20 Things You Didn't Know About Halloween (1978)

11. The Real Smith's Grove Sanitarium

Halloween 1978
Compass International Pictures

At the outset of the film, Smith's Grove Sanitarium is established as being quite a gothic and unsettling institution when the audience sees Dr. Loomis and Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) driving up to it. This is mainly because the scene is set on a stormy night with all of the patients wandering about of their own free will.

However, when it is formally introduced only a few scenes later, Smith's Grove appears to be just the opposite, as it is clearly quite a modern facility.

As Loomis and his colleague, Dr. Terence Wynn (Robert Phalen) exit the building, discussing the escape of Michael Myers, they cross a doormat which reveals the name of the actual institution that was used to represent Smith's Grove: La Viña Hospital and Sanitarium in Altadena, California.

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