A trip through Haddonfield, with a detour through Tom Atkins land.

A different kind of entry today, instead of a review or a pointless entry (or maybe this is pointless), I wanted to tell you about the time I took a trip through Haddonfield, also known as South Pasadena, LA.

Many of you might be able to tell from a few of my entries, that I’m a happily married man (whose wife makes him keep all his cool collectibles in the basement). My wedding was just last July and we honeymooned for two weeks in California. We first flew into San Francisco and proceeded to freeze our asses off (how is San Fran colder than Canada, in the middle of July? How!?!). From there we drove the coast down to Los Angeles and promptly proceeded to go to the filming locations of the original Halloween. The wife was ecstatic.*

Our first stop was the location of the Myers House, located just north of Mission Street, South Pasadena. The Myers house was originally located a few doors up, but was moved to its current location. A few businesses reside inside and the back of the house was slightly changed from the original.

Film.

July, 2011.

Next stop, just down the street, was the hardware store, where in the movie a few random items were stolen (a halloween mask, rope and a couple of knives; you know the usual).

Not a hardware store anymore.

From there, we walked down to Montrose Ave, which is the location of the infamous hedge scene.  Of course I had to recreate the famous hedge scene in Halloween, like thousands of others before me, I’m sure.

Film.

July, 2011.

A little bit down the street is the intersection, which in the movie the title Haddonfield appears on screen.

Film.

July, 2011.

Another spot a little ways over is the Strode house.  In the photo below, I’m sitting on the same stone that Jamie Lee Curtis sat on.  In fact, directly behind me on the porch was a few pumpkins and a note that said you could use one of the pumpkins to pretend you were Jamie Lee Curtis (sans boobs).

Friendly people live here.

Film.

I may not have her boobs, but I got her legs.

We also visited the school, where Laurie looks out the window and sees Michael Myers standing behind his stolen car.

School.

Me creeping behind our non stolen rental car.

After a brief drive (ha! this is LA, brief should never be used when describing a drive), we made our way over to Orange Grove Avenue.  This location has the Wallace house, where most of the madness takes place and across the street is the Doyle house, where Jamie Lee Curtis fights Michael Myers and barely escapes.  The Wallace house has changed a lot from the film, as you can see below.

Wallace House in the film.

Wallace house, July, 2011.

Doyle House in the film.

Doyle house, July, 2011.

Interesting note, the creepy A Nightmare on Elm Street house is only a few blocks away.

Infamous Elm Street House.

A side trip took us to the two houses you see at the beginning of Halloween H20, one of which Nurse Chambers (Halloween 1 & 2) lived in and the other is Joseph Gordon-Levitt characters home.

H20 houses.

H20 houses

You can’t do a Halloween tour without visiting Sierra Madre. John Carpenter has used this location in several of his films (The Fog, Halloween and Halloween II). I visited the town square where Myers runs into the boombox kid in Halloween II, the same spot where Tom Atkins calls his ex-wife to ditch his kids for a young hotty and a case of beer, in Halloween III: Season of Witch.

Town square, minus boombox and Tom Atkins.

I also went to the same cemetery, where we the audience and Dr. Loomis never get to hear the end of the hacksaw story from the caretaker, in Halloween.

Why did you interrupt the story, Dr. Loomis? Why?

I like to take us back to Halloween III and the stud Tom Atkins for a brief moment. I had the opportunity to check the bar that was seen in the film.  I was introduced into a friendly, albeit drunk environment and got the opportunity to stand behind the bar for a photo. The bartender even did some card tricks and told us some history about the bar.

Tom Atkins, drinking his problems away.

I look way too happy. It could be the boobies on the wall behind me.

Still the same photos on the wall.

Well, that’s the end of the Haddonfield tour. I wish that all Halloween fans could experience this amazing adventure through the films. It’s definitely something I won’t soon forget.

‘Til next time, Haddonfield! 

*Sarcasm overload detected!