Halloween Film

Voted by Entertainment Weekly as the 5th scariest feature of all time, the original Halloween film has truly achieve cult status among horror fans. But like most movies made from that era, no one involved in the making of the Halloween film had any idea it would still resonate so strong thirty years later.

The original script of the Halloween film was called “The Babysitter Murders” but during the development process one of the producers discovered there was never a movie given the title Halloween. In that original script the character of Michael Meyers was referred to as “the Shape” because you never saw his face. The script was rewritten to take place the single day and night of Halloween. It was filmed over the course of twenty days on a budget of $320,000 and went on to become one of the highest grossing independent features of all time.

The story of the original Halloween film takes place in Illinois but was actually shot in Pasadena, California. The art department had to spread around painted leaves to make it look like fall as opposed to the typical sunny California spring when the Halloween film as actually made. The timing of the shoot also caused problems for the art department when they went looking for ripe pumpkins in the spring.

In the Halloween film, the role of Dr. Loomis was played by venerable character actor Donald Pleasance. He was paid $20,000 for his work. As for the role of Michael’s sister Laurie, this was Jamie Lee Curtis’ first film. Director John Carpenter considered casting her as the ultimate a tribute to one of his cinematic heroes, the legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock who cast Jamie’s mother Janet Leigh as the ill-fated heroine in Psycho. For the Halloween film, Jamie Lee actually had to provide all her own wardrobe which she bought at a nearby J.C. Penny for less then a hundred dollars. All of the girls in the movie were supposed to be teenagers but only Jamie Lee was actually in her teens.

The Halloween film proved so successful that is spawned several sequels. Recently, filmmaker Rob Zombie rebooted the franchise with a new version and sequel to the Halloween film.

As for Michael Meyers famous mask, the filmmakers didn’t have enough money in the budget to create a special mask. Instead, they bought a cheap “Captain Kirk” mask, painted it white and teased out the hair. Instant horror legend!

Classic Women Costumes

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