Why Doctor Loomis Sucks (Part 2)

Welcome back to part 2 of my essay on why Doctor Loomis, the primary protagonist of the Halloween franchise, is terrible at his job. If you missed part one, you can read it here. In our previous installment, I covered some of the insane things that Doctor Samuel Loomis (played by the late Donald Pleasance) did in 1978’s Halloween and it’s sequel Halloween II.

As long-time fans know, Halloween III: Season of the Witch was a stand-alone film that does not continue the saga of Michael Myers, but features a story about killer Halloween masks created by insane Irish Druids that own a toy company. The only thing I can say about that movie here, as it applies to Doctor Loomis, is to provide a commentary about that film’s lead protagonist. In that film, Tom Atkins plays Doctor Dan Challis, a boozy, lecherous, divorceé doctor who investigates a series of strange murders that lead him to the killer Halloween mask plot. Atkins's character is a sleazy, greasy, functional alcoholic. Despite these character flaws, he is by far a lot more competent than Doctor Loomis is when it comes to dealing with Michael Myers.

By the time we get to 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, we learn that in the 10 years in-between Michael Myer’s first murder spree and now, Doctor Loomis is still a practicing psychiatrist. Which if you read the last part of this essay, you’d be left to wonder why. Loomis was ineffectual in stopping a murder spree, committed a series of firearm offenses, his actions led to the accidental death of a teenaged boy, he took a State Trooper hostage, and last but not least went overkilled trying to stop Myers by blowing up an operation theater, setting a hospital on fire. Apparently, he faced no repercussions for his negligent actions, save for some burns and a pronounced limp.

If you think the last decade tempered his reckless behavior, you’d be wrong.

He’s Bad At Keeping Tabs

He couldn’t even be a full on burn victim properly.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers establishes that in the 10 years since the last movie, Doctor Loomis had been keeping tabs on Michael Myers. Myers spent the last decade in a coma following the explosion that almost killed them both. Loomis pleaded with authorities to destroy Myers since he believes that he is evil incarnate. Punctuating my first point, why was he still practicing psychiatry, nobody was willing to listen to Loomis. He is already being discredited and dismissed.

One stunning oversight here is that Loomis seems completely unaware that Laurie Strode has been dead since 1980, but she also had a daughter, Jamie who was since adopted.

Loomis knows that Michael has an obsessive need to kill his last surviving relative. Yet, apparently, he never bothered keeping track of Laurie Strode in the decade since Myers tried to kill her. He doesn’t learn of the existence of Jamie until he shows up in the Haddonfield police station. The police there are better informed of what’s going on than Loomis, the self-proclaimed expert.

Is He Suicidal or Just Stupid? Gun Ownership Still Questionable.

When Loomis first tracks down Michael Myers at a diner near where he escaped, Loomis tells Michael to leave the people of Haddonfield alone. To try and appease Myers, Sam offers himself as a sacrifice instead.

How is sacrificing himself to Michael Myers going to stop his murder spree? Michael has demonstrated that he will kill anyone who gets in the way of his mission, what is Loomis expecting? That Myers would kill him and just give himself up to the authorities? I get that Loomis is the Captain Ahab to Michael Myer’s Moby Dick, but this sacrificial offer is kind of pointless.

But maybe it was all a ruse since Loomis immediately starts shooting at Myers after making this offer. Yet, somehow, he manages to lose sight of the killer even though he is standing right in front of him. In the last 10 years Loomis seems to have gotten worse at using a gun. Speaking of which…

He Almost Kills an Innocent Teen

In Halloween II, Sam’s impulsive behavior was directly responsible for the death of an innocent teenaged kid whose only mistake was buying the same commercially available Halloween mask that Michael Myers also wore. You’d think that Loomis would have learned from this experience and not jump to conclusions whenever he saw someone wearing the same exact mask again.

Well, you would have thought wrong.

Someone really needs to take that gun away from him.

Later on in the movie when Loomis tracks down Jamie and her step-sister Rachel with the local sheriff. As they usher the pair into a squad car they suddenly spot someone in a Myers mask. The sheriff asks “Is that him?” and ignoring the fact that this person is standing a number of meters away says “yes, that’s him” and continues to be horrified when two more people in the exact same outfits appear nearby.

Loomis is horrified as though he thinks there are three Michael Meyers. He even pulls a gun on one and the only thing saving these obvious pranksters from getting shot is one of them taking his mask fast enough to show he is not Michael Myers.

The sheriff seems more concerned over cussing out the teenagers as they run off than he has any concerned that the “expert professional” was unnerved enough that he was willing to shoot a kid without thinking too much about it.

Then He Almost Shoots a Little Girl

He insists that he’s the sane one.

The fourth film ends with the local law and some vigilantes saving Jamie by pumping Michael Myers full of lead and sending him falling down a mine shaft to his apparent death. Later when Jamie attacks her step-mother, Loomis finds the girl covered in blood brandishing a pair of scissors. He instantly assumes the worst and begins bellowing “NO!” and tries to shoot the little girl, thinking she has become just like Michael Myers.

The little girl just witnessed a great deal of psychological trauma, was nearly killed by a deranged uncle she didn’t know she had, and then saw that same man mowed down in front of her. The kids dealing with a lot of stuff at that moment. Do you know what doesn’t help? A psychiatrist pulling a gun on her and threatening to shoot her because he thinks that she too is the embodiment of evil. Which, when you consider the dynamics of the next movie, this is entirely fucked up.

At least the sheriff is there to stop Sam from pulling the trigger this time.

So let’s do some math here: In this movie, Loomis offers to sacrifice himself, pulls his gun on countless people, almost shoots an innocent teenager, and also almost shoots a young girl who — although having just stabbed her step-mother — is acting out after an evening filled with traumatic experiences.

Does Loomis spend time in a jail cell? Does he get stripped of his ability to practice psychiatry? Does he himself get committed? Well…..

Loomis Spends the Entire Movie Gaslighting a Little Girl

Maybe don’t compromise the sterility of an operating room?

A year after the last movie, it is revealed that not only does Samuel Loomis continue to practice but he is also working a the Haddonfield Children’s Clinic. Yes, you read that right, they put this gun-happy, hysterical lunatic in charge of the mental health treatment of children. Specifically, that of Jamie Lloyd, the little girl he tried to fucking shoot at the end of the previous film.

The movie establishes that, due to the trauma she experienced, she is unable to talk and is haunted by constant nightmares where she relives those experiences. These night terrors are so bad that she needs to be monitored at night and doctors have to medically intervene. Also, the townspeople are upset that this little girl nearly stabbed her step-mother to death that they have gone to harassing her like she’s a 12-year-old environmental activist. On top of all this (because this poor kid can’t catch a break), Jamie also is (somehow?) mentally linked with Michael Myers who just happened to have survived their last encounter and starts up killing again after spending an entire year in a coma.

When the girl is suffocating and the doctors decide to cut open her trachea so she can breathe, Loomis barges into the operating room and interrupts the process, contaminating a sterile environment in the process. Why? Because he wants to force the girl to speak about what she is seeing. You know, because psychiatry is based on demanding someone to speak about their experiences.

By this point, Sam’s Captain Ahab Syndrome is gotten so bad that he hovers around this girl in the hopes that she can give him some insight on where Michael Myers is, completely ignoring her own mental health needs so he can resume his hunt for his great white Shatner mask. This, and not to make excuses, makes sense since he has been terrible at finding Michael Myers for over a decade.

I know you’re clearly upset but TELL ME! TELL ME ANYTHING! WHY ARE YOU CRYING!?”

However, despite the fact that he has someone who literally has a window into Michael Myer’s mind, he doesn’t act on the issue with any urgency. For example, early on in the film, Jamie has a vision of Michael murdering her step-sister. Loomis makes a phone call and when it is answered by Tina Williams, someone he hardly knows who assures him there is nothing wrong, he assumes everything is okay. Make up your mind Loomis, are you hunting Myers with frantic obsession or benign disinterest? Later on in the movie, when Jamie warns that Tina is in mortal danger, Loomis has the police rescue her at a convenience store where there is no immediate danger but later allows her to continue on to a party at a barn where teenagers are going to get drunk and have sex. It’s like Loomis is intentionally throwing these people in the metaphorical stump grinder while he’s between manic episodes.

When Loomis actually feels like doing something about Michael Myers he spends his time encroaching on Jamie’s personal space and shouting demands at her. To change it up, sometimes he also sternly shakes her. The little girl is in frightened tears but, apparently, further traumatizing this little girl is not one of his concerns.

Just in case I haven’t punctuated how disturbing this all is.

The other sick thing about all of this is that he does this while other people (other professionals even!) and almost nobody says a single thing. The only person who speaks up is a nurse who tells Loomis to leave the poor little girl alone. However, she doesn’t do anything other than this brief moment of shame.

If you aren’t convinced that Sam Loomis is terrible at caring for the well being of this child it gets worse because…

He Straight Up Loses the Kid

By the final act of the film, Jamie finally manages to start speaking (through no thanks to whatever kind of half-assed treatment that Loomis had been providing). However, nobody listens to her even Loomis — whose whole thing is literally hunting Michael Myers — she decides to sneak out of the clinic with another kid and nobody notices. I need to add the fact that they go AWOL in the middle of a Halloween pageant of which they are a central part of, and yet, nobody notices until well after this kid has thrown herself in danger. How much danger? Well…

Loomis you had one job….

Not only does Jamie almost get splattered on the front of the grill but she also fails to prevent the murder of Tina, something that she was desperately trying to warn everyone about for the whole second act of the film because apparently this little girl has not suffered enough trauma already. When Loomis and the police finally arrive on the scene, Myers has escaped yet again. On top of all of this, Loomis still isn’t done gaslighting this poor little girl. Chastising her for her apparent inaction even going so far as asking “Now are you willing to help me?” SHE’S BEEN TRYING TO DO THAT THE WHOLE FUCKING MOVIE YOU ASSHOLE! The kid is like 12, cut her some slack for fucks sake.

But this isn’t even the worst thing Loomis does in this movie, he saves the worst for last…

He Uses the Girl as Bait

He also points a gun at yet another police officer while doing it.

Now I want to stress, yet again, that I am not a mental health professional, however, I’m going make a bit of a hot take here and say this: It’s probably not a good idea to bring a traumatized child into the home of her abuser, especially if her well being is left to your care.

I really need to point out that this little girl thinks Myers is literally the boogeyman and nobody has made any effort to stop her from thinking this. Oh, and you better believe that they make it clear to her that not only are they taking her to a house where a number of brutal murders happened but also that the killer responsible is coming home to kill her. It’s also the house everyone in town fearfully refers to as haunted and has all the cobwebs and boarded up windows to fit the part.

Also, when I say Loomis uses Jamie as bait, I mean that literally as at the climax of the film he literally offers to hand the girl over to Myers. Unaware that this is a ruse this poor girl is left to believe that the man who has been charged with taking care of her well being is trying to hand her over to the dude trying to kill her.

Thanks, asshole.

Although Loomis manages to finally have Michael Myers arrested in the end, it’s not even five minutes before both Myers and Jamie are kidnapped by a mysterious man in black clothes because, by this point, the Halloween movies are not convoluted enough. While Sam couldn’t have foreseen a crazy ass cult trying to kidnap is two patients, he thinks that bringing the little girl that he has traumatized all fucking day to the police station and keeping her in the proximity of the violent psychopath trying to kill her is a smart idea. That level of incompetence is just baffling.

So what did Loomis do after his patients were kidnapped?

He Straight Up Retires

The memoirs of Samuel Loomis probably has more omissions than R. Kelly’s autobiography.

It’s six years between Halloween 5 and The Curse of Michael Myers and in that time Loomis has given up his obsessive search for Michael Myers and his missing niece so he can write his memoirs.

That’s right, not only does Loomis just give up on a nearly 30-year obsession but he also completely abandons the little girl that counted on him for protection. Remember, this is a guy who obsessively tried having Myers eliminated and harassed the fuck out of people to not stop looking for him.

I kind of get that Loomis is old by this point (Donald Pleasance was 75 and in poor health and also died while they were working on this movie.), but he has zero concerns about Jamie’s well being until she happens to call in to a shock-jocks radio show to plead with him for help.

Can we just stop for a minute to talk about how Back Talk with Barry Sims an analog for the Howard Stern show. Which raises some troubling questions since A) Loomis is shown listening to this radio show and B) Jamie knows to call the radio show in the off chance that Loomis is listening to it.

I get that Sims is doing a special episode about Michael Myers, but what professional psychiatrist would listen to something that would be obvious drivel unless they themselves were a fan of said show?

What makes Sam’s apparent apathy even more horrific is what happened to Jamie in the years after she was kidnapped. During that time, the crazy cult of druits was waiting for Jamie to hit puberty so her own uncle could impregnate her so that the baby could be their new more-inbred psycho killer… Or something.. .Look Curse of Michael Myers is a fucking mess of a movie so what the master plan here is not very clearly defined.

There’s not really much more to say here because surprisingly, Loomis isn’t a gun-waving lunatic in this movie. This muted performance probably has more to do with the fact that Donald Pleasance was in ill health more than anything else. In the producers cut of this movie Michael even ends up killing Loomis.

Epilogue

I think I’ve made a pretty clear case as to why Doctor Loomis was terrible at his job. Through five movies he had become more and more of an unhinged lunatic who was, at times, more damaging than his arch-nemesis. It’s no wonder when they retconned the franchise in Halloween: H20 and 2018’s Halloween they chose to ignore the events of the majority of the movies and presented Loomis as having a more professional, clinically detached, interest in trying to stop Michael Myers.

I’d also like to take this moment to say that in Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween and its 2009 sequel, the reimagining of Doctor Loomis (played by Malcolm McDowell) was a more believable character. Say what you will about Zombie’s take, that version of Loomis was more human. That version of Loomis callously capitalized on his experiences with Michael Myers and tried to rich off a true-crime book. I particularly like how 2009’s Halloween II was just as much (if not more) about Loomis selling out, realizing that he has become (in some ways) a worse monster than Michael Myers and then sacrifices his own life to help save the life of Laurie Strode.