Welcome to the final Behind The Scenes Saturday post for Spooky Season!! I’ve debated on doing a BTS post on Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. Although it was widely disliked, it’s one of my favorite films in the entire Halloween franchise, so I decided to go ahead and create this post. It was brutal, intense, realistic, and it made such an impact on me. I hope you enjoy!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com, facebook.com, and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

(WARNING: PICTURES MAY CONTAIN GRAPHIC MATERIAL)

• The film’s director, Rob Zombie had absolutely no intention of making a sequel to his 2007 Halloween film. However, the studio decided to go forward with the sequel against Rob’s wishes. He didn’t want someone else ruining his vision, so he decided to come back and write and direct this film.
• Daeg Faerch came back to reprise his role as young Michael Myers and even filmed a few scenes for this sequel. Unfortunately, he was too noticeably grown up since shooting the last film, so he had to be replaced and his scenes had to be reshot with a younger actor. To be fair, I think Chase Wright Vanek did a great job as Michael in this film!
• Laurie Strode’s (Scout Taylor-Compton) real name was Angel Myers in this film. That name was chosen to show that she was the exact opposite of her brother, Michael Myers (Tyler Mane).

• When Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) says, “Let me make things nice and sparkling clear,” this was a reference to McDowell’s most famous character, Alexander DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange.
• The sudden change of Loomis’s character in this film was Malcolm McDowell’s idea. He told Rob Zombie that he didn’t want to give the same performance as he did in the first film, so Zombie based Loomis’ new egotistical and self-absorbed nature on Dr. Phil.
• For the role of Gary Scott, Sid Haig was the one who recommended Richard Brake to Rob Zombie. Since then, Brake has become a Zombie regular, later appearing in 31 and 3 From Hell.

• Rob Zombie once stated that Black Christmas was one of his favorite horror films. It’s probably no coincidence that he named Margot Kidder’s character Barbara in this film, considering that was also her name in Black Christmas.
• Because Rob Zombie is a big fan of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, he asked Caroline Williams – who played Stretch in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 – to cameo as Dr. Maple in this film.
• When Weird Al Yankovic was approached to appear in the film, his only condition was that he got to wear whatever he wanted.

• This film had the worst studio interference that Rob Zombie ever experienced. He had such a miserable experience working with the Weinsteins, that he’s since disowned his Halloween films.
• Bill Moseley was actually supposed to appear in this film as the bouncer at the strip club, Howard Boggs. However, studio interference caused him to quit the film. Rob Zombie had to work quick to find a replacement but there was no time to hold new auditions. Jeff Daniel Phillips was already cast as Uncle Seymour Coffins in the film, but he stepped in to play Howard as well. That’s why we see Phillips as two different characters in the film.
• While filming the first Halloween, Betsy Rue was originally supposed to play Lynda. However, scheduling conflicts forced her to drop out and had to be replaced by Kristina Klebe. As a favor, Rob Zombie gave her the role of Jazlean Benny in this film.

• Along with the major studio interference causing problems, Rob Zombie was also convinced that money from the film’s production budget was being stolen by crew members.
• At the start of production, Rob Zombie had to ship a few days worth of filming to development. The airport security put the film canisters through the x-ray, completely destroying the footage and forcing several days of re-shoots.
• In the Director’s Cut commentary, Rob Zombie said that in the original ending, all three characters died and the scene we see at the end with Laurie in the psychiatric ward is in fact her final thought before she died.

• Rob Zombie wanted to kill off all the main characters to make sure that there wouldn’t be another Halloween film. Just like last time, the studio wanted yet another sequel against Zombie’s wishes. He ended up putting his foot down and walking away from the franchise, and after this film failed with critics and audiences, plans for a third film was eventually scrapped. After many years of the franchise being dormant, the rights to Halloween were surrendered to Universal and Blumhouse, and that’s when we were able to get the new Halloween film in 2018.
• It’s been stated that the hospital scene in the beginning of the film was an homage to Halloween II (1981), which took place in a hospital. However, Rob Zombie denied this, saying he didn’t like that movie.
• For Rob Zombie’s Halloween films, the franchise’s producer Malek Akkad gave him permission to ignore his father’s demands for the franchise. Moustapha Akkad had a list of rules that every Halloween director had to follow: the most famous rule being that Michael Myers can never be killed off. However, Malek let Zombie do whatever he wanted, and Zombie tried (unsuccessfully) to kill Michael for good by having Laurie shoot him right in the face in the first film.
• Scout Taylor-Compton once told Daily Dead that her favorite albeit most difficult scene she ever shot was when Laurie had to watch Annie (Danielle Harris) die. She stated, “That scene gets to me so much. It’s the only scene I’ve ever done in my career, of any horror movies, that I wasn’t able to handle. I had to walk off set after my close-ups, because I just couldn’t stop crying. It just felt so real to me because Danielle is like a sister, so just seeing her like that was absolutely heart-wrenching. That was definitely my favorite scene that I have ever done, and it was the hardest.”