It’s a generally accepted truth that Steven Spielberg helped popularize (if not invent) the summer blockbuster movie with 1975’s “Jaws.” That film is seminal in so many ways, but one of its most lasting influences is the concept of pitting average characters against a situation that’s either unfathomable, primally threatening, or both. This can be seen even more strongly in Spielberg’s subsequent scripts, like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Poltergeist.” While not every summer blockbuster or genre movie makes use of this Spielberg trope, it’s happened enough times to feel commonplace, even nostalgic.
David Robert Mitchell is all about hiding danger behind nostalgia. His films feature ordinary people in the modern day ripped from their cozy, idyllic lives and forced to undergo various growing pains no matter their age, from killer supernatural entities in “It Follows” to the discovery of a worldwide conspiracy in “Under the Silver Lake.” His latest film, “The End of Oak Street,” makes that ripping even more literal, as a titular neighborhood in late ’70/early ’80s America finds itself inexplicably dropped wholesale into the middle of a prehistoric forest overnight. I was lucky to attend a preview of roughly 20 minutes of the film recently, and Mitchell, by his own admission, spoke at the event about how Spielberg’s classics were a big influence on him.
Producer JJ Abrams, who also attended, is a veteran of Spielberg homage, as seen in 2011’s “Super 8.” Like that film, “Oak Street” appears to be a throwback in the best way. From what I’ve seen so far, it seems to deliver a truly unique premise in a fashion that’s warmly recognizable, enough to lull you into a false sense of security so that Mitchell can surprise and shock you with the movie’s rougher edges.
The End of Oak Street looks Spielbergian, but isn’t close to the Jurassic Park films
Warner Bros. PicturesBased on the 20 minutes of footage I saw at the press preview event, along with the trailers already released, there’s no doubt that the Steven Spielberg influence is strong in “The End of Oak Street.” The period setting, suburban trappings, and various little stylistic elements (such as a prominent split diopter shot) are either directly reminiscent of the iconic director, or seek to evoke the period in which he rose to prominence, if not his work itself. One might assume, then, that the movie would feel highly similar to the “Jurassic Park” films. After all, the 1993 original is another seminal Spielberg film, the movie that fully sold both Hollywood and audiences on the promise of computer-generated imagery. Its first sequel, 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” even brought a T-Rex to suburbia in its last act, and the subsequent “Park” and “Jurassic World” sequels have been the leaders in dinosaur cinema since.
Yet dinosaurs aren’t (and shouldn’t be) exclusive to the “Jurassic” franchise, and it feels like “The End of Oak Street” is surreptitiously trying to prove that. The footage I saw is a setpiece in which the Platt family — mother Denise (Anne Hathaway), father Greg (Ewan McGregor), teenage daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella), younger son Brian (Christian Convery) — discover their new, bizarre predicament, and the ways in which the various dinosaurs are presented are decidedly less cuddly than even the meanest “Jurassic” moment. David Robert Mitchell seems to be emphasizing the savage animalistic aspect of the prehistoric creatures, underlining how “Jurassic Park” is about dinosaurs newly born in a modern age, while “Oak Street” is about 20th-century humans finding themselves in what appears to be the dinos’ era.
The End of Oak Street could have some hidden David Robert Mitchell surprises
Warner Bros. PicturesThe opening setpiece of “The End of Oak Street” is cleverly staged, and suitably thrilling enough to give the 4DX format a workout. Yet what excited me the most was what we didn’t get to see. All of David Robert Mitchell’s prior movies have such a rich texture to them, and it feels like “Oak Street” is no exception. There’s a moment where Denise comes across the body of an unfortunate neighbor who’s been attacked by one of the dinosaurs, and it’s distressing in a way that most all-ages genre films aren’t these days. JJ Abrams was adamant that the movie is “a family film,” and I’m sure that’s true, but the edgier moments and all-around harrowing tone of the scene made me think that the movie will have more bite than we’re used to.
Mitchell has made superb use of ambiguity in his prior work. So while it’s possible we may end up getting some sort of explanation for what happened to Oak Street and why, I get the feeling that it won’t be all that much. Or perhaps there are other surprises in the film which I can’t even begin to predict yet. It’s this feeling of curiosity and anticipation that I associate with the golden era of summer blockbusters, before the days in which preview pieces like the one you’re reading now were the norm. While times do change, and that’s not always a bad thing, it’s kind of lovely to have a retro experience like this, too. I’m excited for all of us to discover what lurks around the corner of “Oak Street” together in just a few short weeks.
“The End of Oak Street” is in theaters everywhere August 14th, 2026.
