Caddo Lake (2024) - Movie Review
What if I told that there’s a time travel movie that’s not a time travel movie?
What if I told you this time travel, not time travel film is seasoned with a Southern Gothic flavor?
Oh, got your attention now?
Let’s discuss.
Caddo Lake Is a 2024 Science Fiction / Romance / Thriller brought to us by the writer/director duo of Logan George and Celine Held. You probably haven’t heard of them, and neither had I, but don’t let that turn you off. It’s obvious they are on the rise. Both are mainly known in the art house community, and they brought that stark filmmaking style to the mainstream.
The film focuses on a group of seemingly unrelated people living in a small town between the Texas and Louisiana border battling a massive storm. It’s nothing new for the town, as a similar storm hits every fifty years or so. However, when the water levels drain on Caddo Lake, and the storm has yet to replenish it, strange things occur. Tragedy plagues there intervening moments, most of which could never be explained. As three strangers cross paths and confront this cosmic aberration, they have to make hard choices. Choices that have consequences they won’t realize for years to come. Will they find their way back home, or will they sink to the bottom of Caddo Lake?
This is a hard movie to sum up without spoiling it. The film has almost no exposition. Dialogue is raw and real. Everything about this movie feels organic. The writing is emotional, and the characters flawed. However, they’re all fleshed out to provide a deeper understanding of their motivations.
It helps that the cast collectively knocked it out of the park. This is an ensemble film, but there were a few standouts.
Dylan O’brien has got to be one of the most underappreciated actors working today. He was great in the surprisingly decent Maze Runner films and was awesome as the lead in 2020’s Love and Monsters. Which, If you haven’t seen it, you need to.
As good as Dylan was as one-half of our protagonist duo, it’s the other half that really stood out.
Australian actress Eliza Scanlan shines in her role as the put upon daughter and grieving sister.
She behaves like a teenager would, and she carries the midpoint of the film through to the finish line. I’d never seen her before, but from researching for this review—you may have seen her as a stand-out in HBO’s Sharp Objectsor 2019’s Little Women. She’s definitely one to watch.
The film has amazing cinematography that showcases the beauty of the bayou. The filmmakers really showcased the wonder of those incredible waterways that snake through the Southern United States. It’s a love letter to those rarely filmed places that mean so much to our continent’s eco system. Subtle use of filters gives you hints to the mystery, but if you’re like me, you didn’t notice them on first viewing.
The film uses its effects sparingly, and due to what they are—practical wasn’t an option. However, the CGI utilized looked fantastic.
The biggest special effect is the sound design. The score composed by David Baloche blends perfectly with all the audio trickery to give you an emotional and sometimes jarring aural experience.
This is a film to watch with a Dolby Atmos enabled device as the surround sound is incredible.
This is a cosmic horror story disguised as a mystery. The film doesn’t hold your hand but instead rewards you for paying attention. When my viewing partner and I got to the third act, there was a moment where it all clicked and I knew exactly what had happened, and what was going to happen.
It was one of the most rewarding watching experiences I’ve had since starting this site.
It’s not the best movie ever, or anything like that and it feels like they watched my favorite filmmakers Benson and Moorhead’s films, especially The Endless.
However, they took the idea a different direction and instead of a weak imitation, we got a film that could exist in the very same universe.
This isn’t a movie to watch with your cellphone in your face.
This is a blink, and you’ll miss something film. It’s filled with family drama, natural disaster, and a cosmic mystery all packed into a streamlined hour and forty-three-minute runtime.
I appreciate when filmmakers can tell a story under 3 hours, like God intended.
I’m looking at you Christopher Nolan, you pretentious, horrible at writing women, overrated nepobaby. Allegedly, in my opinion—Please don’t send your brother to assassinate me, nobody reads this site.
Give this movie a chance. The trailers don’t do it justice.
As of the writing of this review, the film is streaming exclusively on MAX.
