Since this is the second Friday the 13th of 2015, why not go back to the well once more?
As has been pointed elsewhere, Friday the 13th took the rules established by Halloween and set them in iron. Friday the 13th, Part 2 made another rule: The film must have a sequel by any means necessary. The 1940's had plenty of sequels, but by the 1980's the rules were now how much money could you squeeze out of the franchise? Other rules were also established, as we'll see below.
Two months after the first ended, and Alice (Adrienne King) is still recovering. She lives by herself and is trying to move on after the deaths of her coworkers and her decapitating the crazed Mrs. Voorhees. The last one is rather hard to do, especially when someone enters her apartment and place the old woman's severed head in her fridge. Alice doesn't have long to register the shock though, as someone shoves an ice pick through her skull.
Five years later (either meaning this takes place in 1985 or the first film took place in 1976), and we see Jeff (Bill Randolph) and his girlfriend Sandra (Marta Kober) arrive at Crystal Lake. They're counselors attending a training seminar being held near the ruined Camp Crystal Lake. They hit a snag when their so called friend Ted (Stuart Charno) calls a buddy of his to tow their truck around the block. Ted is the practical joker of the bunch, in case you couldn't tell.
After everything is sorted out, and Ted not violently beaten for some reason, the trio make to the seminar. The head honcho, Paul Holtz (John Furey) greets them and introduces the rest of the cast. We have pretty boy Scott (Russell Todd), wheelchair bound jock Mark (Tom McBride), and gals Terry (Kristen Baker) and Vicki (Lauren-Marie Taylor). Paul's assistant and girlfriend Ginny (Amy Steel) arrives late and we notice some tension between the two.
That night around the campfire Paul brings his counselors up to speed. He mentions Mrs. Voorhees rampage and Alice's last stand, but here is where things get odd. Paul says 'old-timers' still talk about how Jason Voorhees still lurks in the woods around Crystal Lake and preys on those who wander into his domain.
Which is fine and a good campfire story, but if you'll recall the last film, what set this stupid thing in motion was Jason drowning when two counselors weren't watching him. Jason isn't mentioned to be a ghost (zombie boy at the end of the film notwithstanding) so he clearly lived-so why did his mother kill people?
After another practical joke from Ted, we see Jason in all his potato sacked glory as he strangles Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) to death. From there Jason goes into overdrive, picking off the local law enforcement before moving onto the rest of the cast. Ginny and Paul end up back at the camp and knee deep in the dead as Jason uses whatever is at hand to maim and kill.
Ginny proves to be a far better Final Girl than Alice, actually using her surroundings to hide and using her oft mentioned child psychology background to actually get one over on Jason. Honestly, you might be better off ignoring the first film and just starting with this. Less a sequel and more soft reboot of the first film, it flows a bit better, although that is damning with faint praise.
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