In the original 1978 film Halloween, Donald Pleasence was the only really known actor cast in it. He had a string of great characters he played prior to taking on the role of Michael Myers' pursuer, Dr. Sam Loomis. A character named after the role in Psycho, a film that John Carpenter and Debra Hill were very inspired by when making Halloween. But it really is the character of Loomis that most film lovers remember Pleasence as. There are a lot of great contributions to Halloween and its sequels, but Pleasence really elevates the film from being just another slasher. His vibe in the original one matches its ominous, foreboding tone. And by the time we reach some of his later performances in the franchise, you wonder if he's just as crazy as Michael Myers.
Loomis had dialogue unmatched by other characters in the Halloween franchise. They were dramatic, dreadful, and oftentimes Shakespearean. And they matched up with the glare in his eyes that is drawn from the idea that evil is walking among us. Here are the best quotes by Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween franchise.
12 "This house is sacred to him, he has all his memories here" - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers continues the plot line that Myers is the figure of an evil cult. It gets a bad rap, but with there being a producer's cut out there, there seems to be a reason for a lot of the choppiness of the theatrical cut now. It would be the final time we saw Donald Pleasence in the role of Dr. Loomis, as he would pass away earlier in that year. This quote from the film makes the list because it's just another example of Pleasence using not-great material and still making it spooky. The context of it is that he is speaking to Debra Strode, who lives in Michael's home. Loomis pleads with her to pack up and leave before Michael returns, and as usual, he does.
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11 "He's gone from here! The bloody evil is gone."- Halloween (1978)
The original Halloween set the standard for the slasher, with serial killer Michael Myers stalking a group of babysitters on Halloween night. The second scene in Halloween consists of Dr. Loomis and Nurse Chambers making their way to transport Michael Myers from the insane asylum. It's a dark and rainy night, and the shadows cast across Loomis' face set the tone for the film. Although there isn't much sense to be made as the two pull up to the gate and see patients roaming around the lawn on a rainy night, it's easily forgotten when Michael Myers jumps on the roof and escapes while Loomis talks to a guard. Myers gets in the old station wagon and drives off. Loomis, unable to swoop in and stop in time, screams this line out into the night.
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10 "This isn't a man" - Halloween (1978)
One of the best things in the original Halloween is Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) hanging around the old Myers house to see if Michael would show up. It's utter dread to know that as Sheriff Brackett does his job tending to Loomis' belief that Michael is out there committing murder, that in fact one of his victims ends up being Brackett's own daughter. In a scene where Loomis and Brackett get into the old Myers home, they find an eaten bird on the ground. Brackett says, "A man wouldn't do that." Loomis, in a soft yet spooky manner, replied, "This isn't a man."
9 "It's his game, and I know where he wants to play it" - Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Loomis always had the perfect line of dialogue to end a scene and propel the story forward. When the second act of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers ends, many characters have been killed off by Michael Myers. He has also kidnapped Kara and Danny and brought them to Smiths Grove Sanitarium. The two men who can put an end to this and go save the day are Loomis and Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd). Loomis knows where Kara and Danny have been taken by saying this line to Tommy.
8 "...He's here to kill that little girl and anyone who gets in his way" - Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Dr. Loomis sure knows how to go from zero to a hundred real quick. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers would bring Michael back to the franchise as he would return to Haddonfield to hunt down his niece (Danielle Harris). After a long, all-day trip to Haddonfeild, where there were "six bodies and a filling station in flames!" Loomis unloads on the local police, warning them that Michael Myers was in town and out to kill his niece. His compelling argument got very heated, but it got the cops off their bums and ready to do battle with a masked killer.
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7 "He came home" - Halloween (1978)
Donald Pleasence was the biggest name at the time in John Carpenter's low-budget horror movie, Halloween. They had to schedule all his scenes in one week because they could only afford to shoot him for five days. So in one swooping shot from the car, across the cemetery lawn, Loomis and a groundskeeper look for Judith Myers' headstone (Michael's sister, whom he kills in the opening scene).
When they come across a grave with a headstone ripped out, Loomis asks, "Whose grave is it?" The groundskeeper takes a beat and sees that it's Judith Myers grave. Pleasence takes the simple line "He Came Home" and says it to himself almost as if his worries have come true, and he was right in his intuition that this would happen. It is also a line that would get adjusted to become the tagline for the film, "The night he came home."
6 "I prayed that he would burn in hell. But in my heart, I knew hell would not have him" - Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers picks up merely minutes right after Halloween 4. A wounded Michael Myers heals for nearly a year in an old shack on the edge of town but rises back up a year later on Halloween to hunt down his niece, who is now confined to a mental institution. Halloween 5 isn't the most loved entry in the franchise, and by this time, Loomis may even be just as insane as Michael Myers is. In a scene with Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr), Loomis shows off his burn scars on both his face and hand from Halloween II. He utters this chilling line about Michael and how he knew even an explosion could not stop him and send him to hell.
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5 "It's time, Michael" - Halloween II (1981)
Halloween II is a continuation of the night in the first film and is a slasher that has had a huge impact on the genre. Michael is now on the loose and has made his way over to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to finish the job on Laurie Strode. Loomis, however, spends most of the movie on a trail of Michael that runs dry until the film's final moments, when he learns of Laurie's whereabouts. As the standoff between Loomis and Michael escalates in a hospital room that is loaded with gas tanks, Loomis decides there's only one way out of this. He lights a match to ignite an explosion and utters the line, "It's time, Michael."
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4 "I SHOT HIM SIX TIMES!" - Halloween II (1981)
In the closing moments of Halloween, Loomis shoots Michael Myers with a pistol six times, and Michael falls from the top floor of a house to the ground below. When Loomis goes to check on him, he's gone. Halloween II picks up mere minutes after the end of the film. We meet Loomis running around, frantically saying "I SHOT HIM SIX TIMES", one of which is a POV shot from a wounded Michael's perspective as he wanders around the back alleys of Haddonfield. We seem to hear Loomis yelling into a car, notifying him that this man is not human. Donald Pleasence knew how to deliver dramatic lines to pull the audience into the horror of it all. It's a saying quoted by horror fans and memed all over the internet.
3 "Death has come to your little town, Sheriff" - Halloween (1978)
In Halloween, as Dr. Loomis looks on at the old Myers house, wondering when Michael is going to show up, he then encounters some kids daring each other to go inside the house. With Loomis hiding in the bushes, he makes a creepy voice to scare the kids off. A slight bit of humor in a suspenseful film. What follows is Sheriff Brackett checking back in on Loomis and letting him know that there is no sign of a psychopath on the loose. But Loomis is, of course, sure of it. He reminds Brackett that he's spent years watching Michael look at a wall and not seeing the wall, thinking about this night. And something awful is about to happen.
2 "You don't know what death is" - Halloween II (1981)
Leave it to Loomis to have a perfectly timed line delivery. Most of his dialogue is loaded with monologues and dramatic flare in his word choice. But this one is delivered almost carefree; he's seen some things now that the common man hasn't. He's seen a man get up after six shots and walk away. It's a line delivered in the opening moments of Halloween II as Loomis discovers Michael is missing, and a nearby neighbor comes out and chimes in, saying he's been "trick 'r treated to death tonight". Loomis' rebuttal is gold. It's also a line that works with a brilliant music cue of the Halloween II theme and a cut to black to roll the opening credits of the film. It's the chef's kiss in terms of a cinematic moment that makes you sit up in your chair and gear up for the wild ride of Halloween II.
1 "...The blackest eyes, the Devil's eyes" - Halloween (1978)
When John Carpenter was in college, he took a psychology class where he visited a sanitarium on a class trip. He apparently saw a man there who had a look to him that shook him to his core. The description of the man was molded into what Loomis says in his iconic monologue at the midway point of Halloween. Donald Pleasence plays the scene brilliantly. At first, he's a little nervous to be around Sheriff Brackett. He gets scared easily by a window breaking from a part of a gutter hitting it. He then takes the nerves he has and channels them into describing Michael and the impression he left on him.
Monologues like this didn't really happen in little independent films at the time. Nor could you get an actor to really hit it out of the park like Pleaseance does here. He's spooky, but he also plays it with a hint of melancholy as he describes what he knew was boiling under the surface of Michael Myers. To think great actors like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were considered and even offered the role of Loomis, and yet still the right man was cast and delivered one of the most iconic performances in horror film history.
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