Hubie Halloween is currently the #1 movie on Netflix. The film premiered on the streaming platform on October 7th and is making headlines for its star studded cast. The lineup includes Adam Sandler as the main character, Hubie Dubois, a well natured man who wants to make sure his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts is safe on Halloween night. He is joined by Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Steve Buschemi, Noah Schnapp, and a wide array of Disney Channel stars, as well as many other surprise guests.
Happy Madison Productions filmed on location in Salem, Massachusetts as well as in many of its neighboring towns including Marblehead and Ipswich. Being from Massachusetts, I was lucky enough to work on the set last summer as a background extra and had a blast doing it. I was there a lot but am going to focus on the filming of one scene in particular.
From watching the trailer, there are many shots from the scene dubbed the “barn party scene”. The filming for that scene took two days even though the scene itself was roughly only one minute long. There were 200 extras, all eighteen years of age or older, chosen since they look like high school students. Everyone was decked out in their best halloween costumes, some ranging from red riding hood, to sailors, to there being a 15 foot tall devil head. On set for the scene was Adam Sandler, Karan Brar (Jessie), Bradley Steven Perry (Good Luck Charlie), Kelli Berglund (Lab Rats), Noah Schnapp (Stranger Things), Paris Berlec (Alexa & Katie), and Kevin Quinn (Bunk’d). Some famous guests who popped onto the set included Ben Stiller, Rob Schneider, and Ray Liotta. Filming had to be halted for an hour or so during the second day of shooting the scene due to tornado warnings in the area. So how does one film a huge party scene with 200 extras and lots of stars? By having lots of patience. It takes time for the production assistants to move everyone around and position people in the correct spots. Filming the scene meant dancing for hours to no music. You would hear four click beats and then you had to start dancing until the director called cut. It looks like a party with alcohol, but really, everyone had cups filled with roughly an inch or two of water. Eventually, we all got to hear what the song we were dancing to was. It was a new song called Dancing With the Devil sung by Jared Sandler (Adam’s nephew) and Amber Frank. Hearing it for hours on end, it does get stuck in your head. I have been singing it for the last year but until this week, the song had never been heard by the public before. The music video is now up on YouTube.
What is the best part of filming? The answer obviously has to be the food provided on set. Hubie Halloween went all out when it came to the food. We had snack tables for when we were just hanging out in the holding area, but lunch was a whole other game. “Lunch” (which is still called lunch even if we are eating at 9pm) typically included meat in the range of steak, chicken, or lamb chops. Then there were often really cool sides and vegetarian options. There was always a dessert bar filled with cakes and cookies as well as loads of drink options. Needless to say I am totally craving the food from set right about now.
Being a part of this project was such an incredible experience. There is no cooler feeling than finally getting to watch a movie you worked on and then seeing yourself on the screen. It has been fun getting to revisit these memories and to share my favorite behind the scenes moments whenever a scene I worked on shows up. I feel so fortunate that I got this opportunity and hope I get to experience a set as fun as this one again in the future. Check out Hubie Halloween on Netflix!