While filmmaker Rob Zombie fostered horror icon Michael Myers through his re-imagined version of "Halloween" two years ago, the character is completely the writer-director's baby now.

By creating a new mythology for Myers and dispensing of his William Shatner-like mask for "Halloween II," Zombie has effectively put a bold new face on one of the big screen's most notorious slashers after maintaining the integrity of John Carpenter's vision the first time around.

"The ball was pretty much completely in my court for this movie. Nobody asked or demanded that I do anything in particular," Zombie said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "I felt an obligation to keep certain aspects intact for sure, because I feel with a remake you want to try to strike that balance where there's enough new stuff that it feels like it was worth it doing the movie. Still, you don't want it to vary so far from it where people say, 'Why are they even calling this "Halloween"'? You're walking that tightrope all along."

"But with 'Halloween II,' which is a follow-up to my movie, I can do whatever I want," Zombie added. "The groundwork has now been made for my world."

Opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, "Halloween II" picks up at the point where the first film left off. Now in a fractured state of mind, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) must try to grasp again the fact that Myers (Tyler Mane) is back with a vengeance and won't stop at anything to take care of unfinished family business and bring closure to the secrets of his shattered past.

Zombie loved developing Strode's -- and Myers' -- states of mind in "Halloween II" because it makes it just as much of a psychological horror film than a bloody, physical one with intense kills.

"I think of the movie as a dark psychodrama," Zombie observed. "It's not just about seeing graphic images. First you have to get the audience caught up in the journeys of the characters and get inside their heads. Then, when the violent events happen, that's what disturbs the audience. People have seen so much violence in movies. You have to add much more to it than that."

Back From The Dead

Although the character of Myers' mom, Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie), was killed in the first film, Rob Zombie brought his actress-wife back for "Halloween II" to exist solely in the mind of her murderous son -- a character development that thrilled Sheri to no end.

"Bringing her back to life is like something you'd see in a soap opera," said Sheri Moon Zombie, laughing, in a separate @ The Movies interview. "I wasn't sure how Rob was going to make it work, but it's one of the best parts that I've ever played. For me, it's exciting because Deborah Myers was an original role that Rob wrote and added to the first 'Halloween.' It wasn't part of John Carpenter's vision. I'm just super-stoked to be the mother of one of the most iconic horror film characters."

The bonus of making Deborah Myers alive in the mind of Michael Myers in the new film (a mind in which he also examines his life as a child), was that Rob Zombie got to take the predominantly silent character to a place he's never been before.

"I always wanted Michael Myers as an adult to have some sort of voice and not just this scary guy with a mask," Rob Zombie explained. "By stepping inside his mind, and whether he's seeing his mother or seeing himself as a child, it just informs that character and gives him a different spin."

Sheri Moon Zombie said that new sort of character twist wouldn't be possible without Carpenter's openness to Rob Zombie's new ideas. In fact, she said, the legendary director was clearly confident in her husband's direction from the get-go.

"We had met John Carpenter years ago and Rob has kept in touch with him," she said. "He met him again before doing the first 'Halloween' and John was like, 'Dude, do whatever you want. Have fun.'"

As for the fan base that has followed the "Halloween" saga over the years, Rob Zombie said that he cannot let their thoughts about where films should go from here affect his direction in any sort of way. Even if only 10 people existed in the fan base, the musician-filmmaker knows that he'd have 10 different opinions to deal with, and effectively, he wouldn't have any time to get anything done.

"You can't be influenced by the fans -- whether it's 10 people or a million people – how would you try to satisfy that? You can't work that way," Zombie said. "When you're on the set, working, you have to have your mind set on what you are trying to accomplish. You cannot go to the set and think, 'Wow, there are all of these people and I'm trying to make all of them happy.' It would be an impossible task."

Basically, Zombie said you have to trust your gut instincts and live by the sword and die by the sword -- or, at least in the case of Michael Myers, a butcher knife.

"You have to do what you think is right, because at the end of the day you're going to have to live and die by your choices on things," Zombie said. "If people love the movie, great, and if they didn't like it, then they didn't like it. There's really nothing else you can do."