An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2002’s The Collingswood Story at the time of writing this post, The Collingswood Story can be found on Shudder
A couple in a long-distance relationship, communicating through video calls, start to believe a dangerous cult may be targeting one of them after a call with a psychic.
Is it Scary?
The Collingswood Story gets pretty creepy, though that’s mainly because of the story, not the scares. The jump scares often feel cheap and forced with some not making any real sense but they don’t happen a lot so it’s not detrimental to the movie.
By the end, you’ll be creeped out and a bit scared especially if you’re planning on doing a few video calls this Halloween.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens with a black-and-white video feed of a woman opening an attic door. We then see a bunch of grainy images overlaid over each other like I’m about to get a call from The Ring girl telling me I’m dying in seven days.
Some of the images look like a ladder into a sewer I think, pictures of a woman, some demon/guy face, and a random house. We also hear what sounds like chanting, it’s pretty unsettling and to top it all off we’re hit with a jump scare of what sounds like someone yelling.
Cut to our main character Rebecca (played by Stephanie Dees) waking up from a nightmare in bed. Fade out to the title card!
We open on Rebecca, now in color!, starting a video call with her boyfriend, John (played by Johnny Burton). We learn the two are in a long-distance relationship as Rebecca has moved to Collingswood, New Jersey in order to attend Rutgers University. As it’s her birthday, John has given her a webcam in order for them to talk and see each other.
Rebecca tells John she’s renting out a room in a historic home and the owners are currently on a trip to the Hamptons meaning she’s all alone. If you’ve seen enough horror movies, you know a bunch of red flags are going up right now.
Before Rebecca goes to eat her TV dinner, John tells her to call him back when she’s done as he still has some more birthday gifts to give her. Next, John calls his friend Billy (played by Grant Edmonds) and I really can’t pinpoint what his hobbies are…
Billy tries to get into John’s head making him believe that Rebecca is seeing another guy otherwise she would have invited him for the weekend. John rebuffs the accusation and then asks if Billy has found any new phone cam sites.
Since they’re nearing Halloween, Billy’s found a psychic called Vera Madeline who can supposedly talk to the dead. John thinks it’s a scam and Billy tells him Vera Madeline was able to communicate with his dead father. Amusingly, John calls out that his father isn’t dead and Billy gives him that “exactly” look, so Vera’s a scam.
Regardless John asks for the number since it’ll still be entertaining and then hangs up as Rebecca is calling him back. John sends her a list of phone cam sites she can try out as well as Vera’s number but she gets a call from her mom and asks to call him back.
Since Billy’s accusations are still lingering in John’s mind, he doesn’t hang up and listens in on the call getting verification that Rebecca really isn’t seeing anyone.
There’s a quick scene of John calling Billy and basically yelling at him for getting the thoughts in his head resulting in Billy mooning John. Did we need to see the ass of the worst character in the movie in a scene that added nothing? Unless Billy winds up dead later in the movie and the only way he’s identified is through his ass, there was no point in this scene.
Next, John calls Rebecca back and she agrees to call some of the numbers John sent her. After hanging up with him, she calls the first number which ends up being, who I presume to be, the American Angry Santa. The next caller is a singing telegram from who I presume is an American Idol first-round reject.
Back on a call with John, Rebecca exclaims her excitement and says she’s having fun but because of the rule of 3 the next call will actually move the movie forward. It’s psychic time!
Rebecca gives the psychic Vera (played by Diane Behrens) a fake name, Lisa, and Vera seems to give her an accurate depiction of her personality saying that she is “deep and sensitive however stubborn”. In reality, this is what’s called the Barnum Effect as the reading is a generalized depiction of what could be anyone’s personality.
Related Article from our sister-site Factschology.com – The Facts on the Barnum Effect
Vera suddenly gets serious and says something disturbing involving a relative happened recently. Rebecca seems to know what she’s talking about but doesn’t react. We then hear some whooshing sounds and Vera’s candles flicker.
Vera says there is someone who has a message for Rebecca which is weird since Rebecca hasn’t said her real name. Vera, seemingly in distress, blows out her candle and says something in a different language. She then tells Rebecca she is very receptive and can pay for a full reading with Visa, Mastercard, or Discover but Rebecca refuses.
Calling back John, Rebecca realizes that Vera probably knew her actual name due to caller ID. Excited, John decides to call Vera as well.
Vera gives John a pretty general reading until he reveals that he knows Rebecca who called earlier. Vera becomes serious and asks for the city where Rebecca is living. When John reveals it’s Collingswood, Vera tells him that Collingswood is known to mediums and psychics and has a darkness in it.
She demands Rebecca call her immediately and says she won’t charge her for the call. John suggests Vera just tell him the message since Rebecca is not a big believer but Vera refuses, saying that would open up John to presumably the darkness.
After some back and forth, Vera relents and informs John of a secret cult that lived in Collingswood led by a man named Alan Tashi in the 1800s. Neighbors discovered the bodies of nine girls in a well on his property with their eyes carved out and a smile cut into their faces.
The neighbors gathered around his home but he had barricaded himself inside. After breaking in, they couldn’t find him anywhere and nothing was out of the ordinary except for a weird children’s toy. Vera says the house is on Lees Lane and adds that while it may not have anything to do with Rebecca, the secret cult is still out there. She then hangs up.
John calls Rebecca and tells her what Vera said but she dismisses it all. That night John does some research and finds multiple articles on a Collingswood cult. One recent article tells of an alleged cult member and local judge, Malcolm Hawks, who killed his wife and two children in a murder-suicide by drowning in the bathtub.
Looking at pictures of the home where the killings happened, John realizes it’s the same house Rebecca is staying at. John calls Rebecca and tells her everything. Though she doesn’t believe it’s connected with what Vera said, she’s still freaked out. John suggests she keep the video call with him on all night to make her feel better, and she agrees.
A little bit later, John is awake and hears some sounds outside his home but it turns out to be nothing, and goes back to sleep. We then see a bunch of images like the start of the movie but this time including Vera’s candles, a fire, a child, and the grinning toy. It’s also a jump scare as it ends and Rebecca wakes up in bed.
The next morning John wakes Rebecca up late and she rushes to the library. Meanwhile, John calls Billy and questions whether he told Vera to mess with him and Rebecca. Billy denies the accusation and the two discuss the killings.
Later John is still looking into the killings and finds the crime scene photos. In the photo of the bathtub, he sees a toy that suddenly disappears which is not something you can do with pictures unless they’re haunted.
Back with Rebecca, we see her creating a video email for John in which she drives around Collingswood while filming with her webcam and if that’s not illegal, it definitely should be. In a second video email made later in the day, a morose-sounding Rebecca says she’s done some research on the cult and found out it originated in France.
That night John calls Rebecca who is in the home’s library and they discuss their findings. Though John wants to leave it alone, Rebecca decides to call Vera and find out why she wanted her to call her. Vera acts like she’s never heard of Rebecca or John and says that her disclaimer states the whole thing is for entertainment purposes only.
Back on a call with John, Rebecca angrily tells him what happened and the two are in disbelief. Trying to distract herself, Rebecca looks through some books behind her and finds some postcards which depict the same weird toy John saw earlier. The French words on the postcards translate to “We are not dead.”
Shocked, John loses his temper and decides to call Vera despite Rebecca’s pleas not to. Though the call connects, Vera isn’t there and we only see her unattended lit candles which have got to be a fire hazard.
Back with Rebecca, John offers to drive 8 hours to be with her but she refuses and asks him to drop the whole thing. She then says she hasn’t eaten and is going out to get food before hanging up.
In a video email, Rebecca goes out to look for Lees Lane, eventually finding it but also finding a park where the cult supposedly practiced rituals. In between these scenes, we also see Vera call John and warn him about the cult. She reveals the cult practices rituals in the attic of the house Rebecca is in and tells him that Rebecca needs to get out.
When he questions why she didn’t say anything when Rebecca called her before, she says it was too dangerous but doesn’t elaborate. As we see Rebecca find the house, Vera seems to get a message and tells John that it’s too late, Rebecca has Alan now and is just going through the motions with Johnny. She then tells him to stay away from Rebecca.
Also in between these scenes, there are a lot of jumps to random images and building music, culminating in a cheap jump scare where Vera sees the black-and-white image of the toy.
Returning home, Rebecca calls John and he tells her about the attic. Somehow this leads to an argument where John thinks their relationship really is over. Why? Because manufactured drama!
Rebecca says that Vera is a fake but John thinks she’s gotten too many things right to be fake. Rebecca does seem to be slightly different in her personality almost like she is possessed or something but I think this is purposely ambiguous.
In an attempt to prove Vera is a fraud, Rebecca says she’s going to search for the attic where the rituals supposedly took place. John tells her that’s not what he wants her to do and Rebecca tells him to stop being a bitch (oh snap!) before she hangs up. She totally shouldn’t look for the attic though.
A short time later, Rebecca calls John back and tells him she found the entrance to the attic, conveniently located in the bathroom where Judge Hawkins killed his family.
John begs her not to go but she does so anyway and takes the computer with her. In the attic she finds a hidden door and ignoring the obvious “weird shit beyond here” signs, she goes in. There she finds a small trunk and several pictures hidden under the dirt. As John starts to freak, Vera calls Rebecca and berates her for not leaving it alone.
Vera reveals that she used to be a part of the cult but was able to get away before she was sacrificed. Taking off her glasses, she shows Rebecca that the cult took one of her eyes and tells her that she needs to be afraid of Alan Tashi’s love. She then starts laughing in a pretty evil manner and it doesn’t help her case.
Vera tells Rebecca not to hang up and that he’s going to cut her eyes out but as she’s talking the sound of something banging is heard. Vera looks around as the banging gets louder and the video cuts off.
Back on a call with John, Rebecca is sobbing and starts to freak out wanting to leave the attic. She starts to hear banging and yells out that someone is in the attic with her. She’s then attacked by Alan Tashi who is black and white for some reason. John freaks out and we hear Rebecca saying she can’t see but it’s because it’s dark not because of a lack of eyes.
As John tells her to stay where he can see her, we see his door open behind him. As the screen cuts in and out between complete darkness and images of Alan, we hear John screaming out for Rebecca. We then see a dead John with his eyes removed and a smile carved into his face.
The movie ends as we see a completely fine Rebecca in the attic smile at the camera and we cut back to a dead John for one last jump scare.
Ending Explained
Though the ending appears to be a mish-mash of random scares and non-sensical revelations we can see hints of it happening throughout the film. Vera Madeline warns John that asking about the cult will open him up, though she doesn’t say what it opens him up to, we can assume it opens him up to the cult.
Based on what Vera tells John and Rebecca, it seems like the cult infects whoever is in the house into “loving” Alan Tashi to the point where they willingly sacrifice someone close to them but, the person also has moments of lucidity.
We can see this with Vera who was able to escape at one point and presumably why Judge Hawkins killed himself after sacrificing his family and realizing what he’s done. This would explain why Rebecca appears to be in the control of the cult and normal at random points at the end.
Review:
The Collingswood Story is pretty good. To be honest, I went in with low expectations since it was a found footage movie and I hate those but overall it exceeded my expectations. The acting was passable but the story and most of the dialogue made up for it.
It felt like a good old-fashioned Halloween story because it relied on the creepiness of the story it was trying to tell, instead of manufactured fake suspense where the audience is forced to stare at a kitchen for a full minute until a jump scare happens.
Related Article: Paranormal Activity (2007) Explained
Unfortunately, it does have a few jump scares with those random images which end with something screaming that is supposed to be Rebecca’s nightmare. Yet, at two points in the movie, the images flash on the screen for scares and they have no reason to show up other than to scare the viewer and that feels completely cheap.
The movie also hints at some backstory for Rebecca with something involving her stepfather but then doesn’t deliver. For John, his jealousy and thoughts that Rebecca may be cheating on him felt extremely forced and shoehorned in. I assume both of these were meant to add some character backstory but since it doesn’t add motivation, it just feels random.
Still, those negatives are extremely small and the movie is pretty short at just 80 minutes so it’s a worthwhile movie to watch if you’re looking to get spooked. I recommend giving The Collingswood Story a watch especially if you’re looking for something quick and creepy.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Metacritic – No Page