Shyamalan-Produced Mystery Drowns In A Shaky Story & Uninteresting Characters

Despite the mixed directorial career he’s had over the decades, I’ve always considered myself a fan of M. Night Shyamalan. Some of my favorite movies have been created by the filmmaker, such as 2002’s Signs, while I’ve also enjoyed a number of his projects the majority of moviegoers haven’t (Lady in the Water, Glass, Knock at the Cabin). The latest project he’s attached to is Caddo Lake, a Max original that serves as his third producer credit for a movie he did not direct. Regardless, his name being attached was an anticipatory moment leading up to watching the movie.

Caddo Lake is written and directed by Celine Held and Logan George, best known for their acclaimed drama Topside. The film follows two characters: Paris (Dylan O’Brien) — a young man who’s sequestered himself from society following a car accident that resulted in the death of his mother — living next to Caddo Lake in Louisiana, and Ellie (Eliza Scanlen), a rebellious, troubled young girl seeking to learn more about her past. While the pair’s stories seem unrelated at first, the disappearance of Ellie’s stepsister, Anna (Caroline Falk), results in their lives converging around her disappearance and the lake’s mysteries.

Caddo Lake’s Interesting Mystery Dries Up Without Intriguing Characters

But The Entire Cast Offers Spectacular Performances

Like many other movies involving Shyamalan, Caddo Lake‘s mystery offers a winding road for Paris and Ellie to investigate, as both seek particular truths surrounding the titular location. O’Brien and Scanlen’s performances stand out, everything from their facial expressions to the way they deliver dialogue showing the pain and fear both feel from their situations. Lauren Ambose is also great as Celeste, the Yellowjackets alum portraying a panicked mother looking for her lost daughter with an expert level of intensity. Eric Lange’s performance as Ellie’s stepfather, Daniel, also helped bolster her character with their complex family dynamic.

Unfortunately, these strong performances are paired with shoddy character writing, which never makes Paris and Ellie intriguing beyond their status as the protagonists. Paris in particular was underutilized, with the film’s beginning offering a complexity through the loss of his mother that grew muted as the film progressed. While Ellie often feels like the true main character, since it’s her stepsister that disappeared, her characterization isn’t as gripping as it could be given the layers of complexity hinted at throughout the movie.

Because Caddo Lake is a mystery movie, the core focus of the film is on what happened to Anna and why she vanished. But without interesting characters to carry the story forward, the intriguing elements of their — admittedly creative — investigation fall flat. In the case of Paris, his involvement in the story doesn’t start to feel important until close to halfway through. The film needed better moments telegraphing reasons for us to care about its characters and what motivates them to make their decisions later in the story.

Despite An Interesting Premise, Caddo Lake Ultimately Botches Its Delivery

Confusing Character Decisions Make For A Frustratingly Boring Watch

At a particular point, Caddo Lake pulls back the curtain to reveal the meat of the mystery, offering a new perspective on Anna’s disappearance. However, much like The Watchers‘ big twist, another Shyamalan-produced project this year, the mystery feels less effective from that point on in the story. This leads to a series of events that are more like bullet points than moments driving the story or characters forward, dulling some of the more positive elements of the movie’s first half.

This includes some confusing character decisions that felt like they existed simply to explain the details of the mystery to us, except for one ridiculous decision made by Paris that was so illogical, it seemed to happen because there was no other way to convincingly tread down the story’s intended path thereafter. The movie stops being fully developed by this point, instead having the mystery act as a vehicle for events to happen without much resonance.

Despite having interesting ideas present to better develop its mystery, Caddo Lake falls flat due to its underdeveloped characters and a story that grows less engaging the longer it drags on. While stellar performances balance out its disappointing attributes, they’re not enough to save the movie from being a dull, sometimes plodding story about a mysterious disappearance. Even though hints of Shyamalan shine through here, the movie simply isn’t worth recommending, even to the most ardent fan of his works.

Caddo Lake will be available to stream on Max on Thursday, October 10. The film is 99 minutes long and rated PG-13 for some disturbing/bloody images, thematic elements and brief strong language.

4/10

When an 8-year-old girl goes missing at Caddo Lake, past deaths and disappearances resurface, reshaping a fractured family’s history.

Pros

• Dylan O’Brien and Lauren Ambrose deliver excellent performances
• The movie’s first half is intriguing

Cons

• The film stops feeling like a fully developed story midway through
• Certain character decisions are confusing and don’t make sense in the narrative
• Caddo Lake becomes dull after a point
• The interesting parts don’t balance its disappointing attributes