Halloween II (also known as simply H2) is a 2009 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie.

For Halloween II, Zombie decided to focus more on the connection between Strode and Myers, and the idea that they share similar psychological problems.

It was followed by Halloween in 2018, a direct sequel to the original 1978 film produced by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures.

During his time in Smith's Grove Sanitarium, a young Michael Myers is visited by his mother Deborah who gives him a white horse statuette as a gift.

Elsewhere, Michael, who is still alive and living as a drifter, has been having visions of his mother's ghost and a younger version of himself, who instruct him to reunite with Laurie.

Despite Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo being in negotiations to direct the sequel in November 2008,[9] Zombie reprised as both director, writer, and producer.

[10] In an interview, Zombie expressed how the exhaustion of creating the predecessor made him not want to come back for a sequel, but after a year of cooling down he was more open to the idea.

[11] He explained that with the sequel he was no longer bound by a sense of needing to retain any "John Carpenter-ness", as he "felt free to do whatever".

[8] After his work on the 2007 remake, Zombie had earned the trust of Akkad, who told him to ignore any rules they had set for him on the previous film.

[8] For the sequel, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Danielle Harris, Sheri Moon Zombie, and Brad Dourif returned to the roles of Michael Myers, Samuel Loomis, Laurie Strode, Annie Brackett, Deborah Myers, and Sheriff Brackett, respectively.

Taylor-Compton described her character as having "these bipolar moments",[16] where her emotions are spontaneously changing from points of happiness to agitation.

The actress explained that the darkness brewing inside Laurie is manifested externally, generally through her physical appearance and the clothes she chooses to wear—Zombie characterized the look as "grungy".

As Zombie explains, after Michael murdered her friends and family, Laurie became a "wreck", who continually sinks lower as the film moves forward.

Laurie, now completely insane, leaves the shack, picks up Michael's knife and walks over to Loomis' unconscious body.

According to Zombie, Carpenter's music did not fit with what was happening in the film; whenever he or Bates would insert it into a scene it "just wouldn't feel right" to the director.

[25] In addition, an album featuring the music of psychobilly band Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures was released in conjunction with Halloween II on August 28, 2009.

[28] The Weinstein Company, under their Dimension Films banner, released Halloween II in North America on August 28, 2009, to 3,025 theaters.

[citation needed] On its opening day, the film grossed an estimated $7,640,000,[39] which is less than the $10,896,610 Zombie's 2007 remake pulled in during the same weekend of August.

[41] Based on 83 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Halloween II has an overall 23% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 4.20/10.

The consensus reads, "Zombie shows flashes of vision in the follow-up to his Halloween reboot, but they're smothered by mountains of gore and hackneyed, brutal violence.

"[43] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "Generally Unfavorable reviews".

Nelson also stated that the hospital scene was nothing more than a "butcher"-version of Carpenter's 1981 sequel, with the rest of the film feeling like it was rushed and "slapped together" at the last minute.

He described Zombie's use of music from the 1970s, like The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" and 10cc's "The Things We Do for Love", as "terrifically odd" throughout the film.

Neumaier also said that the imagery of Deborah Myers and the "ethereal white horse" were a "nice visual relief" from Michael's violent attacks.

[5][7] On August 30 that year, the next film in the series, Halloween 3D, was announced by the Weinstein Company and planned to be released in 2010, retroactively establishing Laurie to have killed Loomis instead of Michael, with Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier scribing.

[49] The film was ultimately cancelled in 2012 after Bob and Harvey Weinstein decided to green light and prioritize Scream 4 (2011) instead.