As the funeral procession for Aunt Mildred draws to a somber close, Barb and her brother Johnny find themselves arriving at the cemetery, only to be met with an unholy horde of reanimated corpses. In the ensuing chaos, Johnny abandons his sister, leaving Barb to navigate this nightmarish reality on her own. Luckily, she is saved by Ben, a resourceful local college student who possesses acute survival instincts.
Hoping to avoid the shambling undead, Barb and Ben seek shelter in the nearby farmhouse belonging to the Cooper family, which includes Henry, Hellie, their daughter Karen, and farmhands Tom and Judy. As darkness envelops them, the group comes together, trembling in fear while trying to comprehend the apocalyptic events unfolding around them.
Before long, they discover that the undead are making their way to the farmhouse. Tragedy strikes when Tom and Judy take a dangerous tumble during their secret rendezvous in the barn, prompting Barb and the Coopers to spring into action to save the imperiled duo. However, they arrive too late — Judy has already succumbed to her injuries, leaving Ben to confront the bleakness of their dire situation.
As night deepens, the arrival of Tovar, a mortician with a dangerous fixation on fire, completely alters the atmosphere. His entry, marked by little more than a shovel and a fierce will to survive, ignites a series of horrifying events. Owen, one of the farmhands, falls prey to a zombie bite, quickly joining the ranks of the undead.
With despair gripping the group, Barb and Ben decide it’s time to make a daring escape, uniting with Tovar to flee the farmhouse in search of safety. Meanwhile, Henry and Hellie barricade themselves upstairs, attempting to shield against the advancing hordes. Just when things can’t get worse, Karen, their cherished daughter, returns from the shadows — reanimated and hungry for flesh.
Ultimately, it's not the zombies that lead to the Coopers' downfall, but their own overwhelming sorrow. Gripped by heartache, Henry and Hellie take their own lives, leaving Barb and Ben to confront their grim fate — isolated yet standing firm against the ceaseless terrors that close in on them.
In a violent turn of events, Tovar brutally attacks Ben and forces his body into the trunk of his car. The relentless pursuit resumes as he chases Barb back to his home, where a horrifying revelation waits: Tovar has been the man behind the rise of the undead masses, including his own father, whom he resurrected using his own blood to sustain him. In a fit of rage, Barb retaliates by igniting the undead body of Tovar's father, invoking a terror of fire in the insane mortician. As Tovar's hand is singed by the tiny flame, he freezes in fear, unable to act.
Amid the chaos, Barb makes a desperate attempt to escape back to Tovar's vehicle, but the relentless pursuer soon catches her, delivering a vicious blow that renders her unconscious. He then drags both her and the still unconscious Ben to the mortuary, contemplating turning her into one of the monsters she now fights against.
As Tovar looms over Barb's lifeless form, an unexpected twist occurs: he is suddenly restrained by a group of undead minions who shove him into their fold. Seizing her chance, Barb breaks free from the confines of the car, outmaneuvering Tovar and locking the other zombies inside the garage.
As they try to escape the escalating chaos, Ben’s condition deteriorates rapidly. Unbeknownst to him, he has been impaled by a tire iron but is somehow still standing. However, this fleeting moment of survival is short-lived; he soon begins a grotesque transformation into a zombie. Barb takes it upon herself to use the last bullet to end Ben's suffering, only to be met with another wave of zombies that has breached their defenses.
