13 things you probably didn’t know about ‘Halloween’

As referenced by a character in the 2018 sequel, “Halloween” was initially going to be titled “The Babysitter Murders.”

As the director, John Carpenter often gets all the credit for “Halloween,” but he didn’t do it alone.

Debra Hill, a producer on the film and Carpenter’s then-girlfriend, actually cowrote the film with him.

She also helped write some of the sequel films, including “Halloween II” (1981).

Once the movie was a go, executive producer Irwin Yablans wanted to get it out before its titular holiday in 1978.

The writers turned the screenplay around in about two weeks and the filming took just 22 days. 

Yablans secured $300,000 for the horror film, which was financed in part by Syrian-American film producer and director Moustapha Akkad.

Because of the tight budget, they couldn’t hire major stars, and Carpenter himself put together the now-iconic score to save money.

Today, “Halloween” is a multimillion-dollar franchise. 

Haddonfield was inspired by and named after Hill’s hometown in New Jersey. But the film takes place in Illinois. 

The actual house used in the film is in South Pasadena, California.

Originally built at 709 Meridian Avenue, the structure was set to be demolished in the late 1980s but was saved, designated as a landmark by the city, and relocated to its current address, 1000 Mission Street.

For those who can’t make it to the West Coast, there’s also a replica of the Myers’ house in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

If you look closely at the hand holding the knife on the original “Halloween” movie poster, you can make out an open-mouthed face in the knuckles.

When the poster was put up for auction in 2016, artist Bob Gleason included a letter that explained how the detail came about.

“While painting the hand my thought was to have dramatic lights and dark shapes to match the strobe stabbing effects of the pumpkin,” he wrote. “I did not consciously know I was infusing in the back of the hand a screaming monster with worms coming out of his mouth, eye and nose.”

The letter continued, “This kind of freaks me out. I couldn’t have done it better if I had tried to do that. What dark nightmares lurk in my psyche?”

After 29 years of (mostly) wearing a mask and silently stalking his victims, Michael Myers had his first line in “Halloween” (2007).

He spoke next in “Halloween II” (2009).

Jamie Lee Curtis was cast in the original “Halloween” because Hill thought having the daughter of actor Janet Leigh would help the low-budget film at the box office.

“I knew casting Jamie Lee would be great publicity for the film because her mother was in ‘Psycho.’ At least I knew she had the genes to scream well,” Hill told Cinefantastique News in 1998.

Her character’s name, Laurie Strode, was also based on one of Carpenter’s ex-girlfriends.

“Halloween Ends” is the 13th entry in the franchise.

So far, more than 16 actors have appeared on screen as villain Michael Myers (if you count all the times crew members filled in).

There were six people who played Michael in the first film alone, including Hill.

If Carpenter had gotten his way, Michael Myers’ story would’ve ended a long time ago.

In a 2014 interview with Deadline, he said that he didn’t return to direct the sequels because he “didn’t think there was any more story” beyond the first film.

“All of my ideas were for the first ‘Halloween’ — there shouldn’t have been any more,” he said. “I’m flattered by the fact that people want to remake them, but they remake everything these days, so it doesn’t make me that special.”

Carpenter ended up writing the first sequel, “Halloween II,” and he’s an executive producer on the others. 

“Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” (1982) stands out because there’s no Michael, Laurie, Loomis, or Haddonfield. 

Carpenter and Hill thought that it would be interesting if there were an anthology of horror films where the common thread was that they all occurred on Halloween night.

But “Season of the Witch” didn’t live up to the box-office numbers of the prior two films, so Michael Myers made his return six years later.

Although hardcore “Halloween” fans would likely say that the modified William Shatner mask used in the original film is the only one that matters, the truth is there have been close to a dozen different iterations of the design.

For example, in “Halloween 5,” Myers briefly drove a car and wore a completely different mask that has come to be known as “The Brute.”

This story was originally published on October 23, 2021, and most recently updated on October 31, 2024.