A Most Unusual Camera

A hotel suite that, in this instance, serves as a den of crime, the aftermath of a rather minor event to be noted on a police blotter, an insurance claim, perhaps a three-inch box on page twelve of the evening paper. Small addenda to be added to the list of the loot: a camera, a most unimposing addition to the flotsam and jetsam that it came with, hardly worth mentioning really, because cameras are cameras, some expensive, some purchasable at five-and-dime stores. But this camera, this one's unusual because in just a moment we'll watch it inject itself into the destinies of three people. It happens to be a fact that the pictures that it takes can only be developed in The Twilight Zone.

Two thieves, husband and wife Chester (Fred Clark) and Paula Diedrich (Jean Carson), have just robbed a curio shop, and among the things they have stolen is a strange camera. Through accident, the pair discover that it produces self-developing photos of the future, about five minutes ahead. After Paula's jail-escapee brother Woodward (Adam Williams) shows up, Chester gets the idea to use the camera to take pictures of the blank winner's board before races at the local racetrack and then use the camera's "predictions" for making bets. The trio win $9,500 on the first race. They bet on and win five other races and leave with a considerable load of cash.

Back at their hotel, a French waiter named Pierre (Marcel Hillaire) takes notice of their camera and its French inscription dix à la propriétaire, meaning ten to an owner. Chester ushers the waiter out and, after determining that they have taken eight pictures, the three discuss what to do about the final two. While they are arguing and, as a group, tugging on the camera, a picture of Paula is accidentally taken. It shows her screaming and recoiling in horror. Chester and Woodward begin to argue about why Paula looks like that and, as they tangle, they fall out of an open window to their deaths. Paula reacts as in the picture, but recovers immediately when she realizes that all the money is hers.

She snaps the final picture of her husband's and her brother's bodies in the courtyard below the window and starts collecting the money, planning to check out of the hotel. Pierre returns and proceeds to rob her, telling her that he knows about the crimes and will turn her in to the police if she calls them for help. He notes that her last picture shows "more than two" bodies in the courtyard. Panicked, Paula runs to look out the window, trips over a cord and falls to her demise; one of her high heels remains behind in the room.

Pierre then counts the corpses in the picture. "Yes, there are more than two bodies down there. Just like the picture shows. One, two, three ... four?!" Shocked, he falls out of the window as well, leaving only the camera lying on the floor of the now empty hotel suite.

Object known as a camera, vintage uncertain, origin unknown. But for the greedy, the avaricious, the fleet of foot, who can run a four-minute mile so long as they're chasing a fast buck, it makes believe that it's an ally, but it isn't at all. It's a beckoning come-on for a quick walk around the block—in The Twilight Zone.

• List of The Twilight Zone episodes
• Goosebumps children's novel, Say Cheese and Die and Say Cheese and Die–Again also the Goosebumps HorrorLand Say Cheese–and Die Screaming
• Killer Camera, a short story from Anthony Horowitz's Horowitz Horror
• Treehouse of Horror XV's The Ned Zone

• Time Lapse (film)

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

• "A Most Unusual Camera" on IMDb
• "A Most Unusual Camera" at TV.com