Sitting on the border of Texas and Louisiana, Caddo Lake spans over 25,000 acres and is visually stunning. It is also the setting of the new sci-fi thrillerCaddo Lake. Shot on location, the movie mixes the high-stakes drama of a missing girl with more supernatural elements, and the results make for an intriguing plot. Long before the credits roll, it becomes obvious that the movie was produced by thehighly experienced M. Night Shyamalanas his DNA can be found woven throughout its intricate narrative.
In an interview with Game Rant, co-directors and writers Celine Held and Logan George discussed how they came up with the concept forCaddo Lake, which is now streaming onMax. As they both found, shooting on location comes with its own set of unique challenges. They talked about how they had to deal with the weather in the area, as well as the toll it took on the crew.
Shooting Caddo Lake on Location
Indeed,a movie’s setting can make or break it. Held explained that choosing to base the movie on such a striking location was an easy decision, “It just started from this photo that I found on Reddit of Caddo Lake,” and the pair very quickly made the trip to see it for themselves. “We just couldn’t get this photo out of our heads,” she continued. The area left a lasting impression on the filmmakers, and George explained they fully immersed themselves in the lake and its surrounding areas during filming:
“We would go out on the lake a bunch, we lived off the lake for like, two to three months, writing a draft of the script, and we just got lost all the time. We’re in these dinky little kayaks, and the people that lived off the lake would tell stories all the time about how everyone gets lost.
Some people have to stay out overnight on some of the islands as they can’t find their way back until morning.”
Caddo Lake’s Weather Made Shooting Multiple Takes a Challenge
Abayou is not an easy place to shoot a movie, and George explained that the crew was “totally beholden to the weather” as a build-up of thick mud on a daily basis meant that “you almost physically couldn’t move the same way you were moving during take one by take six.” This caused some interesting challenges during the shooting. He explained that this led to some last-minute improvisation and changes to scenes:
“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.”
Of course, improvisations andlast-minute changes aren’t uncommon in the movie industry. In fact, they can sometimes lead to a far superior end product. However, not all ofCaddo Lake’s late changes were caused by weather conditions. Held and George are firm believers in going with what feels authentic, and will often allow their actors to improvise dialogue if something in the script doesn’t come across naturally enough. This freedom allowed the cast to express themselves in the best way possible, which comes across in the movie’s scenes.
