Synopsis :
Five Michigan State University students venture into the hills and mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin. There they find the Book of the Dead (a Babylonian and Sumerian text, unrelated to the Egyptian Book of the Dead), otherwise known as the Naturon Demonto (renamed the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels). While searching the basement of the cabin, the students find and play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the book, unwittingly resurrecting the slumbering demons that thirst for revenge. The characters are then possessed one by one, beginning with Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) after she is lured into the forest by the Evil Force at night. Alone and far from the safety of the cabin, the woods come alive in a snake-like fashion and rape her. Cheryl makes it home to the cabin but nobody believes her. Her brother, Ash (Bruce Campbell), decides to drive her into town where she can stay the night. They discover that the only bridge is completely destroyed and the supports are bent into the shape of a hand. Soon thereafter, Cheryl becomes a demon and stabs Linda (Betsy Baker) in the ankle with a pencil. They lock her in the fruit-cellar, but afterward Shelly (Theresa Tilly) becomes possessed and attacks Scotty (Hal Delrich), who dismembers her with an axe. They wrap the dismembered body-parts in a blanket and bury them, after which Scotty leaves to find a trail out of the woods.
Ash goes to check on Linda, but finds that she too has become possessed. Scotty returns, but has suffered massive injuries inflicted by the trees. Before losing consciousness he tells Ash there is a trail in the woods. After Linda tricks Ash by seemingly returning to normal, Ash drags her outside. He goes back to check on Scotty, but finds that he died from his injuries. Linda later returns and tries to stab Ash, but she is stabbed through the chest by a dagger. Ash drags her outside to cut her up with a chainsaw, but finds that he cannot bring himself to do it, and simply buries her instead. She rises from the grave and, after a violent struggle, Ash beheads her with a shovel. He returns to find the cellar door flown open. He hears a noise from Shelly and Scott’s bedroom. With the shotgun, he goes in to investigate and suspects Cheryl may be in the closet. Cheryl jumps at the window of which a demon had earlier broken through to possess Shelly and tries to take the shotgun from Ash, grabbing at it wildly. Ash shoots her in the chest, but it seems to have no effect. Ash then proceeds to barricade both the front and back doors. He runs back into the cellar to find a box of shotgun shells and experiences a strange series of events including the cellar filling with blood and hearing voices. Cheryl tries to attack Ash through the door, but he shoots her and then barricades the door.
Meanwhile, Scotty’s dead body suddenly revives to reveal that the evil spirits have now possessed him as well, only to have his eyes gouged out by Ash after a brief struggle. Ash notices that The Book of the Dead has fallen near the fireplace and is starting to burn. Ash notices that Scotty’s body is starting to burn as well, giving an allusion that disposal of the book into the fire will also destroy the demons. Before he can reach it, however, Cheryl successfully breaks in through the front door and easily knocks him to the floor. Scotty then pins Ash to the floor while Cheryl grabs a fireplace poker and repeatedly hits Ash in the back with it. Ash manages to grab the book after several attempts, using the necklace he had given to Linda earlier in the film, and throws it directly into the blazing flames just as Cheryl raises the fireplace poker to hit him again. The demons immediately stop, almost completely inanimate, and begin to rot away as dawn breaks, leaving Ash to be the only survivor. He heads outside and stands there for a while, thinking he has survived the ordeal; but the last remaining demon speeds through the forest, breaks its way through the cabin doors, and attacks Ash as the film ends.
Starring :
Bruce Campbell … Ashley ‘Ash’ J. Williams
Ellen Sandweiss … Cheryl
Richard DeManincor … Scott (as Hal Delrich)
Betsy Baker … Linda
Theresa Tilly … Shelly (as Sarah York)
Philip A. Gillis … Fake Shemp (as Phil Gillis)
Dorothy Tapert … Fake Shemp
Cheryl Guttridge … Fake Shemp
Barbara Carey … Fake Shemp
David Horton … Fake Shemp
Wendall Thomas … Fake Shemp
Don Long … Fake Shemp
Stu Smith … Fake Shemp
Kurt Rauf … Fake Shemp
Ted Raimi … Fake Shemp
Director :
Sam Raimi
Or
