PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The latest project of filmmaking duo Celine Held and Logan George all started with a photograph that they saw online. It was a shot of Caddo Lake, an approximately 26,000-acre body of water and surrounding cypress forest located on the border between Texas and Louisiana. Instantly, they were intrigued by its air of mystery, and knew that it should be the backdrop for their next thriller.
Caddo Lake, which is available Oct. 10 for streaming on Max, centers on the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl, and the series of past deaths and disappearances that start to link together, forever altering a family’s broken history. It stars Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner 2014), Eliza Scanlen (Old 2021), Diana Hopper (Goliath 2016), Caroline Falk (Caroline 2018), Sam Hennings (Four Good Days 2020), Eric Lange (Escape at Dannemora 2018) and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under 2001). M. Night Shyamalan served as one of the producers on the film.
Ahead of the release, PopHorror spoke with writers/directors Held and George about the inspiration behind Caddo Lake, the challenges of having a body of water as their main set, and the ease that came with directing their two leads.
PopHorror: I understand that the inspiration for this film came after you saw a photo of the actual lake online. What about that photo made you say, “Wow, this would make a great backdrop for a thriller?”
Celine Held: We found it on Reddit, on a subreddit forum. It’s a picture of a government ditch in the fall. So, a government ditch is, it’s what’s on the poster, it’s in both the teaser and the trailer. It’s kind of that straight shot of trees that Ellie (Scanlen) is boating through. And it felt otherworldly. It was a stunning image. It was 2020 and we weren’t doing anything else, and we were like, “Let’s go.” So we borrowed my mom’s car and we drove down to Caddo.
Logan George: Yeah, we realized we’re very location-based filmmakers, the location can really sort of drive and generate the story idea for us. So we lived off the lake for about two months writing the first draft for the script and sort of got to know everybody who lives around the lake, did countless boat tours, we did some kayaking.
Celine Held: And got lost, super lost everytime, which is inevitable.
Logan George: It’s sort of through the seasons, there’s an invasive species of plant that’s actually growing on the surface of the lake right now that can cut off certain paths. So you come back a month later and it’s a totally different beast. Some of our shooting locations, when we went back to do a round of reshoots, were totally different, completely different water levels and the plants have overgrow a certain section. It’s really magical in that sense. So seeing the photo and then driving down there, it really didn’t disappoint. It’s like this wonder of the world to us. We can’t believe we didn’t know about it until we saw the photo.
PopHorror: So much of the film takes place on the water. You touched on it a little bit, but can you talk about the benefits and challenges of having that as your filming location?
Celine Held: I don’t know if there are any major benefits, other than the view. It’s stunning, the water’s amazing, but water is a lot. We spent a ton of the film in waders. It got so muddy because the water is right there, like, it’s right under the surface. And we were shooting when the water level was at the lowest. Story-wise, we wanted to do that. So this part of the lake that we were shooting on is normally covered in water, and so it just became absolute mud pancakes. It was incredibly difficult and so exciting to look at the footage each night and say, “Wow, this is so worth it.”
Logan George: And just hats off to our crew and our cast because we’re asking people to carry C-Stands on and off of boats into mud and then travel 20 feet into a swamp and do a bunch of takes over and over again, trudging through swampland, essentially. And it was so much fun and everyone had the most positive attitude about it. We all really bonded, and we just walked away feeling like we got so lucky with everybody that was on the production.
PopHorror: I’d love to chat about Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlon. Both of them are such veterans when it comes to doing thrillers like this. Can you talk about when you knew you had found your two leads, and also what it was like directing the two of them?
Celine Held: We didn’t go to anyone else, to be very fair. They were very much first choice people, so we got super lucky that they were both excited about the script. And they both came out weeks before production, learned how to drive boats, especially these type of boats, which are very specific because the water level is so low, and you can really walk through the lake, it’s that low. It’s 4 feet deep. And they worked incredibly hard. This is unlike any other production, though they’ve done so much. It’s so immersive. They both found people that they felt represented their characters and spent so much time with them on the lake and off. They were incredible.
Logan George: So much of the story rests on their shoulder. They’re going through these solo journeys for a lot of it, and so the film lives or dies by their performance. I think we just got so lucky with both of them being so down for everything that we put them through. It was a really unique experience.
Caddo Lake is available for streaming on Max starting Oct. 10.
