Ash (Bruce Campbell) brings his girlfreind Annie (Sarah Beryl) to a secluded and tattered cabin deep in the woods. Inside they find a tape recorder with a message on it recorded by an archaeology Professor (John Peakes). The tape describes the discovery of ancient ruins and a powerful occult book called the Necronomicon Ex Mortis: the Book of the Dead. The message continues with a strange encantation that raises the very powers warned about on the tape, the evil dead. Stalked and tormented by the evil spirits, Ash finds he can't escape the dark forces in the woods. Soon the Professor's daughter (Denise Bixler) and a fellow reasearcher (Ed Getley) make their way to the cabin to help translate pages from the Necronomicon, only to also fall victim along with a mechanic (Dan Hicks) and his girlfriend (Kassie Wesley) to the grip of evil in the woods. Although evil's influence pits the strangers against eachother, they must survive together and fight possessed zombies through the night, or they'll be dead by dawn.