Say Cheese and Die! (1992) (edit title/settings)

Say Cheese and Die written by R.L. Stein was about four friends. Greg, Sharie, Michael and Bird, who all get bored one summer day. Having no place to go and no money they decide to pay a visit to the old deserted Coffman house that sits on top of the hill. It’s said to be occupied by a old homeless man named Spidey. So inside the house they discover the basement, after Bird plays a joke on them that something has gotten him. Down in the basement they find all kinds of dress up clothes. While his friends are fooling around trying on the outfits Greg notices a work table.

When he turns the handle a secret shelf opens. In the shelf there’s a camera. Greg takes a picture of Michael. Soon afterwards he falls down the stairs. When they look at the picture it’s Michael falling. Only thing is when Greg took the picture he was posing. They are almost caught in the house, but manage to escape. When Greg gets home he sees his dad’s new car in the driveway and snaps a picture. When he gets up to his room, in the picture the car is wrecked. He realizes that there’s something not right about the camera and decides to hide it in a secret compartment in his bed. He also decides not to tell anyone about the camera.

At dinner Dad suggests that after dinner they all go for a ride. Greg is reluctant but can’t really think of a good enough reason why not to go. But while Dad is driving them around he almost gets in a accident. Shaken up the family decides to go home. Greg takes another picture of Terry (his brother). In this one Terry is looking lost and scared and coming from the woods.

The next day Greg and Shari go to a baseball game to support Bird. Bird convinces Greg to take his picture, but in the picture he’s all sprawled out on the ground in a weird angle. During the game they look up when they hear him cry out. He’s sprawled out, but he’s pranking them. It happens again, but this time when he gets hit in the head with a baseball it knocks him out for real. Greg is horrified but then his brother rushes up with the same expression he had in the picture. He tells him that they’re dad has been in a car accident and is in the hospital. Greg visits his dad, and wants to tell his family the truth about the camera, but his mom puts him off and says later.

Greg decides to put the camera away and not use it again. That is until Shari calls on her birthday and wants him to bring the camera to her party. Greg doesn’t want to do it, but goes along with it anyway cause it’s her birthday. Shari makes him take her picture twice. Both times she isn’t in the picture. Minutes later when it’s time for the cake Sharie has mysteriously disappeared. They look all over the woods for her. Nothing! They even call the police. Still Nothing.

Greg tries to tell the police about the camera, but they don’t believe him. When he goes home he realizes that his room has been ransacked, and he knows that some how Spidey knows where he lives and wants the camera back. Greg tells Michael and Bird to meet up with him. They have to return the camera. They don’t want to do it. They are harassed by two bullies, who grab the camera. They get it back and take off running.
Greg tells them they have to return the camera the next day. In there struggle the camera went off and the pictures shows him and Sharie with a shadowy figure in tbe background.

When he gets home, in a fit of anger and frustration he rips up the two pictures of Sharie. Two hours later she calls. She has NO idea where she’s been for two days. Shari and Greg are chased by Spidey, but someone in the neighborhood scares him away. Greg and Shari finally decide to return the camera. They get it back to the shelf but are trapped by Spidey.

His name turns out to be Fredrick. He explains to them that he is an inventor. He and a partner designed the camera, and that it is evil and cursed. He stole the camera from his partner back then and realized the curse put on it when it started taking people’s souls. He tells Greg and Shari he can’t let them go they know to much, and starts to put the camera at them. But instead Shari makes a dive for it and the camera goes off. But when they look around to see if Spidey will chase them they notice he has fallen over.
The picture shows that he has a shocked expression on his face. Apparently he was SO afraid of the picture he has a heart attack.

The kids lie to the police and tell them they found him that way when they went in the house. At the end of the book the two bullies are walking away with the camera.

Yes this is one of the better ones. I rate it about a seven. The whole evil camera plot is intriguing. But what I wanna know is if you find a weird camera in a house, and you see after a couple of pictures what it does, would you KEEP taking pictures with the camera. Even if you’re friends begged up to bring it to a party for entertainment. Ah peer pressure. They were all REALLY REALLY stupid because they keep on taking the pictures. I remember reading this book, but not about Spidey (Fredrick) dying of shock. Thought that was kinda twisted for a ending. I mean this is a kid’s book. The most extreme I’ve read in ALL them, thus far, but at least it wasn’t a corny one like some of them. Good book. Enjoyed it for a light read.