What do you do when you have a low budget horror movie that generated loads of cash? You make a sequel, of course. You give little thought to the story line or the special effects so you can crank out that piece of crap as fast as you can. And that's exactly what we have here with Friday the 13 Part 2.

As far warning, there are a number of statements made in this review that are SPOILERS for the original Friday the 13th. If you're unfamiliar with the plot of that movie, please don't read any further. Consider yourselves forewarned.

The movie opens with Adrienne King reprising her role as Alice, last girl from the original. We get our recap of important events from the previous movie by way of her reliving them in a nightmare. This is followed by a fun montage of cliches from horror movies; an obligatory – but non-nude - shower scene, a ghost call, and a couple of others. One involves everyone's favorite horror diversion – a cat. It's pretty clever and fun. Unfortunately, this will mark the end of most of the enjoyment that can be found in this sequel.

We cut to the unnamed home town of the now defunct Camp Crystal Lake. The locale is very familiar and so is Crazy Ralph, still playing the role of the harbinger of doom. We're at a different camp on the lake. This is one is to train teenagers to be camp counselors. At this point, a standard cast of teenaged victims is lined up for inspection. We have the loving couple, the unattainable hottie, the smitten guy, the loveable doofus, and this time, they even took a cue from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and served up a victim in a wheelchair. What follows are some uninspired death scenes and a story with some serious continuity issues.

There is very little blood for an slasher flick, which doesn't help the feeble death shots. A bedroom kill is reminiscent of Kevin Bacon's demise in the first film, but even it is quick with more happening offscreen than on. The rest are a combination of cheap tricks and quick cutaways. The only clear murder is the old blade across the throat gag that most people stop using on their high school video projects. A person is slashed to death using one hell of a large kitchen knife and drug down the stairs without leaving a blood trail. The skill of Tom Savini and his team that were so integral to the original movie are sorely missing here.

That leaves us with the story. We're finally introduced to Jason Voorhees as a slasher, not a pond dwelling victim. If he died a couple decades before the first movie, how did this happen? It's a confusing point that's never explained well. Even when some characters try to spell it out for us.

Sitting at the only country western bar in the world that has a KISS pinball machine in it, Ginny (Amy Steel), Paul (John Furey), and Ted (Stuart Charno) discuss the legend of Jason. Ginny proposes that Jason has been running around the woods this whole time, that he didn't actually drown. And the only person he knew was his mother, who was everything to him. If he didn't drown when he was a boy, why did his mother seek revenge on camp counselors in the first place? Is the writer trying to say that a young boy, whose mother was “everything to him,” would rather raise himself alone in the woods instead of going home?

Then the group believes that Jason may have actually seen his mother be killed. If this is the case, why didn't he try to help her? Couldn't he have knocked off a counselor or two? Maybe he could have stopped Alice. This scenario would also have made him be at least in his mid-twenties during the first movie. So, he could not have been the lake dwelling boy from the first movie. Then the original plot is remembered as they say his drowning was the reason for her murder spree. The continuity issues had me crack another pint. And that didn't help too much, either.

While we're on the topic of Jason, let's not forget his look. This is a far cry from the decomposing, supernatural killer in a hockey mask with notches on his machete. This guy is more like the product of generations of inbreeding that only happens in Lovecraft stories. He's seems like more of a whipping boy than a cold-blooded killer, though he does sport a pair of shiny new shoes. I get no fear or sense of imminent doom from him.

The filmmakers also break another slasher flick tradition and try to leave out the gratuitous nudity. I've already mentioned the clothed shower scene, and there are a few others that were filmed in tease-o-vision. The camera cuts away when Lauren-Marie Taylor changes her undies and the voyeur camera pans out as far as possible while still keeping the cabin in frame. And Marta Kober, whose been braless throughout the flick, removes her shirt – out of frame. Only Kirsten Baker saves the day with a selfless solo skinny-dipping scene.

This attempt is completely subpar to the original. In fact, it's a poor entry into the slasher genre altogether. Unless you're a franchise fanatic that just has to see all the movies in the series, I would do whatever it takes to avoid sitting through this one. It fails on every level and the Jason backstory is just plain stupid.