With Its Hollywood Cred, This Hedge In South Pasadena Wins Halloween Every Year

Forget whole-hog displays. Esther Park and her family never had to break a sweat to draw a crowd to their South Pasadena front yard during Halloween.

That's because it comes attached with a piece of cinematic history — a nondescript hedgerow that just so happened to be in the 1978 slasher flick Halloween.

In the scene, the film's protagonist Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and a friend are walking home from school as she catches a glimpse of the escaped masked murderer lurking behind a hedge.

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Those seconds on screen have inspired countless homages, re-enactments, and photo ops with people sometimes decked out in full Michael Myers regalia — taking place just mere steps from the Parks' front door.

It even has its own Google and Yelp review page.

"Definitely around Halloween it's when you would start seeing people, but I feel like all year round there's at least one or two people that come by and take pictures," said Park. "We are kind of used to it."

Park and her husband bought the four-bedroom Craftsman in 2011, and were told about the hedge and its steady stream of admirers around the time they closed escrow. The couple, not fans of the horror genre, had not seen Halloween.

"We're like, 'Oh, that's cool, you know, a piece of fun fact,'" Park said.

As promised, the Parks started noticing people with cameras stopping by. A couple years ago, she said a whole tour bus of folks showed up. And just recently, a couple had come from England.

"People are really good. They're not very disruptive. They just take their pictures, and then they're on their way," she said.

"Halloween" and South Pasadena

The hedge is not the only location in South Pasadena the horror classic has made famous. Working on a shoestring budget, director John Carpenter had to shoot in L.A. to keep costs low. And South Pasadena with its small-town, all-American feel was deemed a credible stand-in for Halloween's fictional town of Haddonfield, Ill.

Incidentally, the house where the protagonist in the movie lives was recently put on the market.

The hedge, reviewed.

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Courtesy of Google reviews

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As for Halloween, it went on to become one of the highest grossing indie films of all time, spawning sequels and remakes. Forty-five years later, it's still considered one of the best horror films ever made.

Shortly after moving into the house, the Parks finally watched the film — but only up to the scene with their hedge in it. Despite the many photos and videos and TikToks out there, the family had never thought about taking a photo with the hedge themselves.

But its enduring appeal still manages to offer up surprises.

"A couple weeks ago, there were two people dressed up like Mike Meyers standing next to the hedge. Then I looked over and [standing] in line was a person dressed in a Freddy Krueger costume. And then another woman [was] dressed in some other gothic Halloween character," Park said. "I was like, 'Wow, there's just a lot of different characters out here.' So that was new."