Leonard “Spike” Johnson is playing poker in the Diablo Theater’s projection booth with Marcus and his gang of teenage minions, when he runs out of money. Holding a strong hand, Spike bets his motorcycle and loses. Marcus gives him a day to find the money to buy back his bike. Spike returns to his apartment over his Aunt Lucy’s garage and receives a thank you note from his young cousin, "Hoax" Wilmet, via a pneumatic tube. Spike picks up a magazine and a flyer for “Horrorscope” falls out. On a lark, he calls the 976 telephone number and hears a pre-recorded voice from the “master,” who tells him his financial prize is only a short distance away if he is brave enough to claim it. Taking this as a sign, Spike sneaks into the main house and is caught by Aunt Lucy stealing money from a fishing trophy. She quotes scripture against stealing, but Spike insists the money is part of his inheritance. His guardian, Lucy, declares she controls his money and his life until he is eighteen. Refusing to give back the money, Spike runs outside. Lucy follows and is met by fish raining down from the sky. Lucy believes it is a sign that God wants Spike to repent. Back in his room, Spike redials the 976 number, which tells him he is now out of debt. The next day, Marty Palmer, a reporter from Modern Miracle Magazine, arrives to talk to Lucy about the fish. Meanwhile, Hoax Wilmet is at school getting his head dunked in a toilet by Marcus and his boys. Spike enters the bathroom, pays off Marcus, then beats up the bullies. That night, Spike spots a pair of leather gloves in a motorcycle shop, but is unable to afford them. He walks outside and finds the “Horrorscope” flyer in his pocket. From a nearby telephone booth, he makes the call and hears “a real man takes what he deserves.” Spike goes back into the store, but decides not to steal the gloves. Outside, the telephone rings. Upon answering it, Spike is advised to look both ways before crossing the street. He hangs up, steps off the curb and, while he reaches for a cigarette, drops his change onto the road. As he bends over to pick it up, a white Mustang with no driver races toward him. Seconds before impact, Marty Palmer sprints across the street and knocks Spike out of the way. Marty tries to get Spike to talk about the falling fish, but he drives off to meet his girl friend, Suzie. They go to his place to make love. Hoax, who is watching them through a telescope, sends a thank you message to Spike via the pneumatic tube. As they leave, Suzie presents Spike with her panties as a souvenir. Hoax sneaks in and finds both Suzie’s underwear and the “Horrorscope” advertisement. When he telephones the flyer’s number, he is told to go to the theater to find the girl of his dreams. At the theater, Spike abandons Suzie to go upstairs and gamble with Marcus and his cronies. Feeling unappreciated, Suzie leaves and bumps into Hoax. They go to a nearby diner where, to Suzie’s surprise, she finds she is enjoying the nerd’s company. A spider falls on their table, but instead of killing it, Hoax takes it outside. Marcus and his gang appear, squish the spider, drag Hoax back inside and discover he has Suzie’s panties. She calls Hoax a pervert, then runs out of the diner. Humiliated, Hoax dials “Horrorscope” and hears he can get revenge on Suzie. Following the “master’s” instructions, he uses his poisonous pet spider as the main ingredient to concoct a spell. Meanwhile, Suzie arrives home and heats up a TV dinner. When she pulls back the foil, hundreds of deadly spiders appear and bite her. Hoax, realizing something is wrong, rushes to Suzie’s and finds her dead. When he gets back home, Lucy accuses him of calling a sex chat number and confiscates his telephone. The next day, Marty Palmer shows up at high school and meets with Angella Martinez, the school counselor. After identifying himself as a private investigator, he asks if he can speak to Spike. Overhearing them, Hoax rushes to warn Spike. He offers to handle Marty, but when Spike scoffs at the idea, Hoax brags about killing Suzie. In a rage, Spike hurls Hoax to the floor, whereupon Hoax swears that one day he will be the one on top looking down on Spike. “Only when hell freezes over,” Spike responds. Later, Marty hunts down the call center where 976-Evil is registered, but is told by the call center owner, Mark Dark, that the line was disconnected three months earlier. Back at school, Hoax feels ill and goes to the bathroom only to be accosted by two of Marcus’s bullies. Claws emerge from his fingertips and he slashes the boys’ faces, and orders them to inform everyone in school that he is never to be touched again. Hoax goes home, walks into the kitchen and retrieves his telephone. When Lucy demands he put it back, he tells her if she values her life she will leave him alone. That night, Marty breaks into the telephone center and enters the door marked “976-Evil.” Finding a dusty and unused automated calling system, he is about to go when he hears a call coming in from Hoax. The machine turns on and asks Hoax if he is ready to accept “the power.” Marty Palmer says,“Yes.” When the line goes dead, a nearby pay telephone rings. Marty answers it and hears a voice telling him he is too late before he is knocked to the floor by an electric jolt. Barely able to walk, he stumbles outside to a waiting Angella. Meanwhile, Hoax turns into a monster with fangs and scaly skin. He goes to the Diablo Theater to find Marcus, the two boys Hoax slashed earlier, and a third punk playing cards. Marcus orders the two wounded boys to take Hoax outside and beat him up. Moments later, Hoax returns holding their beating hearts. The third boy runs off leaving Marcus to defend himself. He pulls a knife, but Hoax slaps him across the room, then uses the knife to cut Marcus’s hand off, before chasing the third boy to the roof and impaling him onto the theater’s neon sign. Marcus hides in the bathroom, attempting to stanch his bleeding stump with toilet paper, but Hoax finds him and rips him apart. Afterward, Hoax returns home and kills Lucy seconds before Marty and Angella drive up outside. Marty climbs up some lattice work to look into the second floor window, but loses his grip when Hoax appears at the window. He falls to the ground, knocking himself unconscious. Angella enters the house to find it covered with ice. Following Hoax’s pleas for help, Angella enters Lucy’s room and discovers cats eating her body. Hoax appears and hurls Angella down the stairs. She jumps back on the stairs when the floor collapses into a bottomless abyss. Spike arrives. He and Marty rush inside, and almost fall into the pit. As Marty helps Angella, Spike takes out a pistol and shoots Hoax, but the bullet barely penetrates his scaly skin. Hoax slaps Spike to the ground, declaring that hell has frozen over. Marty and Angella run upstairs. Hoax waves his arms and the ground beneath them collapses into the pits of hell. Spike enters the room and talks about a cross country motorcycle trip he and Hoax planned to make. He promises they still can do it if Hoax can fight the devil, but when Spike realizes Hoax is gone forever, he pushes him out the window. The boy tumbles into hell, as Marty and Angella embrace. Back at the call center, Mark Dark eats a jelly donut when another 976-Evil call comes in. Laughing, he answers, telling the caller he has something special for him.