Slow burn horror. I don’t think there’s a more divisive term in the genre. Some people love it, and some people avoid it at all costs. I’ve noticed, as a horror fan who tries to see as many of the newest releases as I can, a recent uptick in the amount of slow burn horror movies being released out of the indie scene. Is it because these movies are popular right now? Is this the kind of film that filmmakers coming up right now want to make? As a fan of these kinds of movies, I think, unfortunately, they are being made just because they’re easier to make on low budgets.
Lavender is the new film from Ed Gass-Donnelly, a filmmaker I’m a definitely a fan of. I know I’m in the minority, but I was super impressed with his work on The Last Exorcism Part II (which was co-scripted by last Sunday’s big Oscar winner for best director, Damien Chazelle). I thought that film was an incredibly underrated sequel that built upon the original quite well. Gass-Donnelly’s first feature film, Small Town Murder Songs was no slouch either. Lavender also features a star studded cast including Abbie Cornish, Dermot Mulroney, and Justin Long.
The story follows Jane, played by Cornish, who, after losing her memory, visits her childhood home at the advise of her psychiatrist, played by a miscast Long. Jane is now a wife and a mother, but she remembers nothing about her parents and her life before she was put into the foster care system. After discovering she has a living uncle, played by the always on Mulroney, she decides to pack up the family and stay there for a while to see if she can reconnect with her past. Naturally, she’s troubled by visions she doesn’t understand that may have a link to her sinister past.
I was really excited to check this one out because of the cast and the filmmaker. So, I was super let down to find that this movie didn’t really have a whole lot going on. The film started out strong when we first meet Jane as a little girl while she’s covered in blood left with the corpses of her family. The movie slows down a bit when we meet Jane in modern day, but Cornish keeps the character interesting enough up until the point Jane is involved in a terrible car crash. Once she wakes up, struggling to regain her memory, the movie slows to a crawl.
The worst offense an indie horror film can make is being boring. When by minute 45, we haven’t see a ghost or anything creepy yet, I’m pretty checked out. I didn’t want to be. I wanted to love this movie. I was looking forward to it so much. There’s just not enough that happens once Jane goes back to her childhood home.
We spend at least half of the movie watching Jane meander around the house and saying that she can’t remember. Once we get to the very predictable reveal, I just didn’t care anymore. It’s a shame, too, because Abbie Cornish is quite good in the movie. In fact, it might be the best she’s ever been. Dermot Mulroney also gives a great performance as usual. Justin Long sadly has very little to do in the film.
There were no great directorial flourishes to be found here either. It was pretty standard from start to finish. Even when Jane’s past is revealed, and the filmmakers bring back a gimmick from the opening of the movie, nothing really sticks out as visually interesting. I was never creeped out or invested enough in Jane’s story to really feel any sort of impact.
As much as I wanted to like this one, Lavender kind of fizzed out for me. I myself bored by the film’s halfway point, and the pacing made it difficult to carry me through the end. It’s a shame there’s wasted good performers here as well. Cornish and Mulroney were on top of it this movie, but the film itself just couldn’t deliver. It’s not scary or particularly original. It’s not the worst film I’ve seen, but it didn’t really do anything for me either.
2/5
LAVENDER is in Theaters, on VOD and Digital HD on this Friday, March 3rd
