Visible crew/equipment: During the opening sequence, the scene is shot in first-person point-of-view from the young Michael Myers. As he walks through the house, the shadow of the camera can be seen several times. After he picks up the knife in the kitchen, the camera's shadow is visible on the door frame leading into the dining room. It can be seen again just before he turns to go upstairs. (00:04:05)
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Michael has picked up the knife, a stage light can be seen in a silver pot. This is as he walks into the next room. (00:04:15)
Continuity mistake: When young Michael Myers sees the clown mask, Judith's clothing is bunched up together on the floor. When he puts the mask on, Judith's sweater is lying separately from the rest. (00:05:15)
Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the opening murder scene, when Michael's father takes Michael's mask off, you can see the shadow of the camera cast on Michael's father as it pulls away. (00:06:35)
Continuity mistake: Michael stabs his sister repeatedly. The amount of blood shown on the knife when his parents come home is nowhere near enough for the number of times he stabbed her. (00:06:35)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when the doctor is talking to the new nurse for Michael in the car, the nurse is smoking a cigarette, but seconds later she has just lit one up. If she smokes one in 45 seconds then lights up another she is one worst chain smoker I've ever seen. (00:08:05)
Revealing mistake: In the scene outside of Smith's Grove mental institution, where Michael jumps on top of the station wagon, he attacks the nurse, but she manages to wrangle free. A few moments later, he smashes the passenger side window. If you look closely, the actor's arm has a wrench taped to it in order to effectively break the glass injury free. (00:10:30)
Other mistake: In 2000 a Limited Edition of Halloween was released with 12 extra minutes of footage, filmed during the making of Halloween II in 1981. In order to air Halloween on TV they needed to remove and add certain scenes. In the original 1978 version, Dr. Loomis tells Sheriff Bracket, "I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring at a wall, not seeing the wall, looking past the wall, looking at this night, inhumanly patient." In the Extended version, you'll see Dr. Loomis visit Michael in his room, and he's staring out of a window. Not a wall. (00:11:31 - 00:12:38)
Continuity mistake: The young girl walks up to the Myers house near the start. From the view in the house she reaches the door. Camera changes and she's halfway up the steps. (00:13:20)
Continuity mistake: When Laurie goes to leave the key, the door has two intact glass frames but when the view changes there's only one that's almost completely broken. Later when Loomis enters the house, there's two again, with one only being slightly broken. Also, the frame from the inside looks really small when Michael watches, and we don't see planks nailed across to cut out the view from inside, as well as there being a screen door that isn't there from the outside, but is there when the view is from inside. (00:13:35 - 00:36:40)
Visible crew/equipment: When the camera is zooming in on Laurie in school, the camera's shadow can be seen over the students it passes. (00:15:30)
Factual error: When Dr. Loomis is at the pay phone talking to someone at the mental institution, the background of the scene has mountains, which in fact Illinois has hardly any mountains, and the few it does have are nowhere near there. (00:18:35)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Dr. Sam Loomis is calling from a pay phone warning of Michael Myers return to Haddonfield, a Southern Pacific freight train passes by blowing its horn (you can't see the train in the standard version). While SP trains are quite common in Southern California where the film was made, they don't actually travel through any part of Illinois. (00:19:15)
Continuity mistake: When Lynda is talking about how she forgot her books (at the beginning of their walk home) we see Michael Myers drive by, then speeds up and drives passed a driveway, then it cuts to Annie (Myers is still driving) and she says, "Hey Jerk. Speed Kills." We see Michael driving again and he is just a bit behind the drive-way he drove by before, he should be much farther ahead down the road at the speed he was going. (00:21:35)
Visible crew/equipment: There is a scene where Michael Myers is hiding behind a hedge bush and Laurie and her friend go to investigate. Laurie turns around and talks and you see cigarette smoke go by the camera (John Carpenter admitted on the commentary track that he was smoking a little too close to the camera that day). (00:24:10)
Continuity mistake: When Laurie is walking home the sidewalk instantly goes from wet to dry. (00:25:25)
Character mistake: When Laurie and Annie are on their way to babysit, and they see Annie's dad, the cop, as soon as they pull up to say hi and roll the window down, he mixes the two names up, and calls Laurie Annie, and Annie Laurie. You'd think he knows his own daughter's name. (00:32:10)
Continuity mistake: After Laurie asks Annie what she is going to wear to the dance (while Annie is driving with Laurie), we see Annie turn the steering wheel to the left, yet the car turns right as seen on the green screen in front of them. As the car is turning right, it cuts back to Annie still turning the steering wheel left. (00:33:45)
Continuity mistake: When Annie drops Laurie off at Tommy Doyle's house, when she walks in their front door it has multiple glass panels, but later it is a solid, plain white door. (00:34:45 - 00:39:55)
Continuity mistake: Michael is watching Annie in the kitchen. He knocks down the hanging plant in front of the door and it shatters. When Laurie goes to check on her she goes in the same door and the plant is hanging back up. (00:43:21 - 01:12:56)
Answer: There are only two families that hire babysitters in the film, the Doyle and Wallace families. Where they went is never explained, but it could be potentially anywhere. They could have gone on a trip out of town for the night, they don't have to be in Haddonfield.
BaconIsMyBFF
Where did it state this was all night? It could have been a few hours. Remember that in the next one, it is still the same night and stays night through the entire movie.