Did you know these facts about HALLOWEEN :
Donald Pleasence's role as Sam Loomis is named after a character of the same name in Psycho (1960).
Director John Carpenter was raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In one scene, the subtitle on the screen depicts the location as "Smiths Grove, Illinois." Smiths Grove, Kentucky, is a small town of about 600 people 15 miles from Bowling Green. There are many other references to other local towns and landmarks.
Since the movie was actually shot in spring, the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused.
Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a William Shatner mask, from The Devil's Rain (1975). They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eyeholes.
The kids watch the opening of The Thing From Another World (1951) on TV. Carpenter would later re-make this film himself in 1982 as The Thing (1982).
Halloween was shot in 21 days in the spring of 1978. Made on a budget of $300,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.
According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character of Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.
Tommy Doyle's name was from Rear Window (1954) and Sam Loomis' name is from Psycho (1960).
Inside Laurie's bedroom there is a poster of a painting by James Ensor (1860-1949). Ensor was a Belgian expressionist painter who used to portray human figures wearing grotesque masks.
Halloween takes place primarily in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois. Haddonfield, NJ is the home town of screenwriter Debra Hill.
The performance of Halloween's musical score is credited to "The Bowling Green Philharmonic". There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The "orchestra" is actually John Carpenter and assorted musical friends.
All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode's wardrobe. She spent less than a hundred dollars for the entire set.
The character of Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as a kind of weird "thank you" for the film's overseas success.
Tommy's Halloween costume is an Alphan uniform from "Space: 1999" (1975).
The opening shot appears to be a single, tracking, point of view shot, but there are actually three cuts. The first when the mask goes on, the second and third after the murder has taken place and the shape is exiting the room, this was done to make the point of view appear to move faster.
The name of the sheriff is "Leigh Brackett". Leigh Brackett was also the name of the screenwriter of Howard Hawks' classic Rio Bravo (1959), which was the inspiration for John Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
One of the characters is named "Marion Chambers". Marion was the first name of the female protagonist of _Psycho_(1960), and Chambers was the last name of the sheriff in that movie.
Kyle Richards, who plays Lindsey Wallace, is the sister of 'Kim Richards' , who appeared in John Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
Half of the $300,000 budget was spent on the Panavison cameras so the film would have a 2:35:1 scope.
Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down.
Morgan Strode's black Fleetwood (seen in the driveway when he is talking to Laurie early in the movie) belonged to director John Carpenter, while the Phelps Garage truck was owned by the company that catered for the film.
Anne Lockhart was John Carpenter's first choice for the role of Laurie Strode.
None of the big studios at the time was interested in distributing the movie, so executive producer Irwin Yablans decided to distribute the film via his own company (Compass International). MCA/Universal produced and distributed the next two sequels in the early '80s.
Aside from dialogue, the script cites Michael Myers by name only twice. In the opening scene, he is called a POV until he is revealed at age 6. From the rest of the script on out he is referred to as a "shape" until Laurie rips his mask off in the final scene (which he never reapplies in the script). "The Shape", as credited in the film, refers to when his face is masked or obscured.
P.J. Soles was dating Dennis Quaid at the time of filming, so John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted to cast him in the role of Bob. Unfortunately, Quaid was busy working on another project and John Michael Graham was cast in the role instead.
John Carpenter provides the voice of Annie's boyfriend, Paul, whom we hear on the phone talking to Annie.
When the script was being written, the original title was "The Babysitter Murders".
When they were shooting the scenes for the start of the film (all the ones seen from Michael's P.O.V.) they couldn't get the 6-year old child actor until the last day, so the movie's producer, Debra Hill, volunteered to be Michael for any scenes where his hands come into view. This is why the nails on young Michael's hands look so well manicured and varnished.
The cinematography for the Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was the inspiration for the look of Carpenter's color scheme.
The initial murder was also an homage to Psycho (1960) in which the viewer never actually sees the knife penetrate skin.
When Dr. Loomis is talking to the doctors in the empty classroom, Dr. Loomis is sitting in seat #31.
Sheriff Brackett was named after film-noir writer Leigh Brackett.
According to Don Post, Jr., President of Don Post Studios, the famous California mask making company, the filmmakers originally approached his firm about custom making an original mask for use in the film. The filmmakers explained that they could not afford the numerous costs involved in creating a mask from scratch, but would offer Post points in the movie as payment for his services. Post declined their offer, as he received many such proposals from numerous unknown filmmakers all the time, but suggested that they repaint/refurbish the "Captain Kirk" masks eventually used in the film, which eventually was done, and which netted Mr. Post a profit of less than $100. Post later estimated, after the film became a hit, that if he had accepted the original offer for points in the film in exchange for his creation of an original mask, his profit would have run well over $100,000.
Yul Brynner's robot character from Westworld (1973) was the inspiration for the character of Michael Myers.
The song that is playing on the radio when Laurie and Annie are in the car is "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult.