The story centers on Ellie, a teenager who constantly fights with her mother and has left home to stay at a friend's, and a 20-something man named Paris who was in the car with his mother when she drove off a bridge. She died but he escaped the car.
Ellie, her mother, step-father and step-sister live near Caddo Lake, a mysterious body of water in Louisiana/Texas. Ellie's 8-year-old stepsister, Anna, vanishes one night while near the lake. The family and community begin searching for her. Ellie goes searching for Anna on a portion of the lake where the water has receded and she can walk on the now dry lake bed. When returning to land and going back to her mother's home, she discovers she is now 3 days in the past. In a panic, she returns to the lake and finds Anna, but this is one month in the past, when Anna had run off before. It turns out that Caddo Lake has a time displacement phenomenon that activates when water levels drop. Ellie goes back to the lake again in hope of finding Anna a second time.
Meanwhile, Paris is attempting to find out what caused his mother to have a seizure and drive off the bridge. Paris works dredging the lake and one day he has an odd experience where he sees footprints on the dry part of the lake and he loses his hearing. When he returns to his boat, he finds a necklace stuck in the motor. It is the necklace his mother owned. Paris's former girlfriend returns and they rekindle their relationship but she doubts his story about there being a mystery of the lake.
The stories converge when Paris returns to the lake and goes through portals that take him to 1952. There he finds a wounded Anna and gets her help before attempting to get back to his own time, 2003. Instead, he ends up in 2022, Ellie's time.
Meanwhile, Ellie travels to 2005 and when she is in a grocery store parking lot, she sees a necklace hanging on a car mirror that matches her own mother's necklace. It was a necklace that Anna was wearing when she went missing. She breaks into the car to get the necklace and the car's owner arrives and attacks her, trying to get the necklace back. Ellie asks where the necklace came from and the woman says it belonged to her missing boyfriend's mother, Anna Lang. Ellie realizes the woman she is talking to is her own mother, Celeste, and the baby Celeste is holding is herself. Ellie runs off and finds an internet cafe. By looking up Anna Lang and looking at old photos, she realizes that her step-sister Anna is actually her grandmother. She goes back to the lake to return home.
Meanwhile in 2022, Paris is found in Ellie's boat, which she had tied up before traveling to the past. He is arrested as a suspect in Anna's disappearance. He sees a news report with a photo of Anna and realizes the girl he saved in the past was his own mother. He escapes from the police but drowns while trying to return to portal home. Ellie returns to 2022 and realizes the step-father she has been fighting with is actually her great-grandfather. She returns home to find her mother, in shock, watching a news report about Paris's escape and death. There is a photo of Paris and the authorities are asking for help identifying him. Ellie shows her Anna's school picture from 1952 and embraces her mom, explaining that neither Anna nor Paris meant to leave them.
Caddo Lake is a thriller film written and directed by filmmaking duo Celine Held and Logan George. In August 2021, Dylan O'Brien and Eliza Scanlen were in talks to star in the film, then titled Vanishings,[2] and a casting call was released, revealing M. Night Shyamalan would produce under his production company Blinding Edge Pictures.[3] By October 2021, O'Brien and Scanlen were set to star in the film, which had been retitled to The Vanishings at Caddo Lake, and Lauren Ambrose, Eric Lange, Sam Hennings, and Diana Hopper had joined the cast, with filming beginning on October 4 in Shreveport, Louisiana.[4][5] Held and George sought 1998–2004 period-specific vehicles from locals in order to produce an authentic feel to the story's community.[6] Filming wrapped on November 18, 2021.[1] By May 2023, the title was shortened to Caddo Lake.[7]
Release
Caddo Lake was released on Max on October 10, 2024.[8]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 32 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "A windingly intricate and delirious sci-fi thrill ride washes over the senses and steadily flows through Caddo Lake."[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[10]
