Halloween Series Wiki
Advertisement
Halloween Series Wiki

"My suggestion is termination. Death is the only solution for Michael. There's nothing to be gained from keeping evil alive. One shot of sodium thiopental would render him unconscious. I'll be with him to make sure his life is extinguished, my ear on his chest to hear for myself that his vitals no longer function and immediately incinerate the body. It needs to die, it needs to die! It needs to die!"
―Samuel Loomis on Michael Myers[src]

Dr. Samuel Loomis is a character and protagonist in the Halloween franchise. He first appeared in the original Halloween, played by Donald Pleasence.

Biography[]

Michael's psychiatrist[]

On November 5, 1963, then six-year-old Michael Myers had been admitted to Smith's Grove Sanitarium for the October 31st murder of his older sister, Judith. The child (now seven) was a blank, emotionless slate to Loomis, never speaking and barely even moving. The doctor recognized the deep-rooted trauma in the boy's psyche and knew that special treatment would be required if he were to ever help him.

The break-out[]

Michael turns twenty-one on October 19. By law, he is to be presented to court on his birthday for trial. The final verdict determines either his freedom or further confinement. The trial date is pushed two weeks into the first week of November.

On the rainy night of Monday October 30, 1978, Loomis is accompanied by his friend and medical assistant, Nurse Marion Chambers; they are charged with transferring Michael back to his home county for the trial. When the pair reach the gates of the sanitarium, they discover that many patients are wandering around the grounds. Loomis goes to the main gate to telephone the hospital, but Michael appears and nearly attacks Marion while she is waiting in the car.

Myers escapes from the Illinois state hospital hijacking the car meant for his court date transfer. He returns to Haddonfield in time for Halloween.

Loomis is on Michael's trail for the entire date of October 31. While en route to Haddonfield, Loomis stops along a rural highway in west central Illinois to call Haddonfield authorities. He has every reason to believe Michael will return home, so he urges that the police watch out for him

Loomis saves Laurie

Loomis saves Laurie

When the psychiatrist finally arrives in Michael's hometown, he seeks the help of Haddonfield Memorial Cemetery's grave keeper. The pair discover that the headstone of Judith Myers had been removed and is missing. This clue is enough to assure Loomis that his patient is physically in the city. That afternoon, Loomis enlists the help of Haddonfield's sheriff, Leigh Brackett. The pair later travel to the former Myers residence at 45 Lampkin Lane. Loomis is curious to know if Michael had returned to his childhood home. With the front door being broken into and the decaying carcass of a stray dog being indoors, these two clues reassure Loomis that Michael has indeed come home. Loomis tries convincing Sheriff Brackett that Michael is a human incarnation of pure evil, that he has returned to kill again, and that Haddonfield is not safe on this night until Michael is captured.

While Michael stalks Laurie Strode and her friends, Loomis waits and watches over the house, believing that Michael will return to his home. When he discovers the stolen car, he begins combing the streets where he finds the two children that Laurie was babysitting running frantically from a house. Loomis investigates and sees Michael attacking Laurie. When she pulls Michael's mask off, he stops to re-apply it, giving Loomis the opportunity to shoot his former patient six times, knocking him off the balcony of the two-story house. After agreeing with Laurie that Michael was "the boogeyman", Loomis walks over to the balcony and looks down to see that Michael is gone. Unsurprised, Loomis stares off into the night.

Aftermath of the 1978 murders[]

Loomis tracked Michael down later that night, but was prevented from killing him by Deputy Frank Hawkins. Michael was then taken back into custody and Loomis stopped being Michael's doctor after that. On January 22, 1979, Loomis gave a recorded statement where he advised that Michael be executed, to the point that he requested that he be allowed to actually confirm that Michael's heart had stopped beating for himself and then witness as the body was cremated, claiming that Michael needed to be killed because there was no point in keeping evil alive.

By 1982, Loomis moved on to another patient called Carl Serrot, who suffered schizophrenia. Despite thinking he was making good progress with his patient, Carl ended up killing two guards, before ending his own life. Loomis informed Laurie on the situation, and revealed that prior to this, Carl had been moved to a cell close to Michael and started to comment that he felt greater urges for his darker thoughts. Loomis noted that Carl's eyes became similar to Michael's shortly before killing the guards and himself.

Loomis' former student, Dr. Ranbir Sartain, took over the role of Michael's psychiatrist following Loomis' death.

Legacy[]

On Halloween 2018, after a bus crash freed him, Michael resumes his killing spree. Sartain encounteres Laurie after she tries shooting Michael, and Laurie refers to him as "the new Loomis." As more people became aware of Michael's terror, Marion Chambers joins Lindsey Wallace, Marcus Wilson and Vanessa Wilson in searching for him, Marion reflecting that no one took Loomis seriously and that Loomis knew a killer when he saw one. The four would encounter Michael a short time later, with Marion aiming her gun at Michael and proclaiming that the upcoming bullet was for Dr. Loomis, before realizing her gun was out of bullets and then being stabbed to death by Michael. As the pair recover in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Hawkins tells Laurie about him stopping Loomis from killing Michael, citing that this as the reason he believed himself responsible to be for Michael's current murder spree.

Notes and trivia[]

  • According to the 1979-taped statement from Loomis, the interviewer refers to Michael as Loomis' former patient, which means he must have stopped treating Michael before or after the 1978 murders.
  • Along with Michael, Karen Nelson, Hawkins, Lonnie Elam and Tommy Doyle, Loomis is one of six characters in this timeline to be played by more than one actor.
  • Loomis either appears or is mentioned in every movie in this timeline except Halloween Ends.
    • Like his H20 Timeline counterpart, this version of the character dies off-screen in-between movies and goes without mention in the last installment of their timeline.

Fan reception[]

Fan reception to this timeline's Loomis has been mixed to negative when compared to the others. Some felt that his importance to the story was downplayed and not explored enough. Others felt that the exploration the 2018 film did do was not true to the original character John Carpenter had created.

The tape recording in particular was viewed with much resentment as many fans felt the remarks made by Loomis did not match with how the character thought and acted in the 1978 film.

Director David Gordon Green would respond to the backlash, clarifying that neither he nor co-writer Danny McBride were deliberately disrespecting John Carpenter’s original concept, or the late Donald Pleasence himself. However, certain changes had to be made to various characters from the original film to make the story fit together properly.

Green would further elaborate on the character's role in the trilogy. “I know fans feel that I kind of neglected or ignored the character of Dr. Loomis. But the fact is, the spirit of the character is everywhere in that trilogy, particularly Kills. I feel many fans overlooked the message from Kills because it proved Loomis right. In the original film, he says not to tell anyone on the streets about Michael being loose, because they would foolishly hunt for him everywhere. In Kills, everyone finds out and it results in chaos, and Michael doesn’t really have a hand in most of it, ironically.”

Appearances[]

Advertisement