In the school gym, Matt Dorney waits in line to get his photo taken for the school basketball team. Behind him, Kullback shows Matt a book, and asks if he’s read it - because it’s “red” him. And with that, he closes the book over a cunningly concealed sachet of ketchup, which squirts a streak of red onto Matt’s face.
The photographer lends Matt a handkerchief.
In the locker room, the coach hands everyone their photo. Matt's, however, shows only the stool and “Wolverines” logo.
He visits the office of the photographer, Julian Calhoun, who explains Matt’s unassertiveness to have made him invisible - even to the camera. While he refuses Matt a second photo or refund, Mr Calhoun happens to have a spare camera - which may be just the one for a kid like Matt. In a safe, Mr Calhoun keeps a 1940s prototype, one of the first instant picture cameras.
On his way to the door, Matt accidentally photographs his own midriff. With a buzz, the camera churns out a small, black and white photo of Matt’s lower shirt - which is blemished by some kind of dark stain. He then notices, across his lower shirt, a black stain, just as shown in the photo.
In the family living room, Matt photographs a vase. His sister Amy arrives, and wryly poses for a shot, which Matt declines. They hear a crash. Across the room at Amy’s feet, the vase lies on the floor in pieces. Looking at the photo he just took, Matt sees that it's of the broken vase.
Matt then decides to take photographs of a framed picture on the wall and one of the living room windows. A few seconds later, a baseball comes flying in, breaking the window and smashing the picture, just as were seen in the photos.
Just then, on the coffee table, the camera flashes. Its latest photo shows the fish tank to be smoking - which, several feet ahead, it is. In horror, he looks inside, and puts the camera in the bin.
Next day, at school, Matt opens his gym locker, to find, on its top shelf, the camera.
Kullback snatches a textbook from Matt to use as a hockey puck. Matt takes the camera from his locker, and calls Kullback with aspersions on the bully’s intelligence. As the suddenly furious Kullback approaches, Matt takes his picture. Just as Kullback seizes Matt’s shirt, the coach calls.
Secretly watched by Matt, Kullback sits on a bench, tying his shoelaces. Suddenly, the locker above him, with an ominous creak, leans forward. As Kullback looks up, the heavy metal cabinet leans forward, and lands, with a crash, on his foot.
With a panicked yell, the coach runs to the rescue, to find Matt having fallen backwards onto the floor, with the toppled locker pinning his foot to the bench. Several boys heave the locker back into place. As the coach worries, Matt secretly examines his latest photo: which shows Kullback, lying on the locker room floor, yelling in fright.
That evening, Matt, with a marker pen, marks on a school photo his next targets. Amy wonders what Matt is up to. He reveals the secret of the camera to her. When she doesn't believe him, Matt tries to prove it by taking a picture of a wall, only for the camera to jam. As Amy leaves, Matt tries to get her to come back, only to accidentally point the camera at her and take her picture. Above her, the chandelier wobbles. With a yell, Matt runs over and pulls her out of its way. The chandelier falls with a crash.
Matt shows a shaken Amy the photos. On one of them, she notices something. On inspection, Matt realises the image to be not a blemish, but part of the photograph. The small, inked, reproduced image is in all of the photos. Through a magnifying glass, Matt sees it evokes the appearance of a squat, muscular, horned, long-eared biped.
That night, Matt visits Mr Calhoun’s office, now neon-lit and considerably tidier. Entering the studio, he sees Mr Calhoun, now in shades and a new coat, and accompanied by a busying assistant, on the phone talking about his new success. Upon noticing Matt, he hurriedly evades his attentions, but at the mention of the camera, becomes serious. He explains that he owned that camera for twenty years. At first, when he discovered its power, he thought he could use it to get revenge on his enemies, but soon discovered that the camera — or rather, the Gremlin that Matt had seen in the photos - destroyed anything it touched. Calhoun experienced nothing but constant bad luck, and no matter how much he tried to get rid of it, it would keep coming back. It wasn't until he gave it to Matt that his life turned around and photography gigs started to abound. He explains that he couldn't take the camera back even if he wanted to. The camera has chosen Matt as its newest victim.
Upon returning home, the front door opens and Matt accidentally takes a picture - of his startled parents, on their way to the car to see a movie.
Inside, Matt imparts his grave news to Amy, who urges him not to look at the photo, lest its threats come true.
Dubious of such resistance, Matt steels himself to look at the photo. Quietly stunned, he passes it to Amy, who cries out in horror. The photo shows, on the main road, a wrecked car.
As they panic, Amy takes the cursed camera onto the driveway, and, with a baseball bat, whacks it repeatedly. On the living room coffee table, they find the camera intact. Matt has an idea...
Out on the road, as Mr and Mrs Dorney fight over what station to play on the radio, a huge truck pulls onto the road ahead of them .
Matt and Amy crouch behind the upended coffee table. On a stack of cushions before it sits the camera, positioned to face, mounted on the couch, a mirror. Matt readies a coat hanger, ducks behind the couch, and with the coat hanger, presses the camera’s button.
Out on the road, Mr and Mrs Dorney see a truck roaring towards them. They scream.
Matt and Amy find the camera to have vanished. Just then, the phone rings. Their dad, shaken but unharmed, reports nearly having been run off the road by a truck. Having missed the movie, they’ll be home soon.
Overcome with relief, Matt and Amy high five. However, on the cushions, Matt finds one last photo - of the mounted camcorder, which suddenly whizzes to life. To process its captures, the television switches on.
Matt and Amy take cover. Matt mounts the mirror on the couch, which he ducks behind. He turns off the television with the remote control. The television turns back on.
From behind a cushion, Matt wrestles with the remote control. The camera transmits to the television its live footage. As Matt presses buttons, each successive channel shows filmed footage of the camera’s past targets.
Before the onslaught of memories, the Gremlin-possessed television is blown apart by an explosion, which also shatters the camcorder.
Through the smoke-filled hall, a relieved Matt and Amy prepare to greet their returned parents...and try to explain what happened to the television.
Unseen, the monitor screen of the family computer flickers to life. The desktop icons suddenly warp and fade, to be replaced by a blue screen, on which sits a much larger, digitised effigy of the Gremlin...
On closing, Betty Anne proposes a group shot, and produces a camera - just like the one in her story. The others, except for Gary, run off in fright. Gary recognizes it as a prop camera, borrowed from his dad’s store. However, when the camera accidentally takes a picture of Betty Anne and Gary, they share a look of uncertainty before Gary casts the photo to the flames.
This episode provides examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted; while Amy mildly ribs Matt, the two are on even terms.
- Asshole Victim: Subverted; while nasty to Matt, Kullback’s foot breakage is Played for Horror.
- The Bully: Kullback relentlessly humiliates Matt.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The camera, by instantaneous self-repair and teleportation, haunts Matt. According to Calhourn, it did the same thing with him, finally leaving him when he gave it to Matt.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Reticent Matt seems quickly excited by the power to inflict injury on his tormentors.
- Eldritch Abomination: An incorporeal entity wreaks instantaneous havoc via machinery.
- The End... Or Is It?: While the camera, camcorder and television are destroyed, the Gremlin finds its way into a computer.
- Extreme Doormat: Mr Calhoun accuses Matt of inordinate unassertiveness.
- Griping About Gremlins: An technology-corrupting entity manifests in the image of a horned goblin.
- Haunted Technology: A camera, camcorder, television and computer are commandeered by an inscrutable entity which enables its host to teleport, self-repair, and cause instantaneous destruction.
- Picture Day: For the basketball team.
- The Prankster: As a comment on Matt’s unassertiveness, Mr Calhoun develops his picture so as to remove his image from it.
- Reality Warper: The camera instantaneously self-repairs, teleports, and steers circumstance to increasingly violent havoc.
- Spooky Photographs: Each photograph retains an image of the havoc it promises.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Ultimately Averted, when Matt uses the camera to photograph itself.
