Back in my formative years, I remember the strange look I got when I told a classmate that Transformers and Armageddon were directed by the same adrenaline junkie. Just knowing the man’s name was enough to be classified as abnormally obsessed with movies. Whenever people ask me what got me into movies, I always say I have my parents to thank for my indoctrination. I distinctly remember the moment they realised I hadn’t seen Jurassic Park, and suddenly, the only thing that mattered was righting that wrong. 

It’s a natural reaction. Jurassic Park is one of the greats, and holds up to this day and likely will indeed be timeless, but attempts to replicate that magic have been less than successful. I still contend that even at their worst, there is still magic in seeing prehistoric creatures brought to life, but even I can’t call the films great. Enter The End of Oak Street, a film that is the Anti-Jurassic Park, and thrives as a result.

In The End of Oak Street dinosaurs are not awe-inspiring. Ellie Satler and Alan Grant had many a moment where they could bask in the miracle they bore witness to, but the characters in Oak Street have a different experience. Every run-in with a dinosaur is at worst life-threatening, and at best, downright weird. The characters are too stressed to even contemplate what they’re seeing, which is in large part due to their very tense dynamic.

Set in 1982, The End of Oak Street follows a simple suburban family of four, who on the face of it couldn’t be more perfect. Spend enough time with them though, and you start to see the cracks in their facade. As they’re pushed to the brink, facing off deadly dinos, those cracks become caverns, and their unresolved issues may become their undoing, potentially resulting in a permanent split. This of course, is showcased with all split diopter shots money can buy!

Just as the movie questions the myth of dinosaurs in popular cinema, it questions the myth of the nuclear family. Anne Hathaway plays a woman who feels unfulfilled, fantasizing about beginning her life anew, while Ewan McGregor is unable to divulge his failures and instead hits the bottle in the garage when no one is looking, even before breakfast. Throw those characters into a life or death sci-fi scenario, and you start to think that if the dinosaurs didn’t get them divorce sure would have.

While the film begs the question of marriage being the end all be all, it has a strong sense of community as the thing to get them through this prehistoric peril. When the family gets separated, they’re worse off than they were before, and the friends they find along the way are instrumental in their survival. It’s paid off with an ending that has dark implications, that manages not to undercut one of the film’s most devastating moments. 

I enjoyed watching these miserable people suffer through a tragedy that brought them closer together, at least those that survive. The End of Oak Street isn’t afraid to take lives, and does so in shocking fashion with some of the most unsettling creature designs you’ve seen applied to dinosaurs. The lore-accurate feathers are present, and the film depicts the dinosaurs that often miss the placement on lunchboxes and cartoons due to being absolutely terrifying concepts that God was right to annihilate with a meteor. 

It’s a thrill ride that harkens back to the family films of a distant era. Spielberg by way of M Night Shyamalan with a dash of Cronenberg just to keep the pot spicy. A film that says hug your family, and speak your truth, because when disaster strikes, you’ll be better off surviving with people you don’t resent.

Rating: Big screen watch