Life and death in Caddo Lake are hard. Paris (Dylan O’Brien) lost his mom to a car accident that nearly took his life as well. While he never says it outright, his survivor’s guilt is written all over his face and in his body language. Paris is trying to make a go of reconnecting with those he’s stayed away from for years, but it’s a struggle. Former love (Diana Hopper) has the best luck with him but it is still halting and awkward. The alienation grows when he finds a necklace like his mom used to wear. To make matters worse, he discovered it in an area of the swampland where things seemingly go haywire. The world seems to go mute, wolves–not indigenous to the area–appear, and electronics cease to work.

Elsewhere on Caddo Lake, Ellie (Eliza Scanlen) has her own parental problems. Her father went missing when she was very young, a tragedy that has driven a wedge between her mom (Lauren Ambrose) and her deeply empathetic stepfather, Daniel (Eric Lange). She can’t stop reminding either of them how he—and the rest of his family—aren’t her family, even as they clearly want to embrace her. The only exception to her ire is her younger sister, Anna (Caroline Falk). Unfortunately, one night, Anna goes missing, too, presumably after she snuck off to find Ellie and her friends. She may have wandered into the same bit of swamp that Paris found so otherworldly.

Caddo Lake has a complex science-fiction engine driving it. However, writers-directors Logan George & Celine Held don’t seem especially interested in digging deep into it. Instead, they leave many questions about it only tangentially touched upon. The queries are left open-ended in a way that feels right for the story, not a dodge or a disappointment.

Rather, they want to use that engine to explore how families fall apart or muddle through in the face of tragedies. For Paris, it’s cast a blanket over his world. O’Brien makes the character spark when he frustration becomes too much to bear. For the most part though, he carries himself like a man wanting no one to notice him. He typically speaks in a quiet, measured tone as though he feels unworthy to take up space or receive attention.

Scanlen’s Ellie, on the other hand, seems spoiling for a fight. She consistently presses her mother’s buttons, demanding her father’s death certificate rather than entertain the notion of her stepfather signing some paperwork instead. She is frequently storming in and out of the family’s home, a tornado of internalized pain and externalized nastiness. Ambrose is an excellent scene partner for Scanlen, showing how Ellie’s cruelly dismissive attitude towards her stepfamily has slowly worn away her mother’s capacity to be supportive and kind to her daughter.

The aesthetic is appropriately no-frills. That makes budgetary sense, sure, but it also fits. Going all out would feel incongruous to both the locale and the emotional valence. Instead, the movie becomes far less about its look and almost entirely about its characters. The way the camera follows them all, controlled but rarely not in motion, enhances the sense of these families isolated and struggling to connect.

The moments where connection does breakthrough have a bittersweet ache to them. For instance, when Paris and his ex and possible future girlfriend pretend to be making Sunday Supper in the frame of the house they were going to build and start their lives in, there’s a gentleness to it. That cuts both its potential to be too silly or too saccharine. As a viewer, it invites you to imagine an easier, more fulfilling path for them even as it becomes clear their futures will take work. Even more indelible is the moment between Scanlen and Lange where she, with few words, tries to apologize and reassure him. Watching Lange break open from her limited explanation and steady gaze is arresting.

When the mystery starts to come together, it satisfies. Caddo Lake is well-structured in that regard. It gives any details that viewers will likely have hunches going into the movie’s final act. But those hunches don’t rob those final 20 or so minutes of its ability to draw in the viewer. It’s the best kind of film mystery, one the audience can get close to solving but not so close as to anticipate every twist, turn, or surprise.

Some may find it all a bit too hushed, vague, or casual in how it engages with its science-fiction elements. For this reviewer, however, moments like Paris playing family in the ruins of the house he intended to raise a family offer far more satisfaction than a deep explanation of why Caddo Lake is weird or a conclusion that makes sure to dot every I and cross every T. The feature is quiet, creepy science fiction done well.

Caddo Lake wades into MAX’s swamp starting October 10.

Caddo Lake Trailer: