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Halloween: Legendary performance, Pleasence elevates the film with his amazing line delivery and haunting monologues.
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Halloween 2: More or less a continuation of his performance from the first film.
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Halloween 5: This is peak “crazy Loomis” and I love it. Pleasence goes all in and embraces it completely. It’s wacky and over the top but it is incredibly entertaining.
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Halloween 4: This is the beginning of “crazy Loomis”, you can begin to see his descent into madness as Michael keeps evading death and escaping from his grasp. His interactions with Jamie, Rachel, Sheriff Meeker, and the priest are especially great. I heavily considered putting this higher up on the list.
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Halloween 6: I’ve always found this to be a sad and tired portrayal of Loomis, it is obvious Pleasence’s health is deteriorating. Unintentionally the character of Loomis and Donald Pleasence almost seem to parallel each other in someways. It’s predominately a quiet and somber performance but fitting. Although he remains absent throughout most of the film, it’s still a worthy effort. It’s not bad, just lackluster due to a variety of different factors out of his control.
For me, it’s…
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween 2 (1981)
- Halloween 4
- Halloween 6
- Halloween 5
I think he was at his best in 1978, very calm and in control, but determined. Not crazy at all. In H2, I still loved his performance, being very similar to 1978, as it should be. I absolutely LOVE his dialogue about Samhain in H2. It’s very fitting, and only adds to the already dark nature of H2, which I love.
H4 is where he started to go a little crazy, but this was just the right amount I think. He was still that same Loomis from the first 2 films at his core, and certainly had some great moments and lines in H4. I’m not a fan of H6, but there’s just something humbling about seeing an older Loomis who’s STILL willing to go after Myers, though I agree it is very sad to see him at this stage, especially when you know he sadly passed away after filming. And finally, H5 is easily the worst Loomis performance in my opinion. Even Donald Pleasance himself said in an interview that he didn’t like what they did with his character in H5, and I completely agree with him.
He apparently had to drink just to get through it 
He’s just too plain crazy! It’s not even Loomis anymore. I get that some will say it makes sense for him to get crazier and crazier as time goes on dealing with Michael, but jeez it’s hard to watch. At least he does have a couple great lines in this one though, that’s one of the only saving graces of H5 in my opinion.
1, 4, 2, 6, 5.
Part 1 was perfection, the trendsetter.
Parts 1 and 4 felt like the same character. Part 4 also has that moment with Rev. Sayer that always makes me happy. There was a bit more urgency in him in part IV as the '78 incident confirmed in his mind everything he already believed in his heart.
2 was similar to 1 and 4, but he felt less urgent overall in his seeking of The Shape. There’s some manic scenes like the Ben Tramer scene and the “I shot him 6 times” scene (both of which felt too manic to me), but he felt slightly less Captain Ahab-y and his The Shape talk was less boogeymen-y and those manic scenes felt a bit out of character (but a precursor to his part 5 appearance). The Samhain speech in the car felt a little uncharacteristic, not as a psychiatrist- which it fits, but as someone that was just confirmed of the existence of the supernatural. It’s only a hair below 1 and 4 to me though.
Part 6 felt like classic Loomis, but his performance was muted due to his health at the time.
Part 5 felt almost like a different character, he was as crazed as one of his patients.
I really liked him only in the first two movies.
H1: The perfect performance. Calm but stern, with just the right amount of seriousness and fear. Really shows what the Shape is capable of just by speaking of him
H2: Continuation of H1 but with just an edge of craziness, which is understandable given how the first film ended
H4: Good mix of calm but serious, with just the right dose of crazy. My favorite of the “crazy Loomis” performences
H6: Good performance, more akin to H1 than the other films, but sadly he isn’t given much to do in either cut of the film
H5: Too over the top, I blame piss poor direction. Comes off as more of a raving drunk than a doctor. He’s still the best part of the film though
Well, since there was only 5 performances to begin with, I’m doing this a bit different, I’m going to list my 5 best scene performances:
H1:
- Go on, move…WAIT! The evil is gone from here!
- I met this 6 year old boy with this blank, pale, emotionless face…
H2:
3. Get out now!!..it’s time, Michael…
H4:
4. Leave those people in peace…Michael…***damn you…
- Michael Myers is in Hell, where he belongs…wha…NO!!! NO!!! NOOOO!!!
So there you have it, my top 5 Loomis scene performances. Those are the ones I qoute the most when I quote any of the Halloween films with him in it. I have some favorites from H5 and H6 as well, but they didn’t make my top 5.
Perfectly said, agree 100% bro nailed it
A great rating have to agree with u bro part 5 was something else lol
Seems I’m in the minority with placing H5 so high Totally understandable though it’s not exactly a good performance on Pleasence’s part, it falls into more of a so bad its good territory for me. It makes a rather unwatchable entry in the series, more bearable and that’s part of the reason I rank it higher than it should be. 1,2, and H4 are definitely Pleasence at his best.
Don’t get me wrong I actually enjoy crazy over the top Loomis. I just couldn’t think of any scenes that made it to my top 5 scenes, since I did my list by scene instead.
If I had a top 6, then number 6 would be: “Write, write, WRITE!!! Jamie please!! You know why he has this power over you, did you ever wonder…”