An ancient Egyptian spell animates a statue, which hammers horrific revenge on a brutal street gang, and a 13-year-old kid battles the monster when it attacks his brother and girlfriend.

SYNOPSIS:

Centuries ago in Egypt, a magician, fascinated with the secrets of life and death, steals a sacred stone tablet from a temple. He mutters a mystical spell, and uses the tablet to breathe life back to a dead animal. Priests and guards burst in. Kill the magician for his sacrilege, and bury him under an altar, along with the tablet, which they cover in clay, where hieroglyphs tell his story.

Present-day San Jose, California. Thirteen-year-old Kevin, wants to impress his 13-year-old neighbor, Carol, so he takes her to another neighbor's house, and they break into the basement of seventy-ish Hasan, curator of a local Egyptian museum. As they check out some fascinating ancient relics, Kevin's eight-year-old brother causes a disturbance. The kids are discovered by Hasan. His grown son tries to excuse the curious youngsters, as Hasan chases them out of the basement.

On his way to work, a gang of street thugs assaults Hasan, but the robust Egyptian holds his own, until the Sheriff intervenes. The gang swears revenge.

Archaeologists unearth the ancient tablet and send it to Hasan for translation. When he and his girlfriend walk home, they run into the gang, and a fight breaks out. Hasan gets knocked out, while gang members rape the girlfriend, then kill her. The gang scatters.

There's no solid evidence to arrest the gang members. Hasan spends all his time in the basement studying the stone tablet. His son worries about the father’s mental state.

Meanwhile, Kevin deals with his eccentric grandfather who babysits while the parents are gone. Carol flirts with Kevin, and he discovers she is much more appealing than video games. This is Kevin's first experience with puppy love, and he doesn't know how to handle it.

When the youngsters hear shouts from Hasan’s house, they run to investigate. An animated terra cotta statuette of a mythical Egyptian creature races through the door. The kids find Hasan dead inside. Police track down the creature. It tears open a cop's throat before they can destroy it.

Days later, a black stone statue, or “ushabti” in the likeness of Hasan, is delivered to his grown son. The life-size ushabti was ordered by Hasan before he died.

Hasan's son finds his father's notes and the tablet. Hasan experimented with the tablet and magic words to reanimate various items and animals. His last request begs the son to use a vial of Hasan’s blood, draw the ankh symbol on the ushabti forehead and use the ancient tablet and words to animate it.

The son is reluctant, but obeys. The spell doesn't seem to work. Kevin's little brother sneaks a look at the ceremony, records the magic words, and snatches the stone tablet.

But, the black stone statue secretly comes to life each night and begins a reign of terror. It seeks out the gang members who raped and murdered Hasan's girlfriend and kills them in various horrific ways, including a snapped neck, smashed windpipe, a skull crushed between defibrillator paddles, a tv antenna shoved up a nose, and another impaled on the ushabti's pointed beard.

While the statue rips the head off the last street punk, a rainstorm washes the ankh symbol from its stone forehead. It turns into a mindless killing machine, destroys everything in sight. Savagely massacres a squad of policemen, then roams the countryside and murders a small child at a farm.

Kevin and Carol catch the brother using the tablet and magic words to animate toys and other objects. They go to Hasan's son, and team up with him in a mission to track down the ushabti.

They find the creature, just as a vengeful posse from the farm corners it. The son, racked with guilt for unleashing the monster, destroys the tablet, hoping to break the spell. But, the ushabti is unaffected and murders one of the posse. The son throws himself at the statue. Both sink into a creek. Only Hasan's dead son resurfaces.

Later, the Sheriff and the three youngsters confront the ushabti at a highway maintenance yard. It shoves the Sheriff into a gravel pile. Carol and the little brother look like the next victims.

At the last moment, Kevin drives a steamroller over the monster, and crushes it into dust.

The ushabti’s killing spree ends.