Contains Spoilers!
“When an 8-year-old girl disappears on Caddo Lake, a series of past deaths and disappearances begin to link together, altering a broken family’s history.”
When I read this IMDb synopsis for Caddo Lake, I was beyond excited. A mystery set on a spooky lake, family secrets, and Dylan O’Brien? This movie had all of my favorite things!
This movie follows Ellie, a troubled high school student who regularly fights with her mom. She spends the movie searching for her stepsister, Anna, after she mysteriously vanished on the lake.
In a parallel storyline, we follow Paris, a 20-something year old man, haunted by his mother’s sudden death from a seizure-induced car accident.
While on their own journeys through the mysterious Caddo Lake, each of them starts to have seizures, very similar to Paris’s late mother’s.
Then all of a sudden, they both time traveled?
When sitting down to watch this movie, I was expecting a thriller mystery movie, not a Sci-Fi twist! This unexpected turn threw me completely off balance; I had to take a break before continuing the movie.
It took me a while to understand this plotline, but whenever Caddo Lake experiences a drought, it causes a time rift to open in the forest.
Paris travels to 1952, and finds Anna injured (she can also time travel). He helped her get medical care, but when he tried to return to his own time in 2003, he mistakenly jumps to 2022, which is Ellie’s timeline.
Meanwhile, Ellie is transported to 2003, where she learns hidden truths about her family, and the real reason her father disappeared.
Just when I thought this movie couldn’t get any stranger, Anna ended up being Ellie’s grandmother? What a dark turn!
To explain, When Paris helped Anna, she stayed in 1952, where she grew up and became a part of Ellie’s family lineage.
To sum up the end of the movie, Paris is accused of kidnapping Anna, which results in a high-speed police chase ending in his demise, and Ellie and her mother resolve all their problems, while coping with the fact that Anna is gone.
By the end of my first watch, I was utterly confused. But on my second watch (with a lot of Googling) I was able to piece together the story, and actually enjoyed it more.
If you are a person who loves confusing movies that make your head hurt, Caddo Lake is perfect for you.
Overall, I give this movie a 6/10 motorboats for its unique story line, and an extra point for starring Dylan O’Brien.
