During a weekend at a cabin, Ash uncovered the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Book of the Dead) and awoke something dark in the woods. Evil possessed his friends, whom he was forced to kill, and his right hand, which he sawed off. For the next thirty years, Ash ran from his past, working at a Value Stop department store and seducing women in dive bars. But he screwed up one night when he read from the Necronomicon to impress a woman. Evil found him once more. After a terrible fight, Ash, drawing his last breath, was taken by the Knights of Sumeria and transported into the future. But after his deal with a demon went South, Ash found himself in the realm of the Entity, without shotgun or chainsaw.