Caddo Lake is one of those movies that grab you with the mysterious, suspenseful plot, but not one you’ll binge watch every other weekend, the classic cable movie. This movie has everything you would expect from a good thriller, directed by Celine Held and Logan George and produced by notorious M. Night Shyamalan. The movie set in the strange and confusing Caddo Lake, which spread out the border of Texas and Louisiana, explores broken families, time travel and some supernatural mysteries are the main attractive of this movie. I gave "Caddo Lake (2024)" a 7 out of 10, it is another of those movie I consider a good one time thing to watch, turns and twists keep it interesting, but it lacks in a few things that keep it from being a repeat favorite. But the film's small scale and straight to streamer release strategy might have something to do with why it didn't get a wider theatrical release, but that doesn't minimize its impact.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15552142/
- Platform: MAX
Rottentomatoes Rating
The story develops around two main characters, Dylan O'Brien as Paris, Eliza Scanlen as Ellie. Paris is a average worker living near the lake, still in mourning of his mother's early death, he has a girlfriend, Cee played Diana Hopper, apart from that he has hand tremors and hesitates when he speaks, which show Paris's past traumas. But Ellie is a college hopeful living with her erratic, possibly abusive mother, Celeste played by Lauren Ambrose and her step sister Anna played by Caroline Falk. There's tension between Ellie and her mom and when Anna goes missing, during said family argument, at least initially there is nothing, but this disappearance sparks a community wide search.
Paris finds himself entangled in his own mystery as the search for Anna continues, some other sinister secrets are uncovered through strange noises he begins researching in the lake and neighboring forest. The film is very smart about cutting between Ellie and Paris in the storylines, keeping the momentum high and the suspense thick, one of the great features of Caddo Lake is the use of wolves as main plot device. These wolves show up in various places at various times and although they shouldn’t be there, they’re suggesting that something supernatural is going on.
Dylan OBrien on this movie does have certain dramatic talents were evident in films like "Deepwater Horizon" when he transitioned his character's past and present, and he does that here too, then there is Eliza Scanlen who is just as impressive as Ellie. This shows her as a young woman torn by her desire to get away from her difficult family life, she feels kinda trap between this love and not hate but still akward situation. What's so fascinating about Celeste and the chemistry with Lauren Ambrose is that the mother and daughter have a certain level of tension, between them almost feels physical, their arguments are intense and believable, acting skills in my opinion was not a problem on this movie. Celeste is a standout with Lauren Ambrose, her character is complex enough to make you feel she is relevant to the story, her interactions with Ellie, and the rest of the family are so nuanced. Eric Lange's Daniel, the new step dad, with his determination to be civil is admirable, even during the multiple fight scenes or arguments, as Anna’s status as missing circulates, the actors give us some authentic performances. Only problem I find about all this is how you can focus 100% with so many characters been involve, it might be just me but I rather like when the story is simple, straight forward one on one between characters and not all at once.
The movie has received a 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 81% audience percentage, its a great score although I'm sure not many would agree considering there is time travel involve on the plot, but the film's suspenseful nature and performances of the cast have been praised by the viewers. We have the mysterious elements, the time traveling plot and the wolves to keep you interested trying to understand the relationship between each other so if you are not into cracking the code during a movie then this might not be for you. Since you have to give it a good though there are times where the story becomes unclear and the stakes become sloppy. I was really drawn to this movie by its setting, the moment I saw the cover I knew there was going to be trouble, desperation and sadness everyone as it usual for movies that develop close to rivers or swamps. The kind of isolation that runs through everything is the feeling of being almost alone on the lake, which is almost a character itself and has almost a spooky silent quality, that plus stunning cinematography tells the vast mystery of the lake in a way that makes you feel like you’re sitting right next to the characters and the scenery is without a doubt one that shouldn’t be missed.
For the most part the most interesting aspect was the reveal of the time traveling portals that at first were probably not intended to be understand or describe this way, but the fact that these are different timelines and yet these characters are connected adds a little bit of complexity to the story, so that you're engaged. The execution of these twists is sometimes a little rushed and confusing, which can be frustrating, also trying to implement the time travel and explain it on a different way makes it confusing.
Things get really complicated in the ending were we find out that Anna's disappearance is just child for child, and it's part of a larger time traveling narrative. Anna goes back in time to 1952, and lives out her life becoming the mother of Paris, Ellie’s father, big spoiler sorry but had to say it, its a mind blowing event during the movie, it makes sense of the characters in a way that’s both shocking and inevitable. Though the film finishes out a bit rushed, leaving a certain uncertainty about the story, a lack of conclusion fact that Celeste and Cee are one and the same person at different ages complicates an already complex story a bit more, over complicating things, just to give another example of this kind of situations is when Ellie discover that her mother is also her father's partner in a different timeline.
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