While wondering what to do on a boring summer day, four friends, Greg,
Michael, Doug (nicknamed Bird) and Shari decide to invdstigate the
Coffman House, an old, abandoned house that several spooky stories
revolve around and is the home of a strange, old man nicknamed "Spidey",
because of his spider-like appearance. While searching the home, Greg
discovers a strange camera within a hidden compartment in a basement
wall. Amused at the idea of having a camera Greg takes a picture of his
friend Michael who is leaning on the stair railing. Suddenly, the
railing gives way and Michael falls. Michael is found to have hurt his
ankle upon landing. Greg discovers that the picture doesn't show Michael
standing by the railing but instead falling. While the friends cannot
come up with an explanation for the strange photo, all discussion ceases
when footsteps are heard and the four friends flee the house taking the
camera with them.
As time goes on Greg takes a picture of his father's new car, but the
picture depicts the car totally wrecked. Later, Greg takes a picture of
his brother, Terry, who is in his room on his computer. But the picture
shows him elsewhere, in a worried state, and in front of a house.
The next day, Greg goes to his friend Bird's baseball game; a picture of
Bird is taken and the picture depicts him lying on the ground with his
neck bent in an unnatural angle. Bird dismisses this idea and even fakes
the picture's scene coming true, in an attempt to show Greg and Shari
that the camera is simply broken. However, while playing the game he is
hit by an oncoming baseball and does in fact land in such a way that his
neck is bent into an unnatural angle. Now, Greg is convinced that the
camera is somehow responsible, but his friends are still unwilling to
believe these ideas. It is at this point that Terry's picture comes
true, as he comes up and claims that their father was in an accident,
and the car is totally wrecked.
Greg then has a nightmare of taking a picture of his family during a
backyard barbecue but is horrified to see them as skeletons. This part
mirrors the book's cover picture.
Shari, still skeptical of the camera's powers, has Greg bring the camera
to her birthday party and insists that he takes her picture. Greg
reluctantly agrees but finds that when the picture develops, only the
background has come out, Shari is nowhere to be seen. Not long
afterwards, Shari disappears.
In the days that follow, Greg's picture is taken and he sees that he and
Shari are panicked by a shadow that comes over them. Greg is worried,
yet hopeful, when he sees this picture because at this point, Shari is
still missing but the picture clearly shows Shari.
Shari remains missing for days, until Greg tears up the picture. Shari
then returns as suddenly and mysteriously as she disappeared. She
apparently has no memory of where she went.
While talking to Greg about her disappearance the picture of the two
being panicked by a shadow over them comes true when Spidey appears
before them. He chases them for a while until a neighbor threatens to
call the police on him. They finally are safe.
Finally, deciding that the camera is too dangerous to be kept, Greg and
Shari decide to return it to its hiding place in Spidey's home- Bird and
Michael will have nothing more to do with it. However, Spidey catches
the kids on their way out and reveals the camera’s origin: Spidey turns
out to be a mad scientist, named Dr. Fritz Fredericks, and his lab
partner had created the camera. However, Spidey, being greedy, decided
to steal the camera and market it as his own invention. But his partner
was evil- not only a scientist, but a master of the dark arts, and he
decided that if he could not profit from the camera, no-one would. He
put a curse on the camera making it show bleak future events which would
then occur and it was impossible to break, meaning that the camera
would survive till the end of the world. Spidey says that the camera
caused the deaths of people he loved.
Spidey had spent most of his life trying to keep the camera from being discovered and had sacrificed all he held dear to do so, but now that Shari and Greg know of it, he is afraid that they will blab, and so resolves to keep them imprisoned in his home forever. However, during a fight over the camera with Shari, his picture is (accidentally) taken with the camera and he dies of fright. The picture depicts this very event occurring. With the camera returned to its hiding place Shari and Greg escape the building and believe it to be over.
At the end of the story two bullies, Joey Ferris and Mickey Ward, who had previously shown interest in the camera, are shown to have found the camera and taken a picture with it. The story ends with the boys waiting to see what Gregs photo shows.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar
Semua orang dapat menuliskan komentarnya di sini, bahkan bagi para pengguna tanpa nama sekalipun.Jad, jangan sungkan untuk berkomentar,ok! ^_^