I’ve loved dinosaurs since I was a little spud, collecting dinosaur toys, model kits, books and movies. I’ve enjoyed the Jurassic Park/World series, as well as other big-budget dinosaur films like 65, and various lower budget flicks. When I saw the first trailer for The End of Oak Street, and saw that it involved dinosaurs, I was already eager to see this. But when I found out that it was written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, I really wanted to see this movie. DRM wrote and directed the wonderfully bizarre thriller It Follows, a horror film that was extremely creative—and scary—in using its central threat as a metaphor for STD. While I wasn’t expecting anything too deep or subversive in The End Of Oak Street, figuring it was aimed at the four quadrant popcorn audience, I was still pleasantly surprised.
Anne Hathaway (Interstellar) and Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting), star as Denise and Greg Platt, a couple who are living a somewhat ideal life in the suburbs in 1982. They have some problems bubbling beneath the surface, but still try to put on their best smiles as they try to deal with everything. But they are not prepared when their entire neighborhood—several blocks of it—gets thrown back into the age of dinosaurs. One of the things that makes The End Of Oak Street work so well is the great cast. Vets Hathaway and McGregor are superior, as expected, as an ordinary couple struggling to deal with this Twilight Zone situation that has been thrust upon them. But the young actors playing their kids are also standouts. Maisy Stella (Nashville) and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth) are both superb as Audrey and Brian, the teenage Platt siblings who must also navigate this strange new world. These four good actors, along with DRM’s smart script, makes you root for the Platt family from the get-go.
And all of the usual dinosaur suspects are here: the T-Rex, the Raptors, and the Spinosaurus (the really cool one with big arms and the large ridge on its back), but RDM also includes far more creatures, including a really scary, enormous white snake that reminds me fondly of the title beast from Lair of the White Worm. There are all kinds of flying dinos and alligator-like critters, as well as massive, tank-like prehistoric turtles who refuse to give way. But some of these dinosaurs are also equipped with either feathers or fur, as recent dinosaur research has uncovered. And even with feathers, the Raptors are still fierce and intimidating. DRM shoots the dinosaurs as dynamically as possible, featuring them attacking the hapless neighbors as Denise and Greg frantically run up the street. And literally sneaking up on the Platt family when they least expect it.
The End of Oak Street bombed at the box office, and I suspect it might be because of the film’s darker, grittier tone. It’s a horror movie with dinosaurs. The Jurassic Park/World films are basically the cinematic equivalent of a theme park ride: sure it’s scary, but you just know everybody’s going to be fine, anyway. But TEOOS’s horror film aesthetic, where it posits at the beginning that nobody is safe, creates far more visceral tension—perhaps a little more than most movie-goers could handle. Too be fair, TEOOS isn’t for young children, thanks to its gore and intensity. I really hope people (very young children) discover TEOOS on VOD and streaming. With the exception of the music, which I found too intrusive in spots, The End of Oak Street is a near-perfect look of how genuinely scary—and weird—it would be for people from the modern age to encounter dinosaurs and their ecosystem. And mind those big turtles! --SF
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