Caddo Lake Review
‘Caddo Lake’ is a new mystery thriller film from the directors and writers Celine Held & Logan George. The film centers around the disappearance of a young girl on the titular Caddo Lake, and as her family and others search for her they discover a secret about the lake along with their own history. It’s a tense ilm crafted with a love for the titular lake, with leads that give entertaining performances during the film’s runtime.
The film stars Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, and Diana Hopper as the main trio of characters. Dylan O’Brien is excellent as Paris. His character is constantly paranoid throughout the film, with every decision that he makes born out of that feeling, and the film drives home the message that it can lead to poor decisions, even ones with devastating consequences. Scanlen plays Ellie, is a driven woman with a troubled family life, and who’s determination, which is present throughout the entire film, acts as a counter to Paris’ anxiety.
The lake itself is also just as much of a star as the cast of characters, as the film is solely set on the lake or around it. The lake also stands alone in the film’s title after all. The film makes sure to capture all of it in it’s natural glory, with research and on location shooting amplifying the authenticity of what’s been represented. It’s clear that there’s a lot of love for the lake that’s been included in the film, indeed it served as the inspiration in the first place. It shows what can be done when a brilliant location is found and understood.
A mystery thriller like this lives or dies by the quality of its twists and turns, and audiences won’t be disappointed with the answers they get to the questions that the film sets up at the start. There are red herrings that lead audiences into thinking that they know what’s coming, but the film is clever to subvert expectations and take a wildly different direction to where it was originally headed. Twist mastermind M. Night Shyamalan and his production company Blinding Edge Pictures produced the film, and it’s in this that his influence can be felt the most, likely with his guiding hand helping to make sure that audiences weren’t overwhelmed by the information they were getting, but not jumping to conclusions before the film was ready for them to.
There’s a feeling of constant tension throughout, as audiences continually expect the worst to happen at any given moment. This general sense of foreboding is played on throughout the film, meaning audiences will be apprehensive about what will happen next in the story. And, once the twists are revealed, this tension is replaced with shock. It’s somethingt that shows that the decisions made were effective ones, eliciting the right emotions from the audience.
For fans of mystery thriller films, ‘Caddo Lake’ is bound to satisfy, and make anyone who watches it want to stay as far away from lakes or other water bodies as possible. It’s got twist and turns that audiences won’t see coming, shot on a well chosen location with and enjoyable cast.
