The Collingswood Story
The Collingswood Story is a 2002 American computer screen supernatural horror film written and directed by Michael Costanza, and starring Stephanie Dees, Johnny Burton, Grant Edmonds, and Diane Behrens. Its plot follows a college-aged couple who attempt to maintain their long-distance relationship via video chatting; however, a chance encounter with an online psychic plunges their lives into a world of nightmarish supernatural phenomena. The Collingswood Story began production in the year 2000, when video chatting was in its infancy and far from mainstream. It is known today as the first screenlife film for its innovative video chat concept. In an August 2022 editorial "The Evolution of Found Footage: A History of Screenlife Horror" The Collingswood Story is referred to as "the first true Screenlife horror flick." The film has been cited as a precursor to a number of horror films presented in the computer screen format, such as Host, and Unfriended. Plot Rebecca Miles relocates to Collingswood, New Jersey to attend Rutgers University, renting a room in a historic house. On Rebecca's twenty-first birthday, her boyfriend, Johnny, gifts her a webcam so the two can maintain a long-distance relationship. Johnny, communicating with his friend Billy—also via webcam—is introduced to Vera Madeline, an online psychic whom Billy claims contacted his deceased father. Rebecca is skeptical of Vera, and offers to have a virtual session with her first. During the video conference, Vera appears in a darkened room, backlit by two candelabras, and donning sunglasses. Rebecca gives Vera a false name, but shortly into her psychic reading, Vera calls Rebecca by her actual name. This piques Rebecca's interest, but she chalks it up to Vera having some method of caller identification. When Johnny has a session with Vera, she asks who referred him, and he mentions Rebecca. Vera comments that Collingswood is well-known to psychics and mediums due to grim historical events that occurred there involving a secret society founded by a French immigrant named Alan Tashi, who in the 1800s, murdered and mutilated nine girls, cutting out their eyes, before disposing of their bodies in a well. When the townspeople attempted to seek vengeance, they stormed Tashi's home, but found it empty; in the attic, they discovered a wooden shaker toy, but no sign of Tashi, Vera urges Johnny to have Rebecca contact her again for another session, imparting that Rebecca is a "sensitive," and that she has important information for her. Upon further investigation, Johnny discovers that the house Rebecca is living in was the site of a murder–suicide four years prior, in which a judge drowned his children in the bathtub before killing his wife, and then, himself. In crime scene photos published online, Johnny glimpses a wooden shaker toy. Armed with this knowledge, Johnny worries about Rebecca, who has been left alone in the house by the homeowners over the Halloween weekend. Rebecca begins to look for evidence of the supposed secret society in Collingswood, recording footage as she drives around town, but is unable to locate the