"The Collingswood Story," told entirely through webcam footage, follows a young woman, Rebecca, who has relocated to Collingswood, New Jersey to attend Rutgers University. To stay in touch with her boyfriend Johnny, the two communicate via video chat. One night, he plays a prank by setting her up to chat with a bizarre online psychic. The psychic not only seems to know personal details about the couple, but also the dark history of the house that Rebecca has moved into—a history that includes ritual murder and strange goings-on in the attic.
Released in 2002, this film has often been compared to "The Blair Witch Project," though there is a notable difference in presentation here, as "Collingswood" is framed through online video chat. Years later, the film is something of a time capsule of an era in which wi-fi and smartphones did not exist, and webcams were a new technology. In that sense, the film feels dated, but also strangely current given that video chat has become a cultural mainstay.
The narrative arc here is quite simple, taking place over a period of a few days before Halloween, in which the two characters come to the conclusion that there is something very odd about the house Rebecca has rented a room in. There are a few amateurish flashy scare effects here and there, and the editing is at at times rather choppy, but the bulk of the film consists of one-on-one video conversations that are weirdly absorbing. The two leads manage to make the conversations surprisingly believable, and the film is very atmospheric; which is odd given that we rarely get any glimpses of the world outside of their respective bedrooms. In spite of that, there is a distinctive, chilly autumnal atmosphere that creeps into the film—the characters only seem to video chat in the evenings, and watching the conversations gives the audience the voyeuristic sense that we're looking in on their private lives and personal spaces.
Ancillary to the central plot is Billy, one of Johnny's friends who appears (also via webcam correspondence), while the enigmatic Vera Madeline is the bizarre online psychic. Her scenes are among the most unnerving, drenched in darkness and lit only by a row of candles behind her; her hair is slicked back, and she inexplicably dons sunglasses. It's just generally weird, and aesthetically unnerving. The conclusion to the film is a bit ambiguous, and though the last ten minutes are notably suspenseful, I felt a bit disappointed when the credits rolled. The end scene is very much frightening, but didn't pack enough torque to truly satisfy in my opinion.
All in all though, "The Collingswood Story" is nonetheless an absorbing indie horror movie. It's dated in some regards and wears its amateurish qualities on its sleeve, but there is something surprisingly engrossing about it in its simplicity. Through the format, the viewer is allowed access into the interior worlds of the characters, where something very unusual begins to take hold, and there is something inexplicably frightening about that. Films like "Paranormal Activity" would come to recreate a similar formula in flashier ways. 7/10.
