Spooky Season 2024: Caddo Lake Early Review

Caddo Lake centers around Paris (O’Brien) and Ellie (Scanlen), two individuals living around the titular lake. When an eight-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes, a series of past deaths and disappearances start to link together, forever altering a broken family history. The film is a difficult one to talk about because there are so many different reveals and events that happen throughout that it is nearly impossible to talk about without revealing too much. In the end, though it does feature a lot of great ideas, they don’t come together in a satisfying way.

That being said, there are still quite a few things that work about here, the best being the performances, beginning with a very different and much more subdued O’Brien as Paris. Not his typical confident or charming self, it is a nice change of pace compared to what audiences have grown accustomed to. Meanwhile, Scanlen is solid as Ellie, delivering exactly what the film requires from her and giving it most of its emotion and heart. A setting like this in a horror thriller doesn’t come around often but, in this case, it is effectively utilized through some impressive cinematography that properly shows it off. The central premise on paper certainly had the makings of a fascinating and captivating thriller, however, the overall execution of the film just isn’t what it should have been.

For those who failed to notice M. Night Shyamalan’s name attached to Caddo Lake as a producer, his presence can be felt right away as his fingerprints all over the film though not in a very good way. The plot just never builds as much suspense, tension, or intrigue as it should have, and for a thriller, it is not all that thrilling to watch despite everything that happens over the course of its runtime. The characters aren’t very interesting or all that likeable outside of Paris and Ellie, and its mystery is never as compelling or exciting as it could have been. Though that is not to say that this is a predictable film because it certainly isn’t for the most part, but there is a fair share of things that many audiences will see coming and decipher long before they arrive, as a lot of its reveals don’t quite have the impact that it is clearly going for.

It’s pretty much impossible to discuss anything about the second half of the film due to what happens, but basically, it decides to go in a direction that ultimately does not work and, as a whole, the story loses itself, becoming muddled along the way. Leaving audiences scratching their heads with so many things that go unexplained, it simply loses momentum with each passing minute. Not to kick a film when it’s down, it would have been better served had it had flashier direction and a much stronger script in order to effectively pull off everything it set out to do. The final result, however, feels like it is on autopilot, with very little energy or umph to it.

At the end of the day, Caddo Lake came in with a lot of potential behind it, and while some may enjoy the twisty directions it goes, it is yet another example of a great concept hampered by poor execution. Though not terrible or anything unwatchable by any means, it is one that is not only dull, but also kind of boring. Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen may be good here, but this is not worth sitting through just for them as each have appeared in countless better projects.

still courtesy of Max

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/