Now in online release is 'Caddo Lake', the third film this year by M. Night Shyamalan, in which he seems to have finally managed to surprise the viewer. About why this film is both similar and dissimilar to the work of the famous lover of plot twists...

According to the plot of 'Caddo Lake', an extraordinary incident occurs in a small sleepy town somewhere on the border of Texas and Louisiana. Eight-year-old Anna goes missing in the wild, impenetrable swamp forests. The police and all concerned citizens rush to search. Anna's older sister Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) blames herself for the girl's disappearance and begins her own investigation. At the same time, strange and frightening things happen in the vicinity: wolves appear out of nowhere, a crocodile cut in half is found near the swamps, ominous sounds are heard repeatedly, and Paris (Dylan O'Brien), a worker at a swamp-cleaning company, sees an unusual light in the forest that leads him to the place where Anna was supposedly last seen.

The dramatic thriller 'Caddo Lake' is the third film this year created with the participation of M. Night Shyamalan. Earlier, the director of 'The Sixth Sense' once again (it must be sadly noted) released not the most successful thriller of his career, 'Trap'. Then he paternalistically oversaw the directorial debut of his daughter in 'The Watchers' with Dakota Fanning (also a failure) and finally limited himself to producing duties on 'Caddo Lake', giving creative freedom to his own team of directors from 'Servant' Logan George and Celine Held.

And if in the first two, the plot twists so beloved by Shyamalan did not impress the audience at all (many said that in 'Trap' there were none at all, and in 'The Watchers' they were too predictable), then in 'Caddo Lake', the moment considered 'that very' classic Shyamalan twist still made you jump. And it once again reminded that the director and producer is still capable of reviving the old-fashioned rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick. And, importantly, surprising the audience with it again. But the paradox is that this trick worked not because of directorial experience and a fresh perspective on the new material, but rather despite it.

'Caddo Lake' is actually hard to associate with the director's classic or new works. There is almost none of his authorial signature here. It feels as if Shyamalan and his team did serious work on their mistakes: they looked at creativity from a different angle, changed the vector, broadened their horizons. They remembered the classics and took into account new trends that had brought success to other directors and their works. As a result, 'Caddo Lake' turned out closer to Stephen King, who loves to delve into the hidden corners of human souls, and to the intricate but seemingly even more successful 'The Darkness' by Baran bo Odar. In short, it is both Shyamalan and not Shyamalan at the same time. And such a contradiction pleasantly surprises rather than disappoints again.

In terms of concept and screen realization, 'Caddo Lake' is both science fiction, drama, thriller, and somewhere a detective with elements of Southern Gothic. But the science fiction is rather conditional, the drama is philosophical (though not fully developed, but emotionally gripping). And the detective genre begins and ends with googling archival articles and materials from the last 50 years of the small town's life. But there are plenty of Louisiana swamps and marshes with crocodiles, tiny piers covered in slime, and majestic cypress trees.

Here everyone can latch onto something familiar and painfully recognizable. From the aforementioned Stephen King to 'True Detective' or 'Twin Peaks' to 'The Jacket' or even 'Ivan Vasilievich...'. Nevertheless, despite such an impressive list of sources of inspiration, 'Caddo Lake' is an individual product, solidly made, correctly and timely presented, and most importantly, shamelessly intriguing and riveting all attention to its little secret.

Such little secrets, mysteries, omissions, understatements, despair, and sadness make up this seemingly complex and multi-layered story of just one once-divided family.

In 'Caddo Lake', Shyamalan, Logan George, and Celine Held tried to answer the eternal questions differently, questions that always receive only certain answers: Is the father's departure from the family so clear-cut? Who did Anna run away from into the forest and disappear? Why does the woman cry every time after a quarrel with her teenage daughter? Why does Ellie want to leave her hometown so badly? How to let go of the past and live in the present? These answers will be rather fantastic, mixed with childishly naive magic. But they give hope. And that makes the soul feel somehow lighter.