The End of Oak Street (2026)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
After a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports their neighborhood to someplace unknown, the Platt family soon discovers that their very survival depends on them sticking together as they navigate their now unrecognizable surroundings.
41 connections found
View:
41 films that influenced The End of Oak Street
What critics say influenced The End of Oak Street
…the reality of everything happening in the foreground feels raw in the way the original Jurassic Park turned predictably deadly.
Had 6-year-old Sy gone to this in the theatres instead of Jurassic Park, I don’t think I’d have developed my passion for dinosaur films.
It may boast the same PG-13 rating as the Jurassic World, series but Oak Street makes all its kills look like an episode of Barney & Friends.
It doesn’t hurt that it might be the best “Jurassic Park” movie since the original.
Seventy percent of The End of Oak Street plays like a love letter to Jurassic Park and Spielberg at best…
The Jurassic Park franchise in particular struggled with inserting the prehistoric beasts into an urban setting…
The trailers paint a Spielbergian neighborhood tapping into Poltergeist-like foreshadowing…
Something akin to “Poltergeist” or “Gremlins” where another filmmaker gets to be darker and crueler than the director usually is while also investigating the suburban family and Americana through a dark genre lens.
The kids feel descended from the adolescents of “E.T.” and “Stand by Me.” There’s “Poltergeist,” “Jaws,” and obviously “Jurassic Park” all over the place.
…while echoes of E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins, and The Goonies reverberate through its suburban setting and family dynamics.
…as well as set decoration soaked in the pop-culture of the era (which recalls Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist")…
His return is a commercial genre period piece set, not accidentally, in 1982, prime time for Amblin and Spielbergian movies like E.T. and Poltergeist…
The End of Oak Street is, at its heart, a feature-length Twilight Zone episode…
…the film is essentially an oversized episode of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)…
“The End of Oak Street” also shows another important influence for Mitchell: “The Twilight Zone,” and the way Rod Serling’s classic series could use horror and science-fiction tropes to explore timely stories of human frailty and resilience.
If you ever wanted to know what it would be like if you placed Anne Hathaway into a Jurassic Park film or The Twilight Zone, you found your answer in watching her performance in The End of Oak Street.
…it operates on a distinctly Twilight Zone-type of logic…
Writer-director David Robert Mitchell has crafted an unashamed Twilight Zone meets Jurassic Park throwback.
Some of the violence feels unnecessarily cruel (think Jurassic World)…
Both of them straight‑up curbstomp the entire Jurassic World series like Peter, Michael, and Samir did that printer in Office Space.
With Jurassic Park, and more recently Jurassic World, near-monopolising movie dinosaurs, the arrival of The End Of Oak Street immediately begs an obvious question.
There is carnage. But there isn’t much gore, so while the (literal) head count is high, this isn’t as mean-spirited in its kills as Jurassic World, while the family is resourceful, sympathetic and believable.
They don’t rely on the fan-favorite dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, choosing to fill in their universe with other dinosaurs.
…he’s landing closer to the Jurassic World films…
Advertisement
…the presence of producer JJ Abrams makes it quite a bit easier. That's even without the bits lifted from Jaws, ET, and, of course, Jurassic Park.
The film features a handful of attention-grabbing split diopter shots (composed in a manner similar to how Spielberg utilized them in "Jaws")…
It’s a loving homage to Steven Spielberg and The End of Oak Street less rips off Jurassic Park, ET and Jaws and more relies on audiences' love for those films and the nostalgia they are imbued with to bring a fresh take to the ‘Spielburbia’ sub-genre.
…the Jaws-to-Jurassic Park method of withholding the monsters as long as possible reeks of a bygone era of Spielbergmania…
There’s “Poltergeist,” “Jaws,” and obviously “Jurassic Park” all over the place.
What WB’s The Meg was to Jaws, The End Of Oak Street is to Jurassic.
Something akin to “Poltergeist” or “Gremlins” where another filmmaker gets to be darker and crueler than the director usually is while also investigating the suburban family and Americana through a dark genre lens.
…while echoes of E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins, and The Goonies reverberate through its suburban setting and family dynamics.
…not to mention gems like The Goonies and Gremlins…
Mitchell seems to have crafted a film paying homage to Amblin projects such as E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Back to the Future, Gremlins, and, most importantly, Jurassic Park.
His own "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" as well as Joe Dante's "Gremlins" infamously pushed the boundaries of the rating system at the time.
What's "Gremlins" if not a warning against complacency with technology and the abuse of the natural world?
…not just ‘80s suburbia, but the suburban ideal of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
The End of Oak Street slams Jurassic Park into Close Encounters of the Third Kind…
Everyone remembers the eye-popping mother ship connection at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Fewer people recall the disturbing “crybaby” sequence. The people behind this flashback do, however, and their tribute is filled with those kind of raw, emotional, rough-edged moments in between full-on dino carnage.
…the old-school frosted-yellow water glasses that look borrowed from the Neary family in Close Encounters of the Third Kind…
…while echoes of E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins, and The Goonies reverberate through its suburban setting and family dynamics.
…not to mention gems like The Goonies and Gremlins…
Par for the course for many ‘80s gems like Back to the Future and The Goonies, the film plants its seeds in the fractures of the family’s complicated dynamic.
…less eager to win the audience’s love, than classic Amblin comps like The Goonies…
Advertisement
Mitchell seems to have crafted a film paying homage to Amblin projects such as E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, Back to the Future, Gremlins, and, most importantly, Jurassic Park.
Par for the course for many ‘80s gems like Back to the Future and The Goonies, the film plants its seeds in the fractures of the family’s complicated dynamic.
If you are a fan of Jurassic Park, Jumanji and Back to the Future and you are missing that era of cinema, then this movie might be right up your Oak Street.
The End of Oak Street had plenty of huge twists, especially during its thrilling conclusion. Because after Ewan McGregor's Greg sacrifices himself, he's resurrected when the family returns to the '80s and stops him from being sucked up in the wormhole that moved the entire neighborhood.
…this is Spielberg crossed with something like "Jumanji."
If you are a fan of Jurassic Park, Jumanji and Back to the Future and you are missing that era of cinema, then this movie might be right up your Oak Street.
…even if its high-concept premise is in service of what is essentially just Jumanji: Dinosaur Edition…
…and a bad Jumanji clone at worst…