A young man attempts to resolve inconsistencies surrounding his mother’s death while an eight-year-old girl goes missing in the same area in Caddo Lake, now streaming worldwide on Max. This neat little thriller turns more and more compelling every minute of its runtime, but while the finale wraps everything up in a neat little package, we’re left wanting something a little more emotionally satisfying.
Caddo Lake stars Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) as Paris, who has spent the past two years distancing himself from his father Ben (Sam Hennings) and ex-girlfriend Cee (Diana Hopper) after the death of his mother in an automobile accident. His mom suffered from unexplained seizures, and Paris thinks the timeline of those events, tracked by his father over the years, could somehow help explain what happened.
In the same Caddo Lake bayou on the border of Texas and Louisiana, college-aged Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) is going through her own family drama. Arguments with mom Celeste (Lauren Ambrose) and stepdad Daniel (Eric Lange) see her staying with a friend while home from school, but she’s brought back into the family fold following the disappearance of eight-year-old stepsister Anna (Caroline Falk).
Anna had followed Ellie by boat deep into the bayou after a family fight, and her disappearance leads to a widespread search of the drought-stricken locale. Paris, meanwhile, who works a day job clearing old mining facility pipeline from the swamps, finds leads related to his mother’s death into the bayou. And both characters simultaneously discover that there’s something in the location that goes beyond their understanding.
How these two storylines intertwine, which only begins to become apparent at the film’s halfway mark, is what makes Caddo Lake so fun. Suffice it to say that there are supernatural elements at play here that recall a wide range of films like Frequency, The Lake House, Predestination, and Synchronicity, but Caddo Lake maintains its own unique narrative that make it difficult to categorize without getting into spoiler territory.
The first half-hour of Caddo Lake is slow and exposition-heavy, and could lead some viewers into thinking the film is an indie family drama; the name of producer M. Night Shyamalan in the opening credits, however, should clue you in to expecting something different. After the lengthy setup, which establishes two separate narratives, Caddo Lake turns into a compelling puzzle-box mystery that we keep trying to put together, with hints slowly doled out intermittently along the running time.
By the end, all the twists and turns converge on each other in a way that makes sense on an intellectual level: we know exactly what’s going on, and may have even put things together a step or two ahead of the narrative.
It’s only on an emotional level that Caddo Lake lets us down. By the end, we understand what has transpired, and feel that it all makes sense now… but so what? The two main characters in the film finally have their answers, but nobody else does. The core mystery behind the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl is explained to the audience, but not sufficiently resolved in the world of the movie.
Still, up until its final moments Caddo Lake is nifty little mystery that slowly grabs your attention and then turns more and more compelling until you can’t take your eyes off the screen. Aided by two strong central performances, wonderful location photography at the titular lake outside Shreveport, Louisiana, and an innovative script by writer-directors Logan George and Celine Held, Caddo Lake could turn into a cult favorite if audiences are willing to forgive its missteps at the finale.
2 Responses
A bit slow moving at first but overall solid movie. Just wish there was a scene between the two protagonists. 7/10
Where does the necklace come from?
Anna takes it from Celeste, goes back in time, Paris gets it when she dies (and finds another one??), Celeste gets it when Paris goes missing, Ellie steals it… but where does it originally come from? Like who made it if it is simply passed between these characters through time?