jdring2007

The only good things about this movie were the makeup effects and a bit of tension in the first half. Unfortunately, creating palpable tension 10min at a time gets boringly dull after it's repeated to death. Pun intended. When the first death occurs, one of the characters asks "are they just acting?" I won't spoil anything but dear Lord - the characters in this movie take "horror stupid" to a whole new level.

I get it, people in horror movies are stereotypically stupid and unrealistically naïve. But to this degree? I just couldn't. It's bad enough that they signed NDAs in the dark and surrendered their phones (ha, yeah right) to a masked, mute stranger in the middle of nowhere before venturing into a warehouse with 1 Yelp review, but everything that followed was a stretch at best.

We knew going in that one character would have plot armor the whole way through, at least to the very end. But I guess that's a given. The expendability of everyone else and how that was handled, I'll admit, was a pleasant surprise. Speaking of which - the unmasked reveals of the villains was a great touch, I'd not been expecting. Especially "Mitch."

But then we have to tarnish the good with awful. Such as the dreadful pacing, the unnecessary backstory and flashbacks for the main character, more plot armor, and filler "meandering" shots.

I hate that movies "have to be" 90min these days. Sometimes, especially with low-budget single-location horror flicks, 70 is all they can competently provide.

That this thing is getting 7+ ratings from critics and viewers alike is depressing. But I guess there's no accounting for taste.

I rated every episode, and the exact average of my ratings is 6.7 - so I'm rounding it up. The first episode blew my expectations out of the water and floored me. It was such engaging, immersive, visceral, powerful "filmmaking." The second episode was a little less impactful but still splendid all around (I gave 1 and 2 a 9 and 8, respectively). Ironically they were the only episodes directed by Jason Bateman, which I didn't know until after the fact. They somehow perfectly blended palpable crime, thriller elements, and unnervingly effective drama with a hint of the supernatural, evoking questions you - unless knowledgeable of the source material - wouldn't even know where to begin.

Just amazing.

And then, well. It's a series, so, whereas it would've excelled as a 3hr movie or a 2-parter, instead it gets dragged out ad nauseum, through mud and gravel alike, just an abysmally boring and protracted experience. As a major fan of SOME of King's work, I am in no way saying that the book itself is bad or even mediocre, just that it doesn't fully translate to the screen as effectively as it might in written form.

There were 2 subsequent episodes - 8 and 9 - where immense chunks of runtime were spent dialoguing in the car during road trips. Good Lord. And hey - I love Ben Mendelsohn, him as the lead star was literally the driving force of me giving this a shot. I came to really enjoy most of the other characters, except Holly - the actress is great, I think, but that character is SUCH a Stephen King archetype it isn't even funny.

At any rate, episode 3 was tolerable but 4, 6, and 7 - easily the worst episode in my opinion - tanked the show for me. It didn't face any hint of redemption until the last episode. Somehow, episode 9 was the third highest rated, but frankly it felt among the most dragged out and convoluted, with an especially annoying cliffhanger ending. Thank God I didn't watch this during its initial run. But in the last episode, the first 20min gos hard (that's a good thing), but by 30min all the major events are done, and yet there remains another half hour. Resolutions and conclusions, I get it. But oof.

I may very well revisit the first 2 episodes in the future and just enjoy them as their own strange standalone experience, an unsettling example of great storytelling, acting, and cinematic interpretation.

Movies that intelligently and emotionally blow me away, simultaneously, are very rare. Looper was one, whose climax emotionally chews me up something fierce. But this, this is different. If you're familiar with Inception and/or Tenet, both Christopher Nolan masterpieces, you might be thinking they're the cream of the crop in their genres. And they are (one might argue Memento is up there as well, it's great, but a little overrated in my opinion). But Caddo Lake is an under-the-radar, relatively low-budget, slow-burn magnum opus of storytelling and compassion.

Sadly the movie only has a 6.8 (still considerably high, all things considered), where movies like Inception (8.8), Tenet (7.3), and Looper (7.4) are "much" higher. Unlike those films, Caddo Lake is neither star-studded nor action-packed (despite featuring incredible performances and managing to quicken my heartbeat for the bulk of the film), and likely received a very poor marketing program (I accidentally stumbled across it while scouring Max for something to watch).

DO NOT investigate the movie too much. Read a short synopsis or two, keep it vague and basic. Prepare for a slow start and a dramatic undercurrent. But pay attention. And you'll feel it.