“Caddo Lake” stars Eliza Scanlen as Ellie, taking up a particular role of a perhaps mentally struggling character, and Dylan O’Brien as Paris, taking him out of his usual acting role as the sarcastic comic-relief, and putting him in the spotlight in this serious and mind twisting film. 

The writers of “Caddo Lake” somehow pack in time travel, mystery, sci-fi, and thriller, into a sub two hour movie, all while giving the watchers insight into the separate, yet entirely intertwined lives of Ellie and Paris. The movie starts unassuming, but it only takes about 25 minutes for the plot to start thickening, and for questions to start forming in the watcher’s head.

If you like movies with time travel, this is for you, but this one is admittedly hard to track, they don’t give you the caption/pop up when the year changes, and it’s hard to tell in general what year you – as the watcher – have been transported to, or if you’re going forward or backward in time as you follow the story laid out for you. Albeit the writers do a very good job of tying up all of the loose ends when the credits finally roll. 

The movie does an astonishing job of keeping the watchers on the edge of their seat, but as mentioned above, they might have a difficult time following the time jumps. If you are a devoted movie watcher who can predict patterns, next moves, or even the ending of the movie all together, “Caddo Lake” should throw you for a loop.

For a smidgen of history: Caddo Lake and bayou is a real place, it’s located on the border between Texas and Louisiana and is roughly 25,400-acres. It is comprised of one of the largest flooded cypress forests in the United States and is internationally protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention. 

Caddo was artificially altered by the addition of a dam in the 1900s, this fact is included, and has a massive role in the movie, but this has made it one of Texas’s only non-oxbow lakes.

In the early 20th century (1911), oil was discovered under the lake and one of the world’s first over-water oil platforms was built, the well bottomed at 2,185 feet and produced around 450 barrels of oil per day. 

On top of that, oil derricks were set up throughout the lake which had a massive impact on the environment. Eventually the oil industry left Caddo and Texas established parts of it as a state park in an attempt to preserve the environment in 1934.

The real life history of Caddo Lake and bayou is weaved into the movie, adding a grounding touch of realism to an otherwise fictitious storyline, making this almost seem plausible, as you jump from time to time.

“Caddo Lake” can be difficult to get into as a watcher, but the amount of times your jaw will  drop makes it a worthwhile watch. Be sure to keep a piece of paper and the remote nearby though, so you can pause it. This film is a puzzle, and you’ll want to stick around until the end to see the pieces fall into place.