Lavender 2017

In 1985, a quiet night shatters a family when tragedy strikes a small farm. Police inform Patrick that something terrible has happened to his brother and the rest of his kin, and the investigation quickly reveals a brutal massacre: Patrick’s brother, his wife, and his niece are found dead, while a blood-streaked teenager named Jane survives at the scene. The events unfold with the haunting strains of the song Lavender Blue playing in the background, a melancholic motif that will echo through Jane’s life. Raised by a foster family after the incident, Jane carries the weight of an unremembered past, her memories blocked by trauma and distance from the family she lost.

By 2010, Jane has become a photographer, running a studio that specializes in pictures of abandoned farmhouses. Her work is steady, but her personal life is unsettled, marked by a faltering relationship with her husband Alan and the responsibility of a young daughter, Alice. Memory gaps continue to intrude, and an accident during a location shoot leaves Jane waking up in a hospital, unable to recognize Alan or Alice. A doctor explains that a childhood head injury has disrupted her recall, offering a medical explanation for the gaps she’s been living with. The sense of things being out of reach deepens as a mysterious gift arrives: a jack accompanied by a photo of the farmhouse Jane recently photographed, a clue that seems to link her present to the past she cannot fully remember.

Curiosity—and fear—pull Jane toward the very place that has haunted her memory. The property records reveal that Jane herself owns the farmhouse, a fact that astonishes and unsettles her, and they indicate that Patrick, her uncle, has cared for the house in her absence. A local antiques store clerk presents a framed newspaper page from 1985 detailing the family massacre and hinting that Jane might bear some responsibility for what happened. A chance encounter with the family’s psychiatrist, Liam, begins to draw the narrative together, but Liam disappears before Jane can speak with him directly. Later, a torn family photograph—featuring young Jane, Susie, and a blurred image of their mother, Jennifer—appears in another gift box, and the image is accompanied by a chilling plea from Susie, who seems to be reaching out from beyond the grave: to “come find us.”

The sense of danger tightens as Jane and her husband debate leaving the farmhouse, while strange experiences unfold at home. Alice whispers of a man chasing her and begins to suffer an asthma attack, and the lingering presence of spirits seems to bind Jane to the house. A haunting clue emerges in Susie’s room: a music box holds the other half of the torn family photograph, and it unambiguously points to Liam as Jane’s father. The truth behind the night of the massacre finally surfaces: the sisters hid under the bed as Patrick entered the house. Patrick forces himself into Susie’s room, intent on abuse, while their mother Jennifer intervenes with a hammer and is killed by Patrick. The chase ends with Jane colliding with Liam during the struggle, a fall down the stairs resulting in Liam’s death and Jane’s head injury. Patrick seizes Susie’s lifeless body as a grotesque trophy and places the hammer in Liam’s hand, a final act to cover his tracks. Jane awakens in the corner where the police once found her, her body stained with Liam’s blood, haunted by the past she cannot fully escape.

In the present, an adult Jane sits with Liam, who speaks of imprisoned family spirits that could guide her toward the truth she needs to free them. The revelation reframes their haunting: the family’s spectral presence is not just a curse but a pathway to the truth about what happened that night. When Alan arrives with news that Alice is in danger at Patrick’s—anticipating another threat from the same man—Jane and Alan rush to intervene. Patrick, now a direct target of the family’s vengeful memory, fires at Alan before Jane acts. She uses a shovel to strike Patrick, finally bringing him into Susie’s room and confronting the killer with the living memory of the family he harmed. Patrick, restrained and terrified, pleads for clemency as Jane delivers a grim ultimatum: he can plead his case to the spirits, but he will not escape their judgment. The film closes on a wrenching note as Patrick’s cries fade, leaving Jane to face the consequences and the fragile peace her family seeks.

This story weaves together themes of memory, trauma, and the redemptive power of truth, using the farmhouse as a haunting centerpiece that binds past and present. The occasional lullaby of Lavender Blue and the shifting perspective between 1985 and 2010 create a mood that is both melancholic and suspenseful, inviting viewers to piece together how memory and misdeed intertwine. The emotional core rests on Jane’s gradual recall of a night that forever altered her life, the protective yet haunting role of the spirits, and her resolve to shield those she loves from a malevolent force that once walked through the same doors.