It Follows filmmaker David Robert Mitchell once wondered what might happen if dinosaurs suddenly ended up in a residential neighborhood, rummaging through trash cans and transforming peaceful streets into hunting grounds. With The End of Oak Street, Mitchell answers his own question, delivering a pulse-pounding summer sci-fi thriller where ravenous prehistoric beasts try to devour characters you actually care about.
It’s 1982. There are no cell phones. The internet isn’t yet a time-sucking monster. Back then, families went outside and actually connected with their neighbors.
On Oak Street, neighbors gather for a block party – munching on hot dogs and potato salad, competing in potato sack races, and enjoying each other’s company. What none of them realize is that their safe suburban haven is about to become a gruesome battleground. Who would ever expect dinosaurs to be a threat? It’s a decade before Jurassic Park made dino encounters seem remotely possible. No one on Oak Street expects to be running for their lives from massive, rampaging creatures.
Brilliant white lights, a raging storm, and a sudden loss of electricity and water signal that life on Oak Street is about to turn otherworldly. And there’s literally no escape from the neighborhood that seems to have been plucked straight out of ’82 and hurled into the age of dinosaurs.
At the heart of Mitchell’s throwback creature feature are the Platts, a family battling not just dinosaurs but also the fractures of a deteriorating marriage. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor star as Denise and Greg, parents of teenagers, whose relationship has eroded under the weight of job worries and poor communication. Denise quietly nurtures her dream of being a writer, while Greg harbors secrets that, if confessed before the dinosaur invasion, might have ended their marriage for good. But once the dinosaurs attack, Denise goes full Killer Mama Bear, and Greg puts family above everything else.
Older sister Audrey (Maisy Stella) and her brother Brian (Christian Convery) feel the tension in their home but are powerless to fix their parents’ problems. As teenagers, they’re also dealing with their own issues. But when they’re thrust into a world where survival is the top priority, family drama is put on the back burner.
Hathaway, McGregor, Stella, and Convery are absolutely terrific as a family navigating a terrifying new world teeming with savage creatures. Their bond feels authentic, and Mitchell’s screenplay gives them dialogue that’s both familiar and lived-in. Every argument is believable, every reconciliation hard-won, making their determination to stick together to fight this new threat genuinely moving.
And you can’t talk about the Platts without mentioning the fifth, furry member of the family: Starbuck (impressively played by Buzz and Brisket). It’s the ‘80s, so we can forgive the Platts for keeping their dog outside – and that arrangement for the family pooch is what sparks much of the action.
Writer-director David Robert Mitchell didn’t spare the gory deaths by dinosaur, and the body count is pretty steep. The characters are well-armed, but the dinosaurs are basically killing machines who fixate on a specific target and then hunt it down to its death. Visual effects supervisor Jay Cooper and ILM did a phenomenal job of bringing the dinosaurs to life. Once the dinosaurs arrive on the scene, they’re omnipresent – either front and center or lurking menacingly in the background. The dinosaurs’ movements and interactions with the actors are seamless and convincing.
The End of Oak Street is a near-perfect summer popcorn film, taking audiences on a wild emotional ride, serving up laughs, screams, and even a little heartbreak. Dinosaur movie fans will love it, maybe even better than any film of the Jurassic Park franchise. And for horror fans, there are plenty of jump scares, more than most recent horror films have managed to pull off.
GRADE: B+
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 14, 2026
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
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