Imagine, if you can, waking up to find your suburban street has been taken over by dinosaurs. Well, that’s the basic premise of writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s adventure film, which has more than a touch of Steven Spielberg about it. It is easy to do that, considering that Spielberg directed one of the greatest dinosaur movies ever, with Jurassic Park, yet The End of Oak Street reads like a complete homage to the director, while at the same time taking the sub genre to a different level, thanks to some inventive approaches and a lead performance that isn’t just taking it as another blockbuster movie to pass the time with.

Denise and Greg Platt live in the kind of suburban area where the neighbours acknowledge each other, and life seems sweet. Underneath it all, their marriage is on a rocky road. When they think things are finally over, an enormous light in the night turns their world upside down when they discover they cannot escape the area they live in, which has been taken over by dinosaurs.

Mitchell, whose previous film was the excellent horror film It Follows, takes a simple plot device and runs with it. With producer JJ Abrams, they have produced a tense, often exciting adventure that is far darker than Spielberg’s 1992 classic and goes places you would never expect.

The Spielberg references come thick and fast, with a dash of modern life commentary. It’s set in 1982, in a typical suburban universe that you would have seen in films like ET and Poltergeist. We have kids on bikes, neighbours who bicker over the family dog, and even some cinematic tricks that always made Spielberg’s films more interesting to watch. Then throw in the dinosaurs roaming the area and attacking the unsuspecting neighbours, and you could quite easily say this was a Spielberg film. Yet Mitchell uses the family dynamic to add a different approach.

While issues between Denise and Greg affect their two children, Audrey and Brian, they rely on each other when the horror begins. It also makes you care for the characters and root for them at every turn. Denise, who seems to be the stable one, has been secretly writing a book about a woman with her suitcase packed and ready to leave, while her husband, Greg, has been hiding his job situation and relies on being a pizza delivery man who secretly drinks. Realising that there may be no escape from the monsters outside and no way to leave, the family unit has to change its focus; otherwise, they will not survive. It’s a decent premise that gives this more depth than just being chased by hungry prehistoric creatures.

The action sequences are well executed and have plenty of moments when the tension is twisted up. It’s no way near as nail-biting as Jaws or Jurassic Park, but it has enough moments to make the whole thing fun, even if the reasoning behind what has happened is a little far-fetched. It does have some brutal horror moments as the dinosaurs attack, and one particular scene that makes you wonder if it was completely necessary, but they went there.

What elevates the film is Anne Hathaway as Denise. She is fully committed as the mother trying to protect her family, and she throws her weight behind the role as if this is Oscar-bait. It makes the tension work as we watch the horror on her face before we see what she is seeing. It’s an unexpected performance in a film of this calibre. Ewan McGregor as Greg, however, doesn’t have the same level, and there are moments when you want him to stop playing the all-American dad and go back to being Ewan McGregor. Playing opposite Hathaway shows his weaknesses.

The End of Oak Street is a decent, entertaining blockbuster that is far better than it has any right to be. It’s a shame the BBFC cut the film so it could receive a 12A. I’d be interested to see the uncut version. While we wait for that, it’s fun, and you can’t do worse than check it out.

4 out of 5

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery, Jordan Alexa Davis, P.J. Byrne, Hudson Meek, Anne Gee Byrd, Emily Kuroda

Written by David Robert Mitchell

Running Time: 99 mins

Cert: 12A

Release date: 14th August 2026