Caddo Lake is one of those movies that is just near impossible to talk or review about without giving away the spoilers. With that being said, it was a wonderful movie. Dealing with time travel can be one of those extreme mind benders, or it can be something simple. Caddo Lake, fortunately for my brains, lies somewhat in the middle where it made me have to pause at the end to really let it soak in while not forcing me to hit my head against the wall.

The movie starts off with a fairly mild pace, but it sets up everything nicely for the second half, in which shit gets crazy, fast. Throughout the first part, you knew something wasn’t right with the lake/swamp. You also were left wondering just what the relationship was between Paris and Ellie. Being that they’ve never crossed paths with each other, it was a big hint that either they were in different timelines or one of those where each person’s decisions and actions would eventually lead them towards a collision encounter, ala Crash style. Around the 40-50 minute mark or so, it was becoming clear that Caddo Lake would be the former of the two.

With decent acting all around, Caddo Lake’s second half was a treat to watch in that it caught me by surprise. Once the characters started to interact with the time portal in the swamp, viewers needed to pay very close attention to the timeline at which they were entering. When it came to Anna, it was obviously she was brought into the 1950s. But when it came to specifically to Paris, things can get muddy a bit, only in that my slow brain wasn’t fast enough to process what was happening. Like I knew he was obviously going back and forth and clues were obviously given as to which timeline he entered but still, I had needed extra time to process previous information and hints to put it together slowly. And, that’s why time travel movies are so cool.

Again, Caddo Lake was one of the better movies I’ve watched recently. I admit, I had to cheat and look up other reviews and interpretations of the ending just to be certain I got most parts correct. In fact, I admit I usually do that for most time travel movies anyway, as others can pick up and explain things so much better than I ever could. But Caddo Lake made sense once I was able to piece most of it together afterward. Anna being Ellie’s grandmother was just frigging wild! Two things I found a bit odd:

1. It didn’t exactly specify that going through the portal would lose one’s memory. It gave them some seizure like symptom, sure, but nothing about memory loss. If Anna was left in the 1950’s, how did she not explain that to her son, Paris, as he was growing up? Like you just time travelled. I’m sure that you’d want people to know. It could be that his father knew about it but didn’t want to say anything to Paris? It felt like he had just wanted Paris to accept the fact that his mother died in the car drowning accident and leave it at that, rather than chasing for clues and hints as to other reasons. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s just a movie, but timeline travelling/altering movies just begs for the viewers to question everything!
2. I found it extremely hilarious in the end that it took literally no effort on Ellie’s part to convince her mom that Anna is safe and her accepting it with just the old class photo of her taken in the 1950’s as evidence. Like yeah, she’s safe, mom! Look at this picture of her as a little kid in the 1950’s! See, I told you! No other explanations needed!