Smith's Grove Sanitarium

Smith's Grove Sanitarium was a mental health facility and detainment center for the criminally insane. It was located 150 miles north of the town of Haddonfield in the state of Illinois.

Original Series
In November of 1963, young Michael Myers was taken to Smith's Grove after the brutal murder of his older sister Judith. Just after he turned seven, he met child psychologist Doctor Sam Loomis. Myers would soon become the driving force behind Loomis' career. The child was a blank, emotionless slate to Loomis, never speaking, barely even moving. Sam recognized the deep-rooted trauma in the boy's psyche and knew that special treatment would be required if he were to ever help him. Loomis petitioned his superior, Doctor Carpenter to have Michael moved to a private room, but Carpenter declined the request and insisted that Myers remained inside the open juvenile ward. Over the following year, Loomis paid close attention to Michael, but grew concerned when certain incidents began taking place. One such incident involved an injury relating to an older patient named Tony O'Malley. Tony suffered many of the same derangements as Myers, but unlike Michael, was prone to violent outbursts and displays of emotion. After witnesses recounted seeing O'Malley bullying the smaller Myers, he was soon discovered with a crayon lodged inside his brain. Nobody suspected that the virtually comatose Michael Myers could be capable of such an attack, but Loomis began to suspect otherwise. Another such incident took place in November of that year when a patient named Adrian Wade ate an entire birthday cake that was intended for Michael. He was later found in the shower room with 2nd degree burns all over his body. He died in the medical wing a short time later. Another boy, Roger, bit off his own tongue and choked to death. There was no obvious evidence linking Myers to these three deaths.

Over the span of the next several years, Loomis continued to treat Michael. He never gave up hope that he might be able to pull something out of the boy's withdrawn psyche.

Loomis also became close with a colleague named Doctor Jennifer Hill. Hill shared many traits with Loomis; she was politically liberal and held the same views as he concerning psychotherapy -- that "insanity was possibly the reaction of a sane mind to a sick society". The two eventually fell in love and were engaged to be married.

In 1971, Doctor Carpenter suggested having a Halloween party in the juvenile ward. Doctor Loomis was vehemently opposed to this idea given the significance of this particular date in relation to Myers. Again, Carpenter dismissed Loomis' concerns and the party went underway. A faulty generator knocked out the electricity during the party and when the power resumed, the staff discovered a girl named Nancy had apparently slipped, hit her head and drowned while bobbing for apples. Loomis noted the irony of the fact that she was seen teasing Michael only shortly before hand.

That same evening, Michael killed Doctor Jennifer Hill. Sam found her body lying on the ground outside the hospital. It appeared as if she had fallen from the roof of the building and her death was written off as a suicide. This proved to be the breaking point for Doctor Loomis. After spending eight years trying to reach him, he now committed himself towards making sure that Michael Myers never saw the light of day ever again. Acting as Michael's gatekeeper became an obsession with Loomis. He no longer regarded him as a human being, but as a monster and devil, the living epitome of pure evil.

In 1978, Michael, now 21, broke out of Smith's Grove, setting several other patients free as well. Loomis and his colleague, Marion Chambers, had arrived at the facility only moments after Michael's escape prompting Loomis to cry out, "He's gone! The evil is gone!" Loomis exchanged words with hospital administrator Doctor Terence Wynn, all but blaming him for the lax security measures employed by the hospital staff.

Revival Series
Smith's Grove was also a provincial setting in Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween. In the film, the hospital is shown in greater detail including visiting centers and patient rooms. Doctor Loomis conducted daily sessions with young Michael, often recording their conversations together. Michael's mother, Deborah Myers, would come to visit him once every week. A guard named Ismael Cruz was the floor warden for Michael's wing and grew quite close to the child. He always had a kind word for Michael and tried to cheer him up whenever possible. After a visit with his mother, Michael suffered another psychotic break and killed a staff member named Nurse Wynn with a fork. He was subdued and taken back to his room, but the pressure grew to be too much for Mrs. Myers and she took her own life shortly thereafter.

Michael spent the next fifteen years in isolation. Completely withdrawn now, he retreated into the private world of his masks, creating dozens of them which he used to decorate his cell. Loomis continued to council him, but Michael was completely unresponsive to treatment by this point. Eventually, the hospital staff decided to hold a competency hearing for Michael, to see whether or not he was fit to stand trial for his previous crimes. During the patient transfer, Michael broke free of his manacles and escaped, killing several hospital guards in the process.

Films that feature

 * Halloween (1978)
 * Halloween II (1981) (In flashback)
 * Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) (Referenced only)
 * Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
 * Halloween (2007)

Characters from
Original series
 * Marion Chambers
 * Michael Myers (Partient)
 * Sam Loomis
 * Stephen Lloyd
 * Terence Wynn

Remake series
 * Ismael Cruz
 * Koplenson
 * Michael Myers (Patient)
 * Morgan Walker
 * Noel Kluggs
 * Nurse Wynn
 * Patty Frost
 * Sam Loomis
 * Stan Payne
 * Zach "Z-Man" Garrett