Where was Caddo Lake filmed? All filming locations explored

Modified Nov 06, 2024 14:29 GMT

A still of the mystery thriller Caddo Lake (Image via X/@max)

Caddo Lake is a mystery-thriller film directed and written by Celine Held and Logan George, the filmmaking duo that previously worked on the 2020 drama Topside. It is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Josh Godfrey, Kara Durrett, and M. Night Shyamalan through his Blinding Edge Pictures company. The film premiered on Max on October 10, 2024.

Moreover, it is executive produced by Will Greenfield, Harrison Huffman, and Kimberly Steward. The film's official synopsis, as per Rotten Tomatoes, reads:

"When an 8-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes, a series of past deaths and disappearances start to link together, forever altering a broken family's history."

The movie was filmed at Caddo Lake and Karnack in Texas.

Filming locations of Caddo Lake explored

Caddo Lake was filmed in the span of six weeks from October 4, 2021, to November 18, 2021.

Caddo Lake

The movie was shot on location at Caddo Lake, which lies on the border of Texas and Louisiana. The filmmakers were inspired to write the story after seeing a picture of the lake online and visiting the location to get a sense of the lake's eerie, otherworldly vibe.

The famous lake spans 25,000 acres and is surrounded by cypress trees covered in Spanish moss, lending it a distinct haunting quality. The winding waterways, swampy regions, and isolated pockets of the lake were used to full effect to convey the dark sense of foreboding experienced by the film's characters.

Moreover, filming took place in the fall season to avoid mosquitoes that are rampant throughout the rest of the year. It also offered the right weather conditions needed for the tone and plot of the movie.

In October 2024, director Logan George spoke to Game Rant about the challenges of shooting at the real location. He said the film's crew was "totally beholden to the weather" during production.

"There was a lot of improvisation around building out some of those scenes where we would come in with a plan to shoot right there, and then by day four, it's like a total mud bath. You had to completely change your idea of how you were going to film the scene."

Karnack, East Texas

Other scenes were shot in the nearby community of Karnack in East Texas and its surrounding regions.

Shreveport, Louisiana

The city of Shreveport also served as a filming location for the movie.

Plot summary

Caddo Lake follows the stories of two protagonists living in different timelines: Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) in 2022 and Paris (Dylan O'Brien) in 2003. They both live around the area of Caddo Lake and experience its mysterious time slip.

When Ellie's 8-year-old sister Anna goes missing without leaving any trace, she looks for answers in the lake. Her quest leads her to discover a time portal within Caddo Lake that transports her in Paris' timeline.

Meanwhile, Paris is reeling from his mother's death from a car accident. He is driven to the lake in search of clues regarding her demise. At such, he falls into the time travel portal and briefly goes back in time before emerging in Ellie's timeline in the future. The two stories converge to reveal a shocking truth that lies at the heart of their shared history, while offering a path forward to healing.