Halloween II

The film opens on a flashback to Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Young Michael Myers gets a visit from his mother Deborah, who gives him a white toy horse.

Then it picks up the moment the 2007 film ends. Laurie Strode wanders the streets of Haddonfield in shock, covered in blood, after shooting Michael. Sheriff Lee Brackett finds her and rushes her to the hospital. Paramedics pick up Annie Brackett and Dr. Sam Loomis, who both survived. Michael's body goes in a separate ambulance. After a traffic crash he wakes up and kills the paramedic. He shows up at the hospital, kills several nurses and a security guard hunting for Laurie, and chases her out of the building. He catches her and stabs her, and Laurie wakes up. The whole hospital sequence was a nightmare.

A year has gone by. Laurie lives with Sheriff Brackett and Annie, who is scarred but steadier than Laurie. Michael is missing and presumed dead. Laurie is in therapy and falling apart, with a grungy new look and violent mood swings. Loomis has turned the murders into a new book and a celebrity career, and he is out on tour. The public blames him for Michael and for cashing in on the dead. At one signing, Lynda's father Kyle Van Der Klok pulls a gun on him, and it turns out not to be loaded.

Michael is alive, living as a drifter. He sees visions of his mother's ghost with the white horse, telling him it is time to bring the family home. He works his way toward Haddonfield, killing the owners of a farm and their dog on the way. At the same time Laurie starts having hallucinations of her own.

When Loomis's book comes out, Laurie learns from it that she is really Angel Myers, Michael's lost baby sister. Wrecked, she goes to a Halloween party with her co-workers Mya Rockwell and Harley David to try to escape. Michael turns up at the party and kills Harley. That night he also kills Big Lou Martini, the owner of the Rabbit in Red strip club where his mother used to dance. Then he goes to the Brackett house, where Annie is home alone, and stabs her.

Laurie and Mya come home to find Annie on the floor, and Annie dies in Laurie's arms. Michael kills Mya and comes after Laurie, who gets out of the house. Sheriff Brackett arrives and finds his daughter dead. Laurie flags down a car, but Michael kills the driver and flips the car over with her inside. He carries her to an abandoned shack in a field, where she wakes to visions of their mother, which both she and Michael can now see.

Police surround the shack. Loomis arrives and goes inside to try to talk Michael down. When he tries to get Laurie out, Michael stabs him to death. Brackett shoots Michael through the shack window and he falls onto a rake. Laurie, apparently free of the visions, walks over and stabs Michael with his own knife. The door opens and Laurie walks out wearing Michael's torn mask. The last scene shows her locked in a psychiatric ward, grinning as her mother's ghost walks toward her with the white horse.

Story notes

• One year after the previous film's attack, Laurie struggles with trauma while Michael Myers continues toward Haddonfield, driven by visions and a violent fixation on reuniting his family.

Release facts

• Status: Released. Opened August 28, 2009 on 3,025 Screens in North America. Uk Release October 9, 2009. Re-released in North America on October 30, 2009 on 1,083 Screens for Halloween Weekend.
• Runtime: 105 minutes theatrical (BBFC 105:25); the unrated director's cut is longer
• Worldwide: $39,421,467 per Box Office Mojo; $38,512,850 per The Numbers

Dimension released Halloween II on August 28, 2009, the same weekend as The Final Destination. It made about $7.64 million on opening day, below the 2007 film's $10.9 million, and $16,349,565 for the weekend, more than the entire runs of Halloween III, 5 and The Curse of Michael Myers. It fell 64.9 percent to $5,745,206 in its second weekend, dropping from third to sixth, and to fourteenth with $2,114,486 in its third. The October 30 Halloween re-release brought in only about $475,000. It finished with $33,392,973 domestic and $6,028,494 overseas for $39,421,467 worldwide per Box Office Mojo.

Reviews were negative. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 25 percent from 85 reviews with a 4.6 average, and Metacritic gives it 35 from 17 critics. Rob Nelson of Variety called the white horse imagery silly, disliked the switch to 16mm and said the rest felt slapped together. Time Out New York said the hospital opening beat the 1981 sequel in almost every way and praised Taylor-Compton's commitment. Tom Russo of The Boston Globe called the dream scenes pretentiously silly but compared them to Tim Burton doing straight horror. Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News liked it, calling it a successful character-based monster flick and the 1970s song choices terrifically odd.

The British Film Institute picked it as the best horror film of 2009 and called it the best Halloween film since the original.

In 2019 Quentin Tarantino told Consequence of Sound he was a big fan of both Zombie films. He said Danielle Harris steals the second one, Brad Dourif is terrific in it, and it works because it can go its own way.

Zombie said in July 2009 that he would never make a third. On August 30, 2009, the Weinstein Company announced Halloween 3D for 2010, written by Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier, which would have revealed that Laurie killed Loomis. It was pulled from the 2012 schedule, and Dimension lost the rights in 2015. Blumhouse picked up the series in 2016.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Halloween II (2009) poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

At the Halloween: 30 Years of Terror convention in 2008, Malek Akkad confirmed a sequel to the 2007 remake. Zombie was not planning to come back, so Akkad's Trancas International Films hired writers for a normal sequel, and none of the drafts worked. Akkad and Harvey and Bob Weinstein then turned to Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, whose film Inside the Weinstein Company had bought, and the pair were in talks to direct in November 2008. Akkad felt something was lost in translation and wanted Zombie back.

Zombie said the first film left him burned out and he never wanted to hear the word Halloween again. After a year off, he warmed to the idea because he wanted to keep control of his Michael, his Laurie and his world. Variety reported on December 15, 2008 that he would write, direct and produce. Akkad told him to ignore the franchise's old rules. Zombie said he felt free of any need to keep things Carpenter-like.

Zombie built the sequel around Laurie. The image of her bloodied, holding the gun at the end of the 2007 film, stuck with him, and he wanted to show her sliding into madness. Scout Taylor-Compton said Laurie has bipolar moments and does not know Michael is her brother at the start. Zombie wanted Sheriff Brackett worn out and beaten down, trying to handle two damaged girls. Brad Dourif got more screen time. Loomis was written as a sellout, and Zombie said he channeled Vincent Bugliosi, the Manson prosecutor who wrote a bestseller about the case. McDowell said he enjoyed gently pulling the legs of pop doctors.

Daeg Faerch was signed to return as young Michael and shot briefly in Georgia, but he had grown too tall for the script and Zombie reluctantly recast the part with Chase Wright Vanek. Test shots of Faerch showed up in the first trailer, which Zombie said was never intended. Zombie called Daniel Roebuck and said the Frankenstein guy in the script should be Lou Martini.

Production started February 23, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia, on a $15 million budget. Zombie said Georgia's tax breaks helped, but the real reason was that his other planned locations were still snowed in, and Georgia had the look he wanted. He described the film as ultra gritty, ultra intense and very real. It was shot on 16mm film instead of the 35mm of the first film, a choice Variety's critic disliked. Some filming also took place in New Milford, Connecticut.

Zombie is known for shooting a lot of coverage and alternate takes. He filmed an alternate ending in which Michael and Loomis burst out through the shack wall into the headlights of the police cars. Loomis claws at Michael's mask and begs him to stop, and Michael stabs him in the gut and growls "Die!" Police kill Michael, and when a crazed Laurie picks up the knife and walks toward Loomis, they shoot her too, against Brackett's orders.

Lou's death was first shot with an unmasked Michael, who just threw Lou into a locker. The reshoot put the mask back on and gave the scene more action, according to Daniel Roebuck.

Halloween II was the last Halloween film Dimension made before losing the rights in 2015.

Bill Moseley was the first actor made up as horror host Uncle Seymour Coffins, shooting playback footage for the Phantom Jam party. Another film got in the way of his next dates, so the part went to Jeff Daniel Phillips. Toth based the makeup on Vincent Price in Madhouse.

Roebuck recalled that Lou’s original death scene featured an unmasked Michael; reshoots restored the mask and expanded the sequence.

Zombie called Roebuck three or four weeks before filming to turn the script’s Frankenstein-costumed character into Lou Martini; Roebuck then traveled to Atlanta.

Zombie initially resisted a sequel after the exhausting 2007 production, then returned because he wanted to retain control of his versions of the characters.

The image of a bloodied Laurie holding a gun at the end of Halloween inspired Zombie to build the sequel around her psychological trauma.

Zombie used more of Tyler Mane’s unmasked face because he found the actor’s expressions especially intense.

McDowell approached the returning Loomis as a celebrity doctor who had profited from the tragedy and was promoting a book.

Filming locations

• Atlanta, Georgia: Production base; filming started there February 23, 2009
• New Milford, Connecticut: Additional photography
• Production began February 23, 2009 in Georgia, with Atlanta, Covington, Decatur and Madison among the principal locations; additional photography later took place in New Milford, Connecticut. Covington's town square supplied the Haddonfield Halloween-festival material.

Effects and makeup

Wayne Toth returned as special makeup effects designer. He told Shock Till You Drop he had less prep time than on the first film and ten times the makeup effects. He called the approach gritty and realistic, with a lot of blood but few insert shots, filmed in a voyeuristic way.

Toth started the new Myers mask from a clay copy of the 2007 mask and made big changes. There are a couple of versions for the jump in time, none of them the same as the first film's mask, and the one near the end is the most different. He said the licenses needed to sell masks to fans had been tied up for years.

Toth used two blood formulas: the old Karo syrup recipe and a newer, less sticky one made with a food thickener, which he used for pumping blood. The color is darker than real blood, which he said looks more visceral.

Toth said Michael is out of the mask for at least 70 percent of the film, with an exposure look like a homeless man's cracked skin and a beard. Because Michael only uses a knife, the team looked for ways to vary the wounds. A nurse whose throat was supposed to be slit got slit across the lips instead.

Douglas Noe did Daniel Roebuck's age makeup and sideburns. Toth made the Frankenstein's Monster makeup Roebuck wears during the Haddonfield festival.

The makeup effects team included Gino Crognale, Bart Mixon, Brian Rae, Chris Zega, Michael Deak, Jake McKinnon, Don Lanning, Shane Morton and Jamie Grove. Mark Dornfeld supervised the visual effects.

Wayne Toth returned as special makeup effects designer and described the sequel as carrying roughly ten times the makeup-effects workload of the previous film. The department used both traditional Karo-syrup blood and a less-sticky food-thickener formula for pumping blood gags.

Douglas Noe handled age makeup for Dan Roebuck while Toth built the Frankenstein's Monster makeup seen during the Haddonfield festival, expanding the practical character work beyond Michael's injuries and masks.

Wayne Toth described the sequel’s makeup-effects approach as grittier and more observational than the first film’s, with an emphasis on realism.

Props and costumes

Michael goes without his mask for most of the film and ends it in a torn mask that Laurie puts on. Taylor-Compton said the new look shows him trying to hide.

Laurie's grungy clothes and appearance were chosen to show her mental state getting worse through the film.

Vintage Don Post Studios masks appear in the background of the Halloween festival scenes after Daniel Roebuck got permission from Don Post Jr.

The white horse Deborah gives young Michael is the film's main recurring prop, showing up in the visions and in the last shot.

A production-used metal Bowie knife used by Tyler Mane, with a storage sheath signed by Rob Zombie, was offered at Propstore's Los Angeles Spring 2026 auction with a $5,000 to $10,000 estimate.

Mary E. McLeod and Sue Gandy designed the costumes.

The Myers masks were not simple carryovers from the 2007 production: Toth began from a clay copy of the earlier design but created multiple new states for the time jumps and progressively damaged look.

Period Don Post masks appear as background festival/wardrobe dressing after production secured permission to use them, adding licensed vintage mask designs directly into the film's Halloween-world texture.

Production artifacts

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Tyler Bates composed the score. Zombie and Bates tried to fit John Carpenter's theme into several scenes, but Zombie said it never felt right, so it plays only over the final scene.

Halloween II (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Hip-O Records, August 25, 2009, 45:48. Songs: "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues, used most prominently in the film; "The Things We Do for Love" by 10cc; "Amerarockers" by Scream; "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5; "(I Know) I'm Losing You" by Rod Stewart; "The Chase Is Better Than the Catch" by Motorhead; "Transylvania Terror Train" and "Honky Tonk Halloween" by Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures; "I Just Want to Make Love to You" by Foghat; "Time to Die" by Void; "Love Hurts" by Nan Vernon; and the Tyler Bates cues "Therapy" and "Nurse Killa." Dialogue tracks feature Scout Taylor-Compton, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif, Dayton Callie, Daniel Roebuck, Malcolm McDowell, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Chris Hardwick. It reached 23 on Billboard's soundtrack chart and 33 on the UK soundtrack chart.

Halloween II (Original Motion Picture Score), Milan Records, August 25, 2009, 50:41, produced by Tyler Bates. Tracks: Halloween Theme 2009, I Killed A Man, White Horse, Stairs, Love Shack, I Won't Let You Down, Killing Field, I Found Boo, Rabbit in Red, Can I See the Pig?, Van Kill, Surveillance, I'm Angel Myers, Brackett Finds Annie, We Are Family and H1 Killing Spree. Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK gave it half a star. Bates's scores got new vinyl pressings in 2020.

Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures is a fictional psychobilly band in the film, fronted on screen by Jesse Dayton. An album of its music came out August 28, 2009.

Nan Vernon, who recorded "Mr. Sandman" for the 2007 film's end credits, recorded a cover of "Love Hurts" for this one.

Waxwork Records pressed Rob Zombie's Halloween II soundtrack on 180-gram orange, red and magenta swirl vinyl in tip-on gatefold jackets, with Robert Sammelin art, Zombie liner notes, a 12x12 20-page booklet of unreleased set photos from his collection and a 12x12 art print.

Soundtrack releases

Home Media

• DVD and Blu-ray, US, January 12, 2010, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, with separate rated theatrical and unrated director's cut editions. Zombie said the director's cut is very different from the theatrical version. The Blu-ray carried a $38.95 list price.
• Wikipedia says the theatrical cut is available on Blu-ray only in a Canadian double-feature disc with the theatrical cut of the 2007 Halloween, though that claim is marked as needing a citation.
• Halloween: The Complete Collection Blu-ray box set, September 23, 2014, from Scream Factory and Anchor Bay, in 10-disc standard and 15-disc Limited Deluxe editions. Blu-ray.com lists the theatrical cut for Halloween II in the set.
• The Numbers estimates domestic disc sales at $9,111,069 on DVD and $2,395,812 on Blu-ray.
• Rob Zombie's Halloween II soundtrack on vinyl from Waxwork Records, and Tyler Bates's score on vinyl in 2020.

• Halloween II (2009) Dream Mask, Trick or Treat Studios, officially licensed.
• Halloween II (2009) Michael Myers mask, Trick or Treat Studios.
• Halloween II (2009) Bowie Knife replica, Trick or Treat Studios.
• Halloween II (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) CD, Hip-O Records, 2009.
• Halloween II (Original Motion Picture Score) CD, Milan Records, 2009.
• Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures album, released August 28, 2009.
• Rob Zombie's Halloween II soundtrack LP, Waxwork Records.
• Trick or Treat Studios Halloween II (2009): Dream Mask, cataloged for Halloween II (2009).

The catalog

• Official trailer — HalloweenMovies.com

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Effects

Props

Merchandise