Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Lavender’

Written by Scott Edwards

​There are many things that people would like to forget when growing up, but when looking back, I am sure that they are glad that they didn’t. You learn so much as a child about life overall, even when fighting with your parents over stupid stuff. You also learn what is important and what is not, you learn how to tie your shoes and most importantly, you learn how to be you. Your past holds the key for anyone that wants to get to know you and how you have turned into the person you are today, and there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to what happened in your life long ago.
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Taking photos of old houses, Jane has followed her passion for years and has never looked back. Trying to capture the story that the old houses have to tell, she is able to get an interview with Time Magazine about her work. No matter if she gets the job or not, Jane will continue to photograph houses, but there is one that she always has to stop by when driving past to try and find the right setting to immortalize it in a photo. But little does she know what this house has in store for her as she is about to take a long trip down memory lane.

Being taken in by a foster family after her family was killed years ago, Jane has wiped out all memories about what she witnessed that tragic day. Being able to move on with her life, marrying Alan and having a wonderful daughter Alice, she is only looking forward. Working out things with Alan to keep the couple together, Jane is still looking for some sort of answer as to why things are the way they are but is not willing to look for help just yet. Keeping up with her work and looking at her photos in the gallery, Jane loses all sense of time and is late to pick her daughter up from school. Having a moment while driving, Jane swerves to miss a random child in the middle of the street and aggravates an injury from her past.

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Waking up in the hospital with no memory of how she got there or who her family is, Jane feels alone, but there is a psychiatrist that is willing to try and help her. Turning Liam away, she believes that her memory will come back on its own, but there is someone following her. The little girl from the road shows herself in the hospital and Jane tries to follow her but is interrupted when she finally had her cornered. Getting flashes back from her current life, Jane finds out that she is the owner of her dead parent’s house, whom she is not able to recall.
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Getting ahold of her uncle Patrick, Jane is invited back into the house with open arms. With the thought that her memory would come back faster with an old stimulation, Jane starts to fear that there is something else in the house that wants to cause her and her family harm. When strange things continue to happen and challenge her sanity, Jane is not able to leave and sends Alan and Alice out to safety. Ready to take on the past on her own, an invitation for a game falls into her hands and she is ready to play and find out what the house has been trying to tell her all along.  

This movie is very intriguing to say the least. With a childhood injury that comes back into play, Jane starts to see and hear things that nobody else can, but she may not be crazy. I really liked the story and the payoff at the end was not what I was expecting, it actually kind of surprised me. You could tell from the opening of the movie that something terrible happened to Jane, but flash forward twenty years and it is not even a memory until strange packages start to arrive for her that she cannot explain. I really enjoyed the story, and the acting was pretty darn good, I might need to watch it again. With an obsession, unknown history, possible haunted house and a creepy uncle, you might not want to watch this movie alone, because that is when bad things tend to happen. Stay Scared.  

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