Caddo Lake (2024)

Caddo-Lake-(2024)
Caddo Lake (2024)

We are presented with an important puzzle in Paris Long’s film, “Caddo Lake,” where someone says to him, “If you are unable to put your thoughts together, you will not progress further.” For some reason, I am not so sure that I can explain this movie in detail and do so without any issues.

Nonetheless, that is not the problem ‘purists’ would presume. It is even better if some movies do not draw all obligations because instead, they try to offer something more emotional than practical, trusting that the audience would meet the film halfway. Some people are going to freak out over the major twist of Caddo Lake that I cannot spell out, but found it eye-appealing to watch a movie that A: looks like a regular streaming thriller, and B: enjoys revealing its nature. It also has the charm of having a period of leads who commit to their characters seemingly in real time because they never ‘wink at the camera’ as lower-tier actors would, irrespective of a script that is this fundamentally insane. They could have called it Cuckoo Lake.

Unlike swampy modern Texas and Louisiana, Caddo Lake is not real. Its other name is “Cuckoo Lake” as in a western bird noted for its call and nest-building plans. That is not a real place too.

Working together, directors Logan George & Celine Held (who also worked on “Servant”, three episodes which automatically had M. Night Shyamalan interested in this film) are said to have used Caddo Lake as their primary inspiration, a place which has a painful and dangerous energy that has been passed through generations of locals. They have created three lost souls who are intertwined in this lethally haunting place in unthinkable ways, and again, I can’t spoil it.

Paris (Dylan O’Brien, who has been crushing it with his Dan Aykroyd impersonation in Saturday Night) is tormented by the passing of his mother, who had something that resembled a seizure while driving and ended up leading to Paris’ near death. His body language, deeply sheltered, is fluent enough for one to interpret him as a man desperately trying to piece together the fundamental what, why, and how questions regarding his mother’s brutal death. He even went to the lengths of confronting her doctor in parking to find out what really happened. What remains unsaid is he deeply fears there is much more to the event that took place, something far more sinister lying beneath the surface of Caddo Lake.

The movie also introduces us to Ellie (Eliza Scanlen, so good in ‘Sharp Objects’) who dreams of an unknown daughter and fights with her mother, Lauren Ambrose who is another amazing appearance from the unappreciated ‘Servant’. Her mother, Ellie’s stepmom, covers herself very nicely. Her stepfather, Daniel, played by Eric Lange, attempts to fix clearly broken bridges. Ellie, however, seems to be an outcast without anyone to call friends except for her 8-year-old step-cousin Anna Caroline. Following a family altercation, Ellie runs off to the lake with Anna. After that, Anna completely vanishes without a trace. The way in which her disappearance links to Ellie’s Paris arc is unthinkable. If I gave you one hundred attempts to figure it out, there is no way you would.

One reason is that up to a certain point “Caddo Lake” is a rather simple working-class drama. In truth, Shyamalan’s role as a producer and how much genre discipline this era has for streamers is what sets this season apart, and why there is a clear indicator that something is about to get out of hand. It’s not just going sideways; it moves sideways and forward in every conceivable direction at the same time, and it is almost impossible to keep up with. At the end of the day, however, it’s all about how much of a challenge you’re willing to undertake.

A lot of movies these days reveal their plot twists so early that it’s almost annoying, but I appreciate the fact that “Caddo Lake” remains elusive for much longer, I still don’t think I could explain it if I didn’t have pen and paper on hand. Having a cast that is actually proficient and is good at portraying the urgency rather than just relying on plot twists really works wonders, and that’s exactly what O’Brien and Scanlen do. Even with the internal chaos that this story creates, these lost souls still manage to evoke some kind of emotional response from the viewer.

The worst part is that the high point is Ellie making a lot of effort to Google everything so that the movie can pull its best act of explaining how everything is connected, nevertheless, it’s excusable as there is truly no other way to enjoy a film like this than going in blind, watching this family saga get itself tied in a knot that could only happen in seemingly fragile places of the world, like Caddo Lake.

Watch free movies on Fmovies.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top