Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 featured a much different, less likable Laurie Strode, and a subplot originally made her even easier to dislike. While both films proved divisive among the established Halloween fanbase, Zombie’s first Halloween film wasn’t really too bad, at least until it started copying scenes from John Carpenter’s original. Unfortunately, Zombie’s Halloween 2 chose to reverse course too far in the opposite direction, making a film truly unlike anything else in the venerable franchise.

Michael Myers spent the majority of Halloween 2 without his trademark white mask, instead looking like a bearded hobo. Dr. Loomis was transformed from heroic psychiatrist to insufferable jackass, and spent the majority of the sequel acting like a total jerk. And Laurie, well, she’s so damaged by surviving Michael’s rampage that at some points it seems she’d rather be dead. This renders her a pretty ineffectual character, and far from Jamie Lee Curtis’ resourceful original version.

Yet, all of the above off-putting character traits are even worse in Rob Zombie’s notably different director’s cut of Halloween 2. This is especially true of Laurie, who is extremely hard to like, and constantly lashes out at those around her. While that’s not necessarily unrealistic, it doesn’t make for a very relatable protagonist.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 Cut Out Laurie Subplot To Make Her More Likeable

Laurie Strode (as played by Scout Taylor-Compton) isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine in the theatrical cut of Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2, and for the most part, that’s understandable. Michael Myers put her through hell and killed people close to her, and that’s not something one gets over quickly, if ever. She’s also shocked by the revelation she’s Michael’s sister. That said, what’s realistic is not always what makes for an entertaining film. This is doubled down on in the director’s cut, which has Laurie explicitly suffering from PTSD and other flavors of mental illness, an element that memorably reemerged via Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween 2018. Hardest to take is her treatment of (temporarily) surviving best friend Annie, and their relationship is shown to be much, much more fractured in the director’s cut.

The biggest difference when it comes to Halloween 2’s treatment of Laurie Strode is her final fate. In the theatrical cut, Laurie seemingly loses her mind, stabs Michael to death, and is locked away in an asylum. In the director’s cut, Laurie goes even more crazy, and is shot by police while looking like she’s going to kill Loomis. The reason Laurie is portrayed so differently in Halloween 2’s cuts is that producers reportedly asked Rob Zombie to excise much of the scenes dealing with her mental issues in an effort to make the character more likable by audiences. Whether that worked is debatable, but the fact that Zombie hated the Weinsteins messing with his Halloween movies isn’t.

More: Rob Zombie’s Halloween Should Have Killed Michael Myers For Good

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