Ash (Bruce Campbell) falls through a portal that takes him back in time to a medieval setting, where the local knights promptly declare him to be the "He who has come from the sky to deliver us from the terror of the Deadites". Armed only with his boomstick (shotgun) and his wrist-mounted chainsaw, Ash goes on a quest to retrieve the fabled book of the Dead; The Necronomicon. Forgetting the magic word he needs to break the curse on the Necronomicon, Ash inadvertently releases the evil power inside, and must then go and do battle against the entire Deadite army (and save love-interest Sheila (Embeth Davidtz) too!)