins were hard to find.
- Local children dressed up as the trick-or-treaters used in the film
- Most of the street names were taken from Director John Carpenter's hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
- Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis' character, was the name of one of John Carpenter's old girlfriends
- Michael Myers was the name of an English producer that had worked with co-producer Irwin Yablans in various European film festivals
- Two characters, Tommy Doyle and Dr. Loomis, were taken from characters in Alfred Hitchcock movies. Lt. Det. Thomas J. Doyle was a character in Rear Window and Sam Loomis was a character in Psycho.
- Sheriff Leigh Brackett was named afted a film screenwriter by the same name.
- The highest paid actor in the movie was Donald Pleasence who was paid $20,000 for five days work playing Dr. Loomis. Jamie Lee Curtis was paid $8,000 for her role as Laurie Strode. Nick Castle was paid $25 a day for his role as Michael Myers.
- Michael Myers' character was billed in the credits as "The Shape".
- Due to the low budget, not much was available for props or costumes. Michael Myers mask is actually a Captain Kirk mask that had the eye holes enlarged and was painted a bluish white that cost $1.98
- Jamie Lee Curtis' wardrobe for the movie cost under $100 at J.C. Penney.
- Jamie Lee Curtis was only 19 when she made this film.
- Halloween debuted on October 25, 1978
- Halloween grossed a phenomenal $47 million at the U.S. box office and another $8 million internationally
- in 2007, AOL's 31 days of Horror countdown named Halloween the greatest horror movie
Great Links
- Halloween (1978)
Directed by John Carpenter. With Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes. A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets. Visit IMDb for Photos, Showtimes, C - Halloween (1978) - Movie Info - Yahoo! Movies
Halloween (1978): Perhaps the most influential and successful independent film ever made, HALLOWEEN is the movie that put director John Carpenter on the map as a viable filmmaker. An exercise in simple, pure horror, HALLOWEEN takes us into the world - Jamie Lee Curtis - Wikipedia
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