Caddo Lake (2024) Review: An Intriguing, Well-Acted M. Night Shyamalan-Produced Mystery and Family Drama
The first thing that gets me interested in Caddo Lake is the involvement of M. Night Shyamalan served as one of the producers, even though the movie seems to be arriving with little fanfare. Sure, his recent works this year including producing his daughter Ishana’s debut feature in The Watchers and directing Josh Hartnett in Trap may result in ambitious but half-hearted disappointments. But his name alone still carries a certain weight to it no matter how inconsistent his works turn out to be.
Caddo Lake also marks the second feature film for co-directors Celine Held and Logan George after Topside and they have previously directed three episodes for Apple TV+’s Shyamalan-produced psychological horror series Servant. Originally titled The Vanishings at Caddo Lake before being shortened to just Caddo Lake, the movie gets off to an intriguing start: A young man named Paris (Dylan O’Brien) finds himself trapped in a wrecked car submerged in water with a woman beside him. He manages to make it out alive and swim to the surface.
From there, the story focuses mainly on two sides: One is Paris, whose past still haunts him after his mother’s death from an accident. His father (Sam Hennings) is ill and his estranged girlfriend from Houston, Cee (Diana Hopper) is worried about him. The other is the sibling bonding between Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) and her younger half-sister, Anna (Caroline Falk). Ellie particularly resents her mother, Celeste (Lauren Ambrose)
When Anna mysteriously disappeared one day, Ellie along with the rest of her family and the local sheriff-in-charge (Dave Maldonado) organised a search all over Caddo Lake. Her disappearance is shrouded in mystery, which subsequently triggers a series of events related to the past and family history. Complicated family history, to be exact and it has to do with Caddo Lake. The latter is where Held and George made good use of the titular lake and wetland on the Texas-Louisiana border with flooded cypress forests draped in Spanish moss. Not to mention its maze-like topography of bayous and sloughs that cinematographer Lowell A. Meyer does a good job capturing the atmospheric beauty of Caddo Lake.
Beyond its picturesque setting, there’s a lingering sense of eerieness that Held and George incorporate into their story with enough twists and turns. This is the kind of movie which demands your attention because it’s easy to get lost, given its labyrinthine storytelling that alternates back and forth between Paris’ and Ellie’s stories. No doubt the movie can’t escape the convoluted structure which baffles me with lots of questions, particularly the enigma surrounding the setting of Caddo Lake itself.
But Held and George are smart enough not to sink deeper into overexplaining the fundamental basis of its storytelling as they maintain a reasonably taut pace to keep the momentum going. Here, the story of a missing young girl opens up Pandora’s box of how these seemingly unrelated characters and their respective pasts manage to keep me invested in what’s going on throughout the movie. Caddo Lake is equally worth mentioning for Held and George in using the mystery angle to explore the underlying domestic drama about family history, grief and generational trauma.
Interestingly enough, David Baloche’s ominous score with a mix of throbbing beats somehow reminds me of Ludwig Göransson’s musical composition in Tenet. And it works well to complement the overall mood and style of the movie. It also helps that Caddo Lake gets a boost from an above-average cast, particularly Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen showcase their respectively subtle dramatic chops as Paris and Ellie.
Caddo Lake will be streaming on Max on October 10, 2024.
