When Ash Williams is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., he must retrieve the Necronomicon and battle an army of the dead in order to return home.
As the unfathomable tentacles of evil spread across time and space, Ash finds himself whisked off to another dimension, right after the supernatural events of Evil Dead II (1987). Now, trapped in the distant Middle Ages circa 1300 AD, battle-scarred Ash must fight tooth and nail against the same old adversary he confronted in The Evil Dead (1981). However, this time he is neck-deep in trouble: not one, not two demons, but the entire army of darkness is after Ash, thirsting for his soul. And what's more, there is no turning back. Can the guy with the chainsaw and the 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun blast evil to smithereens and save both worlds from the curse of the mystical Necronomicon?—Nick Riganas
In this sequel to the Evil Dead films, a discount store employee ("Name's Ash. Housewares.") is time-warped to a medieval castle beset by monstrous forces. Initially mistaken for an enemy, he is soon revealed as the prophecized savior who can quest for the Necronomicon, a book that can dispel the evil. Unfortunately, he screws up the magic words while collecting the tome and releases an army of skeletons, led by his own Deadite counterpart. What follows is a thrilling yet tongue-in-cheek battle between Ash's 20th-century tactics and the minions of darkness.—David Thiel <[email protected]>
Ash finds himself stranded in the year 1300 AD with his car, his shotgun, and his chainsaw. Soon he is discovered and thought to be a spy for a rival kingdom and is taken prisoner. After proving his merit in The Pit, he decides to help the kingdom retrieve the Necronomicon (which will also help him return to his own time), which they need to battle the supernatural forces at play in the land. Ash accidentally releases the Army of Darkness when retrieving the book, and a fight to the finish ensues.—Ed Sutton <[email protected]>
From a slave coffle, a brief flashback to Evil Dead II (1987) (which itself starts with a recap of The Evil Dead (1981)) explains the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and how Ash got to where he is after he and his girlfriend and S-Mart co-worker, Linda (Bridget Fonda), traveled to a cabin in the woods where Linda was possessed and killed by the book's evil and showing the spell that sent Ash through a dimensional portal.
Ash (Bruce Campbell) lands in Medieval England in the 13th Century, where he is immediately captured by Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and his men, who suspect him to be an agent for Duke Henry, with whom Arthur is at war. He is enslaved along with the captured Duke Henry The Red (Richard Grove), his gun and chainsaw confiscated, and is taken to a castle. Ash is thrown in a pit where he regains his chainsaw from Arthur's Wise Man (Ian Abercrombie) in mid-air, decapitates a female Deadite and lops the hand off another, before escaping the pit. He decks Arthur using the "your shoelace is untied" gag. Ash demands that Henry and his men be set free (since Henry was sympathetic to him) and they ride off. He uses the shotgun to blow the end off of Arthur's sword, and to blow a large Deadite back into the pit. Ash is celebrated as a hero, and also grows attracted to Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), the sister of one of Arthur's fallen knights. Sheila at first despises Ash, believing him to be one of the men who killed her husband in battle but eventually she becomes attracted to our hero.
According to the Wise Man, the only way Ash can return to his time is to retrieve the Necronomicon. After bidding goodbye to Sheila, Ash starts his search for the book, which is located in a cemetery not far away. Entering a haunted forest, an unseen force pursues Ash through the woods. Fleeing, Ash ducks into a windmill where he crashes into a mirror. The small reflections of Ash climb out from the shards of the mirror and torment him. One of the reflections dives down Ash's throat and uses his body to become a life-sized copy of Ash, after which Ash kills him and buries him.
When he arrives at the Necronomicon's location, he finds three books instead of one. Two of the books are cursed and after determining which is the real one, Ash attempts to say the magic phrase that will allow him to remove the book safely "Klaatu varada nikto". (A variation of a the famous line from the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)). However, forgetting the last word, he tries to trick the book by mumbling the missing word. He then grabs the book from the cradle, and rushes back to the castle, while the dead rise from graves all around. During Ash's panicked ride back, Ash's evil copy rises from his grave and unites the Deadites into the Army of Darkness.
Despite causing the predicament faced by the Medieval soldiers, Ash initially demands to be returned to his own time. However, Sheila is captured by a Flying Deadite (Nadine Grycan), and then transformed into a Deadite. Ash becomes determined to lead the humans against the skeletal Deadite army. Reluctantly, the people agree to join Ash. Using scientific knowledge from textbooks in the trunk of his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and enlisting the help of Duke Henry, Ash successfully trains and leads the Medieval soldiers to defeat his Deadite clone, Evil Ash, and his undead army, and save Sheila. Victorious, he is sent back to his own time using a potion made from the Necronomicon.
The final scene (See Different versions) begins with Ash back at the S-Mart store, telling a bored male co-worker (Ted Raimi) all about his adventure back in time, and how he could have been king. Suddenly, a Deadite starts wreaking havoc on the store (it is implied that he again raised the dead by saying the wrong words needed to travel through time), and Ash slays the creature. The film ends with Ash in voice over saying, "Sure, I could have stayed in the past. Could have even been king. But in my own way, I am king." He then says out loud, while kissing the attractive female co-worker whose life he has just saved, "Hail to the King, baby!"
