Split across the Texas-Louisiana border lies Caddo Lake — a nearly 27,000-acre lake and bayou populated with cypress trees, alligators, and a keen sense of the in-between. With this as their canvas, it’s no surprise writer-directors Celine Held and Logan George have been able to create a film as full to the brim with both beauty and unease as the Max Original “Caddo Lake.”

One night, deep on the Texas side of Caddo Lake, an eight-year-old girl vanishes. And she’s not the first person to disappear from this place. As a desperate search for the young girl unfolds, a string of deaths and missing people over the years might just hold the answers to more than one family’s immeasurable pain.

Produced by M. Night Shyamalan and featuring incredible acting talent from Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Diana Hopper, Caroline Falk, Sam Hennings, Eric Lange, and Lauren Ambrose, “Caddo Lake” marks itself as a near-perfect thriller that I wish I could have seen on the big screen.

Nature Made Caddo Lake

It would have been easy for a suspenseful film like “Caddo Lake” to fall too far into the tropes it uses (which, for the sake of avoiding spoilers, this review will not specify). But Held and George, who have said the concept for their film came from a visit to the titular region itself, allow the setting to become just as much a character as the people who inhabit it. With the lake both literally and figuratively pushing the narrative forward, the tropes meld with the history of the setting and feel as natural as the flora and fauna that surround them.

“Nature made this place,” Scanlen’s character, Ellie, says at one point in the film. And though there are words left unsaid that make this statement incomplete, what she does say fully captures the essence of “Caddo Lake.” Held and George’s use of nature, from the towering cypress trees to the murky, muddy water, and even the effects of a drought on the region, both make this film feel alive and add to the steady undercurrent of tension that first captured my attention.

As good as the use of setting is, though, it becomes even more so when combined with the pure level of emotion we see through the acting.

Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen Stand Out

I don’t exaggerate when I say Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen stand out amidst an abundance of talent in this film. From their very first scenes all the way through to the end, they show a deep and committed understanding of their characters, Paris and Ellie, that includes but is not limited to delivery of dialogue. Many of O’Brien’s and Scanlen’s scenes rely only on the sounds of nature to break up their own personal silence. Verbal cues become replaced by facial expressions and body movements. The state of their minds told by the movement of a hand or the sharp turn of a head.

“Caddo Lake” is less than two hours long, and yet I walked away from it sure that I had a full, intimate grasp on these characters. And while I do believe that O’Brien’s Paris and Scanlen’s Ellie stand out, my surety also extends to the entire cast of characters. Regardless of the amount of screen time, every character feels real and alive and relatable. To the point where I have never so badly wanted to know the process behind making a film as I do for this one.

The Journey’s Worth It

There’s so much more I could say about “Caddo Lake” and the themes it explores about family and history and human-made scars on land that affect our daily lives and futures. But I got to see this film with nothing but general excitement at getting to watch Dylan O’Brien in a thriller. And, even though I’ll maintain that this is a movie-theater-worthy feature, I’m excited for others to dim the lights, wrap themselves up in the warmest of blankets, and let “Caddo Lake” take them where it will.

The journey is more than worth it.

“Caddo Lake” releases for streaming on Max from October 10.