The Video Dead

An unsolicited television is delivered to a writer's house. The writer discovers the only program is a seemingly endless, plotless black-and-white zombie horror film titled Zombie Blood Nightmare. He begins watching it, and the film's zombies seem to spill into the real world.

The writer unplugs the set, but it reactivates on its own, and the film's zombies spill into the house and attack him. The writer is killed as the undead characters close in around him. The room fills with danger as the screen's imagery becomes real.

The next day, the delivery men arrive to claim the TV set, only to discover the writer's bound body in his front hallway. They realize the object was meant for the Institute for Paranormal Research, not a private home. The discovery marks the first consequence of the cursed device.

Three months pass as Zoe and Jeff arrive at the house to stay ahead of their parents' move back to the United States. Jeff befriends April, a dog walker who accompanies him home. The dog she watches escapes into the woods, setting off the first second wave of trouble.

The dog comes upon the zombies that escaped the television set and have been living in the woods. The zombies kill the dog, and Jeff and April, searching for it, later find the remains. This marks the zombies' return to the world of the living.

That afternoon, the zombies trail Zoe and Jeff back to the neighborhood, spreading danger as they close in on the living. Jeff, Zoe, and April begin to realize the threat is moving beyond the woods. The eerie quiet of the town hints at the looming siege.

A man named Joshua Daniels arrives, claiming he bought the television at a yard sale and mailed it to the Paranormal Institute after it killed his wife. Jeff initially dismisses him, sending him away. The encounter adds a mystery layer to the TV's cursed history.

That night, the TV mysteriously migrates to the attic. A bizarre woman briefly appears on screen, beckoning Jeff, then a man appears and kills her, revealing she is a zombie. The man calls himself The Garbage Man and says the only way to stop new zombies is to tape a mirror to the TV.

The next day, the zombies break into April's house. Ironhead strangles their maid to death, then the zombies go upstairs and kill April's father while the neighbors perish. The siege forces the survivors to barricade themselves inside.

Inside fortified homes, Joshua explains the zombies' psychology: they are in a liminal state between life and death, and fear triggers their aggression. They are repulsed by mirrors because mirrors remind them of their own ugliness. The zombies can be tricked into seeming dead and defeated only if left unburied, or trapped in enclosed spaces that drive them to cannibalize each other.

Jimmy D breaks in and incapacitates April; Zoe and Jeff manage to lock the zombie out after it leaves with April's body. The immediate threat in the house shifts to protecting themselves from the remaining undead. The group braces for a final confrontation.

Joshua and Jeff head into the woods to hunt the zombies. They set traps and use Jeff as bait, shooting and incapacitating all zombies except The Bride. They pursue The Bride, escalating the chase toward a final showdown.

Jeff decapitates The Bride with a hatchet in the shed, before she can kill him. Joshua is killed, and the remaining zombies wake up and begin their return to the neighborhood. The last assault ends with the living briefly regaining territory.

Zoe recalls that the zombies attack when they sense fear and uses a mirror on the basement door to lure them inside. The zombies enter the basement and cannibalize each other, destroying themselves. Their remains are sucked back into the television, ending Zombie Blood Nightmare.

Sometime later, Zoe's parents visit her in the hospital, hoping to aid her recovery by bringing the possessed TV home. After they leave, the television replays Zombie Blood Nightmare. Zoe witnesses Jack within the screen and growling, and she screams in horror.