After the knockout success of CatchM. Night Shyamalan's latest project is Caddo LakeMax's new mystery thriller from Top Directors Logan George and Celine Held. (Shyamalan produced the film under his production company.) The film stars Eliza Scanlen (Little women, Sharp objects) and Dylan O'Brien (Teen Wolf, Saturday evening), follows the townspeople of Karnack, Texas, after the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl causes strange things to happen on the lake. The trailer hints at a sci-fi-esque plot in a film that is incredibly time-warped and can be difficult to follow. But the better question is whether the non-chronological turn of events lives up to the standards of a Shyamalan picture. For the curious Shyamalan heads out there, I present a breakdown of the twist and whether Caddo Lake is worth a look. Spoilers ahead!

OK, what is it? Really sink in Karnack, Texas?

To answer that, I have to tell you how everyone involved is connected. Caddo Lake follows two protagonists: The first is Ellie (Scanlen), a girl in her late teens or early 20s, whenever this happens, in 2022 – she says something about finishing a semester early that sounds like college speak. Ellie has a strained relationship with her red-headed mother, whose name, we later learn, is Celeste. (I mention the hair color for reasons that will become obvious.) Ellie's father disappeared when Ellie was a baby, and Celeste eventually married a man named Daniel Bennett (Eric Lange), who has an 8-year-old daughter, Anna, from a previous relationship. Ellie and Anna are pretty close. The real drama begins when Ellie and Celeste argue and Ellie storms off. The next morning, Ellie receives a call that Anna is missing. The assumption is that Anna probably followed the angry Ellie (something she has done before), but must have gotten lost, injured, or harmed by someone else.

In the meantime, Caddo Lake Star No. 2 is Paris Lang (O'Brien), a young man still suffering from the death of his mother several years ago. Paris' mother suffered a seizure while driving, which sent her car – with her and Paris inside – over a barrier and into the lake below. Paris' subsequent inability to cope healthily cost him his relationship with his red-headed girlfriend (see where I'm going with this?), who moved to Houston before the film began. Circumstances bring the friend back to the city, where she and a healthier-looking Paris briefly rekindle their relationship. But after Paris experiences strange sensations while working at the lake, he becomes obsessed again with finding real answers to his mother's death, which he believes was due to a medical misdiagnosis.

I should take that into account too Caddo Lake is set in the real region of Karnack, Texas, and on the actual Caddo Lake, so transportation is primarily done by inflatables and boats on the water – fittingly the entire film conveys the atmosphere scary swamp.

Scary lake, missing girl – a classic. And two copper-haired women of different ages? I sense a timeline trick.

And you would be right! Basically, both Paris and Ellie discover a spot on the lake that makes you jump through different times. Paris discovers it while investigating the site where his mother died, and Ellie finds it during her search for Anna. It becomes clear that Anna must have accidentally traveled through time when she wanted to follow Ellie.

This suspicion is confirmed when Paris accidentally returns to 1952 and finds 8-year-old Anna. Meanwhile, Ellie makes her way to 2005, where she meets Paris' friend who is holding her baby. Of course, that friend turns out to be Celeste, and the baby she's holding is Ellie herself. Celeste gives present-day Ellie a flyer that says Paris disappeared in 2003. Through this exchange, Ellie also learns that Paris' mother, who died in the car accident on the bridge, was named Anna.

OK. So Paris is Ellie's father – that was easy to guess. But Anna…

…is Ellie's grandmother, yes. In 2005, after the revelation, Ellie goes to an internet cafe to investigate and confirms that Anna grew up and lived a happy, healthy life, with records of her life since 1952. She will, of course, grow up at some point something to give birth in Paris years later. How about a second twist? If you ask me, I think Anna being Paris' mother is a bigger twist than Paris being Ellie's father.

So if Ellie was about a year old in 2005 and today takes place in 2022, she would be about 17 years old. What fear does she have about graduating a semester early?

No idea! Talk about unsolved mysteries…

Wait, so what are the rules of this time shift? Why hasn't anyone discovered it yet?

Regulate? In a time travel film? Now you're asking too much. But here's what we do know: While the actual machinations behind the lake patch are unclear – it seems like you're walking through it and have no control over where you end up – its existence is fairly limited. The film explains that the time difference only exists when the water in the lake is low; When it is full again, the time slice closes.

So Daniel, Ellie's stepfather, is also her great-grandfather?

Yes. And I so wish that when she returned to 2022, she got an AncestryDNA kit for the whole family and just thought: Spit in this tube if you don't believe me! But deep down, Celeste and Ellie realize that Paris never left on purpose, just got stuck in time, and that the same thing will happen to Anna.

Will Paris ever make it back?

Unfortunately no. Paris accidentally ends up in 2022, where Anna's boat was lying around near the time shift point. He takes the boat and drives around just to see where he is – presumably on a mission to save his mother – but is seen by the police patrolling for Anna. From the patrol's perspective, Paris is an unknown man in the boat of a missing eight-year-old. That doesn't look so good! He is arrested by the police, but realizes that due to an approaching storm, the portal will close as the water levels rise and he will be stuck there for the foreseeable future. He tries to escape law enforcement, but is killed in the process. He never makes it back, which means he never finds out he has a daughter.

Man, that's really sad. But logistically, this whole time loop thing would definitely cause some problems. I mean, does adult Anna ever say anything about being from the future?

Unfortunately, we don't know much about Anna's thoughts or life after her “disappearance” in 1952. Neither Paris nor his father mention that she comes from a different time. However, using a log of his mother's seizures, Paris finds out that she has a seizure every time the water is low. We find out that experiencing the time error causes the same symptoms Anna showed after her death, which doctors interpret as myoclonic seizures. This could indicate that she occasionally traveled every few years to visit her real home. It could also simply mean that the symptoms will flare up again when the portal is open to anyone who has passed through it. It could also mean nothing. This is a movie.

But to your point, there Is A bit of a weird moment with two Ellies running around, so that's something to look forward to.

I appreciate the extensive spoilers. But how Shyamalan-esque is this film ultimately?

Now that I put it myself, I realize how little sense this film makes. As good as the humble, great actor Dylan O'Brien is – he's pretty good – I don't think this quite lives up to the expectations of a classic Shyamalan film. It also made me sad and for some reason it annoyed me. I'd say check this one out if you're in the mood for a new, twisty story, but don't expect it to be the next one Catch.