Still Life (The Twilight Zone)

"Still Life"
The Twilight Zone episode

Scene from Still Life
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 14a
Directed by Peter Medak
Written by Gerrit Graham
Chris Hubbell
Original air date January 3, 1986
Guest actors

Robert Carradine : Daniel
Marilyn Jones : Becky
John Carradine : Prof. Alex Stottel

"Still Life" is the first segment of the fourteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

A professional photographer, Daniel, brings home an antique trunk for his wife. He discovers a false bottom in the trunk that conceals a Kodak Brownie 100 camera. Upon developing the photos, he discovers that they are of a 1913 National Geographic expedition to the Amazon. He decides to donate the photos to the local university. At the university, he meets Professor Stottel who was on the expedition. He tells Daniel that there could be no photos because the Kurucai Indian tribe they met in the Amazon felt that making any image of them was stealing their souls.

The Kurucai had smashed the camera and stalked the expedition along with abducting the photographer. Professor Stottel looks at the pictures and confirms they are genuine. However, the Kurucai who should be in the photos are missing. Daniel returns home to find the missing Kurucai inside his home. When the Indians attack them, Daniel and his wife use their cameras to recapture the Kurucai on film.

Note

This episode bears similarities to the 1960 episode of the original series, A Most Unusual Camera, except the pictures in that episode are of the future rather than the past.

Closing narration

Ancient maps included unknown lands labeled "terra incognita," and warnings like, "here, there be tigers." Modern maps of an enlightened world show no such disclaimers. Perhaps they should. Perhaps even today, there are realms which cannot be charted anywhere...outside the Twilight Zone.

External links