THE COLLINGSWOOD STORY (2002)

Studio:     Cauldron Films
Director:    Michael Costanza
Writer:     Michael Costanza
Producer:  Michael Costanza
Stars:     Stephanie Dees, Johnny Burton, Diane Behrens, Grant Edmonds, Glenn Hoeffner, Ron Ige

Review Score:

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Summary:

While communicating with her long distance boyfriend, a college student uncovers an occult conspiracy connected to the off-campus home where she lives.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

John Dalmas uses a Dekko videophone to talk to his long distance girlfriend Rebecca Miles, who left their hometown of Bedford, Virginia to attend college in Collingswood, New Jersey. John and Rebecca celebrate Rebecca’s 21st birthday, although John finds it odd that Rebecca didn’t want him to visit in person. Rebecca adds that the couple she rents her room from left her alone in their house for the weekend.

John calls his friend Billy, who plants the idea in John’s head that Rebecca is seeing someone else. Billy also suggests that John use his videophone to call psychic Vera Madeline for fun.

John calls Rebecca with a veiled question about her being alone. John eavesdrops on a call between Rebecca and her mother hoping to hear a clue about whether Rebecca is seeing someone else.

For entertainment, John has Rebecca use her videophone to call a weirdo named Theodore as well as a singing telegram. John then puts Rebecca in touch with Vera Madeline.

Rebecca finds it strange when Vera calls her by her real name. Vera briefly speaks in French while giving Rebecca a cryptic psychic reading in which an entity apparently makes contact. Vera promises there is more to tell Rebecca, but explains that another reading will cost money.

John calls Vera for his own reading. John becomes intrigued when Vera mentions his relationship worries. Vera then tells John that his girlfriend must call her back immediately, as she is compelled by dark forces to warn Rebecca about Collingswood.

John insists that Vera tell him what she knows. Vera explains that Collingswood hosted an underground cult founded by Alan Tashi in the 1800s. Nine girls were found dead in a well on his property with their eyes carved out and their mouths slit from ear to ear. Townspeople stormed Tashi’s house on Lees Lane but never located him. However, they did find a Halloween shaker toy with a devil’s face in the attic.

Through internet research, John discovers that Collingswood judge Malcolm Hawks murdered his family and killed himself in the house on Bancroft Avenue where Rebecca currently lives. John relays all of this information to Rebecca, who then has a nightmare of an ominous house, old photographs, and a well.

John calls Billy to find out what he knows about Vera Madeline. Billy blows off John’s suggestion that he is being pranked.

John does more internet research on the Bancroft Avenue murders. John briefly sees a Halloween shaker in a crime scene photo of the bathtub where Judge Hawks drowned his children, but the toy then inexplicably disappears.

Rebecca sends John an email with a video tour of Collingswood. Rebecca mentions that her research revealed Alan Tashi was from France, but she was unable to locate his house on Lees Lane.

After discussing the cult with John, Rebecca calls Vera again. Vera condescendingly claims to not know who Rebecca is or what she is talking about regarding her reading the previous night.

In the Bancroft Avenue house, Rebecca finds antique Halloween postcards from France depicting the devil toy John saw in the crime scene photo. Rebecca remembers Vera speaking in French, which further alarms both her and John.

While Rebecca goes out searching for Alan Tashi’s Lees Lane house, John calls Vera. Vera explains that she didn’t say anything during an earlier call because it was too dangerous. Vera goes on to say that the judge killed his family because it was their only escape from Alan Tashi. Vera warns John that Rebecca must get out of the house if she wants to survive. She also warns that the cult practices their rites in the attic.

Vera then claims Rebecca is just going through the motions in her relationship with John. Vera cryptically adds that Rebecca doesn’t care for John anymore because now she has “him.”

Rebecca returns home and calls John. John warns Rebecca about the attic, but Rebecca decides to investigate anyway. Behind a secret door in the attic, Rebecca discovers an occult altar, old trunk, and old photographs under a pile of dust.

Vera calls Rebecca with a warning to get out of the house. Vera removes her sunglasses to reveal she is blind in one eye. Vera admits she was a cult member who escaped and warns Rebecca to be afraid of “his” love because “he” will cut out her eyes.

Rebecca becomes trapped in the attic. Strange noises are heard as an old man with a pentagram on his forehead attacks her.

The lights go out on John in Virginia. Someone or something attacks him in the darkness. When the lights return, John is seen with his eyes carved out and his mouth slit ear to ear.

With calm seemingly restored in Collingswood, Rebecca finds the Halloween shaker on the attic floor. Rebecca smiles eerily.

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Review:

“The Collingswood Story,” a “found footage” film released in 2002, received a small bite of notoriety ten years later when its creator, Michael Costanza, sued Paramount Pictures and a pair of producers. Costanza contended that he presented content from “The Collingswood Story” during a pitch meeting in 2010 that ended with his concepts being turned down. In 2012 however, similar ideas turned up in “Paranormal Activity 4” (review here), prompting Costanza to suggest a court decide how much their movie might have copied his.

The case never made it to trial though. By 2014, Costanza told Dread Central his lawsuit had been “resolved amicably.” Costanza has yet to release another feature since “The Collingswood Story,” including his previously announced project “The Market Street 6” as well as a possible sequel teased at the time he announced the settlement. “Amicable” deals have a habit of replacing ambition with bankbook zeroes, I guess.

It’s a minor pity the movie has that asterisk over it since “The Collingswood Story” holds its own as a genuinely creepy, inventive indie from “found footage’s” heyday. At a time before FaceTime and Skype existed, and before films like “Open Windows” (review here) or “Unfriended” (review here) made such framing commonplace, “Collingswood” daringly crafted a narrative that plays out entirely over computer screens as characters communicate with one another remotely.

Techniques are hokey by contemporary standards. Try not to snicker at the movie’s graphic interface of blocky menus and outdated internet browser imagery. Today, audiences take for granted when one button press puts people in contact via cellphone cameras in under two seconds. In 2002, “The Collingswood Story” had to innovate explanations for making its videophones mobile by introducing comically long extension cords and forcing characters to download enormous email attachments because they couldn’t broadcast from a moving car. It may look laughable now, but this was creative thinking then.

“The Collingswood Story” sets up a long distance relationship between 21-year-old college student Rebecca, who goes to school in the titular New Jersey town, and her boyfriend John back in Virginia. Spatial separation becomes one of the movie’s main methods for manufacturing suspense. When eeriness ramps up, viewers vicariously feel the helplessness of being forced to watch something horrible happen because everyone exists in an isolated two-dimensional window. Again, horror movies have done this hundreds of times in the years since. Yet “Collingswood” effectively captures a sense of patient distress by removing any possibility of anyone taking action together.

Exclusively interacting via videophone cools the couple’s chemistry however. So does iffy characterization. Stephanie Dees plays Rebecca as a perky, talkative, booksmart coed. Meanwhile, Johnny Burton costumes John in a backwards baseball cap and mechanic’s shirt embroidered ironically with someone else’s name while swigging Mickey’s malt liquor during a video chat with Rebecca. Not only do they come off as romantically mismatched, their lukewarm side drama about John fearing possible infidelity doesn’t pay off with invested oomph either.

Then again, we learn Rebecca’s ex Billy, who remains John’s best friend, drinks beer from a novelty hat, uses the cans to build a decorative pyramid next to his Washington Redskins banner, and pulls down camo pants to moon John for a har-dee-har laugh. Maybe Rebecca just has terrible taste in men.

Dees and Burton’s performances warm up from stiffly amateur to acceptably adequate as the film rolls into more frightening material. At the same time, there’s ample evidence onscreen explaining why Burton never appeared in another movie and Dees’ only other notable credit is ‘Girl’ from 1988’s “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” (review here).

Rough edges generally contribute to the film’s appeal as a scrappy no-budget effort whose imaginative elbow grease is evident everywhere. Acting as editor in addition to writer and director, Mike Costanza has a solid sense of when to cut between John and Rebecca’s respective cameras. “The Collingswood Story” unspools through a hefty amount of exposition. Costanza’s timing keeps the tempo as tight as can be expected, which makes the movie reasonably snappy for a story heavily reliant on conversation.

Anticipation gradually builds through grisly background bits concerning an occult conspiracy and tragic murders, both of which connect to the historic house where Rebecca rents a room. Action doesn’t necessarily intensify, but atmosphere does. John DeBorde’s warping, bassy score inserts unsettling sounds into satanic suggestiveness to strike an intangibly unnerving chord. If only Costanza knew to turn down the volume on terrible background music of the “my friend’s band” variety, audio elements would escape complaints.

What it lacks in visual finesse, “The Collingswood Story” makes up for with simplified moodiness. It’s not a flashy film, yet it deserves consideration when discussing microbudget rarities that actually overcome limitations to earn legitimate scares. If you want a reason to irrationally flinch at noises in the crawlspace above your bedroom, watch “The Collingswood Story” alone at night.

Review Score: 75

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