Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Halloween 1 &2 Part 2 By: Sean Clark
Halloween 1 & 2 (Part 2 of 2)
By: Sean Clark
Haddonfield, Illinois has a lot to see for a fictitious small town, which is why we had to break this up into two parts. So if you missed part one make sure you check it out first here.
Our first stop today is the gates of Smiths Grove Sanitarium. Located right next to Universal Studios this is actually the entrance to the Hollywood Reservoir. The gate is located on Lake Hollywood Drive in Hollywood.
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After Michael’s escape from Smith’s Grove, the very next scene is the establishing title shot of Haddonfield, Illinois. This was filmed at the intersection of Oxley Street and Montrose Avenue looking West down Oxley.
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Next we head to the town square from Halloween II. Located on Kersting Court in Sierra Madre in between West Sierra Madre Blvd and South Baldwin Avenue, this area has been used for several productions because of its small town ambiance. This very section of Kersting Court was also used in the original 1955 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers when Kevin McCarthy discovers the town’s people unloading the pods from the trucks. It was also used in Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
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Located just walking distance from the town square heading North down Baldwin Avenue is the church from John Carpenter’s The Fog. Also, if you head East down Sierra Madre Blvd just three blocks to Rancho Road you will reach our next destination: Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery. In Halloween this is where Michael Myers stole his sister’s tombstone and that damn grounds keeper doesn’t finish telling his story. A very interesting side note is out in front just under the Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery sign is a stamp in the concrete that reads CITY OF SIERRA MADRE 1978.
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Next we follow the girls on a walk home from school on Halloween. The rock formation they pass is at the corner of Fairview Avenue and Highland Street in South Pasadena. Laurie and Annie walk off of Fairview Avenue going North and on to Highland Street heading West.
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Lynda joins them and they cross the street still heading West on Highland Street. This is where Annie yells "Speed kills" at Myers as he passes by and slams on the brakes.
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Next on the girls route home takes us back to the title sequence intersection of Oxley Street and Montrose Avenue. The girls are now heading North on Montrose Avenue.
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Lynda then heads off into her home which is located at 1027 Montrose Avenue South Pasadena, California.
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The famous bush Myers hides behind is located at 1019 Montrose Avenue.
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Annie leaves Laurie to go into her home located at 1017 Montrose Avenue. This is also where Laurie is startled by Sheriff Brackett.
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Now we are going to skip over to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital from Halloween II. Let me warn you ahead of time that this is private property and you can be sited for trespassing if you enter the grounds here. It is a government run Veterans Hospital that covers about a square mile of grounds. The actual building is very difficult to find unless you know exactly where it is. Of course, there are dozens of similar looking buildings on the grounds, but the one in question is smack dab in the middle of it all.
The facility is the U.S. Veterans Hospital which is located at 16111 Plummer Street in Sepulveda, California. The cross street is Woodley Avenue. It was the exterior of the building that was used in the film.
Now, you may be wondering why my pictures of this facility are not the best. The reason is I don’t have any recent photos, and I'm not going to chance stepping a foot back on the property. Back in October of 2004, while filming some footage for the Halloween: 25 Years of Terror DVD I was detained and sited for trespassing. Our footage was confiscated and I had to go to court. The good news is I was able to get the footage back the bad news is in a decision that was not mine nor the directors the footage wasn’t used.
Fortunately my good friend Tim Mankowski was kind enough to let me use some photos from one of our earlier visits.
The biggest change from 1981 is the area with the glass double doors that Myers breaks through. They no longer exists and that whole section of that building has either been removed or may have just been added for filming. It was not there when I first visited the facility back in 1996.
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The area where Mr. Garrett is looking around is actually on the left side of the building. The dumpster still sits in the same spot and the yellow and black caution stripes are still visible today.
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Various buildings on the property have been used for films such as Altered States, Buckaroo Banzai and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
As for the interior of the hospital there is a lot of speculation on that. Some cast members have told me it was a small clinic in Pasadena that no longer exists, and there's also a rumor that it was Morningside Urgent Care Medical Center at 1704 West Manchester Avenue in Los Angeles, California. I personally have never checked that facility out.
Ever since 9/11 it has made location hunting a lot harder than it used to be. There is security every where and people are hypersensitive to everything you're doing. My guess is walking into a working hospital and taking pictures would be a bad idea right now. However, I know I'll end up just checking it out for myself some day in the future.
For the time being we are going to stick with Halloween II. After Myers is shot six times (or actually seven, as they say in Halloween II), he heads into an alley and then ventures into the kitchen of the Elrod house. The Elrod house is located at 716 Meridian just across the street from where the Myers house used to reside. Both the interior and exterior of this house was used.
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The front of the house won’t be recognizable to Halloween II fans because it doesn’t appear in the film, however I have provided a photo for your enjoyment. It is the rear of the house that was used in the film. The area used can be seen from the alley behind the home and is visible without trespassing on their property. Just remember to be respectful. This is the alley between Hope Street and Magnolia Street that from Myers point of view we look down both directions of and see Sheriff Brackett pull up to Dr Loomis.
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Our next location from Halloween II is actually right out in front of the Elrod house, and that is the death of poor drunken trick or treater, Ben Tramer. When Loomis and Brackett first spot Ben Tramer they see him walking North on Meridian Avenue towards their parked car which is sitting on Magnolia Street at Meridian Avenue.
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Tramer then turns around and begins heading South on Meridian towards Hope Street. Loomis and Brackett jump out of the car and chase after him.
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When the police car hits Tramer, it slams him against the side of a van that explodes right at the corner of Meridian Avenue and Magnolia Street. This is the very same corner where Tommy Doyle runs up to meet Laurie on her way to school in the original Halloween just shot from the other side.
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Last but not least we move on to the babysitter’s houses from Halloween and Halloween II. Located right off the Sunset strip in Hollywood is a quiet little street called Orange Grove. The exterior of the Wallace house is located at 1537 North Orange Grove Avenue. The interior of this house was not used in the film. Sadly this house has undergone a complete facelift in the past few years. Where the driveway used to go all the way to the back of the house a new garage has been added with additional living space above it. You can see how much this one location has changed over the years in my photos below.
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The house Laurie goes to for help and they ignore her is right next door at 1533 Orange Grove.
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The exterior of the Doyle house is located across the street at 1530 Orange Grove. The interior of this house was not used. This house looks pretty much the same as it did back in 1978.
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The house next door at 1538 is where the man comes out and tells Loomis he has been, "trick or treated to death tonight" in Halloween II.
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There has always been a bit of mystery as to exactly where the interiors of the Doyle and Wallace homes were filmed. If you pay close attention to the film you can see that they are very different houses on the inside. For example, when Bob & Lynda enter the Wallace house from the outside you can see the house ends to the right of the front door, however when they enter the house there is an entire living room to the right of the front door. That is because the interior was shot across the street at 1542 Orange Grove. This served as the interior of the Wallace house. Behind this house is also the laundry room where Annie gets locked inside.
As for the Doyle house you may notice when Laurie is begging for Tommy to open the front door of the Doyle house on the outside the handle is on the right side and opens from right to left but when they cut inside the door knob is on the opposite side and opens from left to right. This can also be seen when Laurie leaves the house to investigate the Wallace house after receiving a strange call from Lynda.
Coincidentally just walking distance a couple of streets over from these locations is Nancy’s house from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
I spoke to Tommy Lee Wallace, the film's editor and production designer who also played Myers in a couple of scenes, and he told me that all of the interiors were shot at other houses on that same street. He couldn’t remember which houses exactly but somewhere on Orange Grove Avenue is the interior to the Doyle house. He also remembered that they shot the scene of Myers lying on the grass from the second story in the backyard of one of the homes on Orange Grove. In the original Halloween Myers was supposed to be falling into the backyard but that was changed to the front yard in Halloween II.
I hope you enjoyed this look back at Halloween and Halloween II just a little more of the night he came home! If you want more, you can see the very first episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds on the Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD available in stores now!
