Halloween: Haddonfield in South Pasadena

Halloween opens in Haddonfield, Illinois, where six-year-old Michael Myers stabs his sister Judith to death with a chef's knife. Years later Laurie Strode drops a key at the empty house her realtor father is trying to sell, and Michael begins stalking her. The crew used an abandoned house owned by a church. It has since been moved: the building now stands at 1000 Mission Street as the Century House, South Pasadena Cultural Landmark No. 34, a two-story office building steps from the Metro station.

Visitor guidance: The Century House is an office building at 1000 Mission Street, beside the South Pasadena Metro station; view it from the street.

Before he follows Laurie, Michael kills a mechanic, takes his coveralls and walks into Nichol's Hardware, where he steals a white mask, a rope and two kitchen knives. The robbery is summed up in the film as "just some rope, a knife and a Halloween mask... must be kids." The storefront at 966 Mission Street, on the corner of Meridian Avenue, now houses the Radhika restaurant, directly across from the Century House.

Visitor guidance: Radhika is a working restaurant at 966 Mission Street; the corner is a public pavement.

Laurie, Annie and Lynda attend Haddonfield High, played by South Pasadena High School at Lyndon Street and Fremont Avenue. The school opened in 1906 and is still the only public high school in South Pasadena, with two indoor gyms on its Fremont Avenue campus. Laurie notices Michael around town all day, but her friends dismiss her fears. The school later found screen fame again, with its gym appearing in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird.

Walking home from school, Laurie, Annie and Lynda drop Lynda at her house at 1027 Montrose Avenue. Laurie looks back and sees Michael for the first time, half hidden behind a hedge. The hedge is still there, kept neat and trimmed exactly as it was in 1978, and fans treat it as the required photo stop; it is marked on Google Maps as the Halloween Hedge. It stands on a residential street in South Pasadena.

Visitor guidance: The hedge is on a residential street at 1027 Montrose Avenue; photograph it from the pavement.

Laurie's family home is 1115 Oxley Street, a five-minute walk from the Century House. On Halloween she waits on the corner for Annie to collect her, a pumpkin in her lap, watching kids in their costumes. The owners have embraced the attention: visitors are invited to stand where Laurie stood, and fake foam pumpkins sit out all year. It is a private residence, so keep the visit short and respectful.

Dr. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and goes to the local cemetery, where he finds that Judith Myers's tombstone has been stolen. The graveyard is Pioneer Cemetery at 553 East Sierra Madre Boulevard in Sierra Madre, a few miles east of Pasadena. It had already played a cemetery in Hitchcock's Family Plot, where George (Bruce Dern) finds the Shoebridge family graves. It remains a real cemetery; walk in quietly and leave the headstones alone.

Visitor guidance: Pioneer Cemetery is a real cemetery at 553 East Sierra Madre Boulevard; visit quietly during daylight.

Laurie's babysitting job is at the Doyle house, 1530 Orange Grove Avenue, where she looks after Tommy Doyle while Annie stays across the street with Lindsey Wallace. Carpenter used two real houses on this block because it had few palm trees and could pass for a Midwestern street. The night ends here: Loomis shoots Michael and he falls from the bedroom balcony, and when Loomis checks the body, Michael has vanished. The house is a private residence; photograph it from the pavement and move on.

Across the street at 1537 Orange Grove Avenue is the Wallace house, where the babysitting night turns deadly. Michael hides in Annie's car and kills her, pins Bob to the kitchen wall with a chef's knife, then strangles Lynda with the phone cord while Laurie listens on the other end. The house is a private residence on a quiet Hollywood block; view it from the pavement and do not disturb the owners.