Halloween(1978)

- Was filmed in 22 days in April of 1978 on a budget of only $325,000.
- The black Fleetwood car owned by the character Morgan Strode was director John Carpenter's.
- Donald Pleasence finished all of his filming in only 5 days, and was paid $20,000 for his role as Dr. Sam Loomis.
- Halloween was voted the fifth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- The "Myers" house was a local home found in South Pasadena that was largely the decrepit, abandoned place seen in the majority of the film. However, as the house had to look ordinary (and furnished) for the early scenes with the young Michael Myers, almost the whole cast and crew worked together to clean the place, move in furniture, put up wallpaper, and set up running water and electricity, and then take it all out when they were through.
- Of the female leads (all the girls are supposed to be in high school), only Jamie Lee Curtis was actually a teenager at the time of shooting.
- The Halloween theme is written in the rare 5/4 time signature. John Carpenter learned this rhythm from his father.
- The scene where The Shape (Michael Myers) seems to appear out of the darkness behind Laurie was accomplished by using a simple dimmer switch on the light that slowly illuminated the mask.
- 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.
- According to an additional scene in the extended television version, Michael Myers' middle name is Audrey.
- The opening POV sequence took 2 days to film.
- Carpenter composed the score in 4 days.
- For its first airing on television, extra scenes had to be added to make it fit the desired time slot. Carpenter filmed these during the production of Halloween II (1981) against his better judgment.
- Carpenter considered the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock who had given her mother, Janet Leigh, legendary status in Psycho (1960).
- As the film was shot out of sequence, Carpenter created a fear meter so that Jamie Lee Curtis would know what level of terror she should be exhibiting.
- Production designer Tommy Lee Wallace picked the iconic mask in a dime store. It was a mask of Captain Kirk and cost $1.98. Wallace spray painted the eyes to change the appearance (and also to avoid the risk of litigation).
- From a budget of $325,000 the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office. In 2008 takings that would be the equivalent of $150 million, making "Halloween" one of the most successful independent films of all time.
- Originally the script had Dr. Loomis having a surprised reaction to the disappearance of Michael Myers's body from the lawn at the end of the film. Donald Pleasence suggested his character's reaction should instead be an "I knew this would happen" look on his face. They shot it both ways and ended up using Pleasance's idea.
- Body Count: 5 plus a dog.
- Because P.J. Soles' shirt was open for the scene where she is strangled with the telephone cord, an alternate version was shot for the trailer and publicity shots where she is wearing a bathrobe.
- 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. She shot the film while on hiatus from the sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977).
- P.J. Soles says the word "totally" eleven times.
- The song that is playing on the radio when Laurie and Annie are in the car is "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult.
- Tommy Doyle's name was from Rear Window (1954) and Sam Loomis' name is from Psycho (1960).
- Jamie Lee Curtis' first feature film.