Watching Halloween 5 today, I felt that the Dr. Loomis character takes an interesting turn. He's been going downhill since the opening of the fourth part. The burning he suffered and the chase that always ends in failure truly have warped him into his own monster. He uses Jamie to lure Michael towards him for Petesake. He shakes and shrugs Jamie for Mikey's whereabouts, demanding to know *what she sees*. I like that the conclusion of the fifth film has Loomis and Michael together in the place *where it all began*. It is a fitting finale (or would have been if Pleasence, in poor health, wasn't himself lured back to the franchise for the sixth film) for the Loomis character. Initially he was supposed to die in this film. Maybe that would have been wise. He died trying to incapacitate his worst patient one last time. The *man in black* storyline allows Michael to escape *yet again*.
1989 was the beginning of the end (or maybe that was 1987 or so) for slashers. So this not making the kind of coin Akkad and company had anticipated kind of made sense. It wouldn't be for another seven years before the genre's resurgence with Scream in '96. Loomis being dragged out of his slumber for another film maybe was unfortunate for the franchise. His finally leaving the film here might have been ideal.
Just the same, Pleasence plays the doctor totally lost into his need to rid the world of Michael. His life exists at this point just to find and get rid of Michael, with nothing else important to him. His mission is to rid society of his own mistake...he was unable to help this kid, and decided that all that could be done was to lock him away and throw away the key. Many consider Loomis just as much a villain as Michael...he realized he couldn't help him so he decided that there was no other conclusion but to get rid of him, a cell where Mikey would remain until death. But evil has a way of not staying locked up. So Loomis must, to the very end, hunt down the patient he couldn't cure, he couldn't help.
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