Rob Zombie spent too long rescuing Michael Myers from the bloody scrap heap of desecrated horror slayers to watch another writer or director butcher his resurrection of the "Halloween" franchise. He'd walked away two years ago after his remake of the 1978 original and had no intention of returning to the terrorized town of Haddonfield, Illinois, for a sequel.

And then Zombie saw what other filmmakers were planning to do with the machete-wielding Myers, and his blood began to boil. "I just got protective of the series, because I had spent so much time trying to revive the whole thing that it looked like they were just going to go back in and destroy it," he told MTV News.

Zombie had seen what had happened to the franchise as creative players came and went over the decades and Myers became an increasingly absurd caricature. He couldn't let the killer be mistreated once again. "Every one had a different director, a different guy playing Michael Myers, a different story line," he said. "They're shooting off in all different directions."

With "Halloween II" finished and arriving in theaters Friday, the director sees his two films as the most complete package in the entire, 10-film series. The newest "Halloween" picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor, as Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) wanders into the Haddonfield town square, covered in blood after her previous battles against the mask-wearing Myers. She's picked up by the sheriff and taken to the hospital for what Zombie promises is merely the first of the film's gruesomely realistic scenes. Everyone in town, from Laurie to Sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad Dourif) to Myers' old shrink Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) are struggling to deal with the life-altering fallout from Meyers' bloodbath. And, of course, it's only a matter of time before that wily psychopath shows up again.

With the sequel, Zombie said he was freed from the burden of remaking someone else's material — "You can never find that groove," he said — and had free reign to create fresh plotlines and character arcs. It was both an artistic impulse and the result of fan feedback from the 2007 film.

"Everybody liked the stuff that was different, new," he said. "There was nobody raising their hand going, 'Yes, please give me more of the same old crap! I love seeing the same old crap!' Even though studios seem to think that's what everybody wants, nobody wants it."

Check out everything we've got on "Halloween II."

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