‘Halloween’ 2018: Dr. Samuel Loomis’ Fate Revealed in New Movie

When the new Halloween film was announced, many wondered if the movie would feature Dr. Samuel Loomis, and the character’s fate was finally revealed.

NOTE: Spoilers ahead for the Halloween franchise.

Near the beginning of the film, it is divulged that Dr. Loomis has since passed away and that now one of his protégés — Dr. Ranbir Sartain, as played by Haluk Bilginer (Buffalo Soldiers, Ben-Hur 2016) — is now Michael Myers’ primary psychiatrist.

Actor Donald Pleasence originated the role of Dr. Loomis in the very first Halloween film. He went on to reprise the role in Halloween II, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Pleasence passed away in 1995 before his final Halloween film was released, leading producers to dedicate the movie to his memory. The fate of the character was left up to uncertainty as Halloween 6 ended with the sounds of Loomis’ screams coming from a building the two were inside of together.

The new Halloween is a direct sequel to the original 1978 Halloween, so it would be tough to bring Dr. Loomis back in any way since Pleasence would be nearly 100 years old if he was still alive. Even if the film had recast, there just seems to be no logical way of having a 90+ year old actor execute the role in a way that would make sense. (Though, Carl Reiner is still working in films and he was born just a few years after Pleasence, so maybe it could have been possible.)

Pleasence’s role was played by another iconic actor at one point however, as Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Caligula) played Dr. Loomis in Rob Zombie’s remakes of Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).

Interestingly, the new Halloween was originally set to feature Dr. Loomis, but not for very long as an initial draft of the script had the film opening with his death. Director David Gordon Green revealed that Halloween co-creator — and horror film legend — John Carpenter talked them out of it.

“Originally they were going to have Donald Pleasence’s character get killed. And I thought, ‘That’s a mistake. The audience won’t like that. That’s a revision I don’t think we should do.’ So that was my one big contribution,” Carpenter reportedly said, as shared by Collider. “I thought the fans are gonna get pissed off at that. I don’t think you have to even deal with the ending of my movie; just start the movie where they did. I think that he did great.”

Halloween (2018) is now playing in theaters everywhere.