A winding country road is revealed, along with a very ominous piece of music. Slowly, we see a car making it's way along the road, on the way to a cemetery.  At the insistence of their Mother, the car's occupants, Johnny and Barbara, are paying respects to their recently deceased Father. While getting out of the car, the dead radio suddenly comes to life after experiencing "technical difficulties". Johnny is slightly bitter, not relishing the idea of the 6 hour drive just to place an ornament on their Father's gravesite, while Barbara seems more than willing to participate in the ceremony. Johnny uses this opportunity to conjure up Barbara's childhood fears, stirring up feelings that make her uncomfortable. 

   While Johnny continues his teasing, a man is seen slowly approaching their location from the back of the cemetery. Barbara feels embarrassed by Johnny's behavior, and starts towards the man. Before anything can be said, she is attacked by the stranger. Johnny rushes in and frees Barbara from him, and attempts to restrain the aggressive menace. Barbara can only look on with horror as she witnesses the brawl.  While locked in struggle, the man tackles Johnny to the ground, thus slamming his head into a tombstone, rendering him unconscious and possibly dead. Now the stranger's gaze fixes upon Barbara’s trembling figure. Drawing strength from somewhere unseen, she runs for her life.  She makes her way back to the car, only to discover that Johnny still has the keys! The attacker begins pounding his hands upon the windows, attempting to enter the car. The aggressor finds a brick, and shatters the window. Barbara instinctively releases the parking brake, sending the car coasting down a hill, eventually veering out of control and into a tree.  Barbara then flees on foot, running for her life, and spots a farmhouse in the distance.

   Upon entry to the home, she gazes from room to room, trying to find protection from her would be attacker, who now looms outside the house. She runs upstairs to find a badly mutilated corpse, which sends her hysterically out the front door, only to be met by a pair of blinding headlights. Out of a pickup truck steps Ben, who scoops Barbara back inside the home. Ben, after disposing of two new assailants, begins to barricade the entrances of the home.  We learn that the affliction affecting the people outside is also happening to others, and news officials are urging the public to stay indoors.  Barbara slips into a state of shock, having seen her brother attacked, leaving her useless in helping fortify the home.

   Before long, we find out that Ben and Barbara are not alone. Two individuals come up from the basement. Tom, a young man from the area, and Harry Cooper, an older man, both were passing through when circumstances brought them to the farmhouse for the same reasons as Ben and Barbara.  Harry's wife, Helen, is in the cellar with their daughter Karen, who was bitten by one of the "assassins".  Tom's girlfriend, Judy is also in the cellar.

   Ben begins to formulate a plan of escape, as the number of assassins increase around the farmhouse.  Harry Cooper believes that the best course of action is to remain in the cellar, however Ben views it as a death trap, with no other way to escape if the marauders were to get inside the house.  The two men argue over who's calling the shots, neither of them coming up with any solid ideas, and neither gaining or giving up any ground.  A television set is discovered, and the group of strangers huddle around it, listening to news reports that state their attackers are not crazed humans.  They are the recently dead, revived to life, only to attack the living by devouring their flesh.  Ben already knew that they were afraid of fire, and they discovered that a blow to the head would kill one in an earlier attack.  

    Ben believes that the time for escape is now, and devises a plan to refuel his truck at the fuel pump located on the other side of the farmland.  The plan is to get to the Willard rescue center that was shown on the television.  Ben and Tom rush out the door towards the truck while Harry tosses Molotov cocktails from the top floor.  Foolishly, Judy runs behind them, refusing to be separated from Tom.  The three make their way to the gas pump, only to discover it's locked.  Ben shoots the lock off and Tom hastily grabs the pump.  The debacle begins when Tom accidentally squirts fuel onto a torch, which then spreads flames onto the truck. Tom heroically, yet foolishly jumps into the truck and drives it away from the pump.  After driving away to safety, Tom and Judy are unable to get away from the truck before it explodes into a sea of flames, killing them both.

   Ben, now alone with what now seems to be a small army of ghouls, makes his flight on foot back to the house.  Once at the front door, he cannot gain entry because Harry is too frightened, or perhaps too angry to open the door for him.  Ben kicks the door in, and can see Harry cowardly standing in the entrance to the basement.  He then begins to barricade the door once again, and Harry then attempts to help him solidify the entrance. Once it is secure, Ben takes his frustrations out on Mr. Cooper, hitting him several times, and threatening to feed him to the horde of zombies.  Outside, the zombies are now feasting on the charred remains of Tom and Judy.

   Later, while the remaining group watches more news updates on the television, the power suddenly goes off, leaving them in the dark. The zombie threat mounts as they begin to bash through the fortified windows and doors of the old farmhouse.  While struggling to keep the threat at bay, Ben drops the rifle to the floor.  Harry, seeing the opportunity to regain power, grabs Ben's rifle, proclaiming that he is going into the cellar, and Ben is not welcome.   A struggle ensues which results in Ben shooting Cooper, and sending him spiraling to his death down the basement stairs.

   Barbara finally snaps out of her catatonic state, and helps Helen to fend off the attack. Helen then flees into the basement to discover that her daughter Karen has died from her infectious bite, and has risen as a member of the living dead, eating the flesh of her now deceased Father.   Karen then rises from her meal of flesh, and stabs her mother to death with a garden trowel.  As the door gives way, Barbara's brother Johnny comes to the forefront as a member of the living dead.  Johnny clutches Barbara and drags her into a sea of zombies outside. With no more sanctuary inside the upper floor of the home, Ben makes his way into the cellar.  Once there, Ben discovers the freshly reanimated corpses of Harry and Helen Cooper, whom he disposes of them with his rifle.  The zombies continued to beat on the cellar door until they eventually shuffle off, realizing the hopelessness of their endeavor.

    Night turns into day, and a television crew is revealed, following a posse of police and local residents who are combing the countryside, extinguishing zombies. The posse makes its way to the farmhouse, which stirs Ben from his sleep in the basement. Finally feeling safe, Ben goes into the upper floor of the home to investigate.  A man notices Ben in a window, and shoots him in the head, ironically mistaking him for a zombie. The ending shows a montage of still photos of Ben's body, along with several ghouls, being dragged onto a bon fire, which is set ablaze.