Justin Long's 'Rotten' Ghost Movie Explained

Part of the reason "Lavender" might have missed its mark is that its creator admitted he was aiming at the space between two previous horror classics. 

Director and co-writer Ed Gass-Donnelly told Screen Daily in 2016 that while he does not like the "horror" label, he drew on one aspect of the 2001 thriller "The Others," which starred Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston. "The biggest reason I don't like that genre is I really don't believe it," he said. "There's bad reactions. But what I liked about 'The Others' was just that it was such a rich world of performances. They made me believe it through the acting."

Gass-Donnelly further admitted that he may have been a bit too inspired by another previous project. "There were points where I would say, 'I think we're accidentally ripping off 'The Shining,'" he said. "I think it's just where our tastes tend to go."

He also commented on the casting of Justin Long, saying that placing a comedic actor in the role of a mysterious spectral messenger was an intentional misdirection. "You might think it's a little strange casting," Gass-Donnelly said, "but then you play him completely straight with no indication of anything creepy involved... he was able to give a strange, seemingly simple performance. It feels different than what we've seen [him] in before."