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The End of Oak Street First Reviews: The Biggest Surprise of the Summer

Critics say David Robert Mitchell's sci-fi thriller is a lean, mean popcorn flick that knows what it is and delivers solid dino thrills at a brisk pace.

by Christopher Campbell | August 12, 2026

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor star in The End of Oak Street, a sci-fi thriller opening this weekend, and the first reviews are now online. From the writer and director of It Follows, David Robert Mitchell, the movie is about a suburban neighborhood mysteriously relocated to a land filled with dinosaurs. If the initial praises for this gory, mean-spirited, but entertaining ‘80s escapist throwback are to be trusted, this could be the surprise hit of the summer.

The End of Oak Street (2026)

84%

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery, Maisy Stella

Directed By: David Robert Mitchell

Here’s what critics are saying about The End of Oak Street:

Is this the best movie to end the summer on?

The End of Oak Street has the perfect kind of vibe for a later summer release.
– Rachel Leishman, CBR

One of the biggest surprises of 2026 is also one of the best blockbusters of the summer.
– David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

It’s one of the most delightful movies of the summer.
– Molly Freeman, Screen Rant

[It’s] the biggest surprise of a summer that’s delivered on all fronts.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

[It] is something the whole family can likely get into.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Do we need to see it in the theater?

This is a movie elevated by being seen on a big screen with a locked-in crowd.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

If ever there is a movie to see in a packed theater, it is this one. The audience reaction to all this absurdity is just as entertaining as what is on the screen.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

If you’re willing to turn off your brain for a bit, you’re in for a helluva adventure and a good time at the theater.
– Molly Freeman, Screen Rant

**How does it compare to the Jurassic Park sequels?**

The End of Oak Street is the best dinosaur film since Jurassic Park… [and] everything Jurassic World: Dominion wished it could be.
– David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

The End of Oak Street returns both the sense of danger and the importance of family that have been largely absent in the follow-ups to Spielberg’s classic 1993 blockbuster.
– Matt Goldberg, Decoding Everything

Any five-minute stretch of this film offers more thrill and wit than the folks at InGen have been able to manufacture in total over the last three decades.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

This is a bit more awesome in its sheer chutzpah. What WB’s The Meg was to Jaws, The End o Oak Street is to Jurassic.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Will it remind us of any other movies?

[It’s a] winkingly mean-spirited Amblin homage that perfectly captures the sweet menace of movies like Gremlins and The Goonies.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

It evokes a time when movies could be movies as enjoyable escapist fare.
– Matt Goldberg, Decoding Everything

It’s kind of like if someone who had never seen a movie before had E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park explained to them, and then tried to remake them both at the same time.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch

Does it fit in with David Robert Mitchell’s other movies?

The End of Oak Street is obviously a different kind of David Robert Mitchell film than anything he’s made thus far, but his Warner Bros. debut hinges on the same kind of “alone together” apprehension that defined his first two indies.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The director appears to be slumming it here… But hey, at least he appears to be having a good time.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Hopefully, The End of Oak Street doesn’t mark the end of its director’s inspiration, as it’s unquestionably his best, most entertaining film yet.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

How is the script?

Mitchell’s script captures the free-spirited nature of the early 1980s, an era where the emphasis was on play rather than screens.
– David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

Hathaway and McGregor do their best with dialogue that, in any other movie, would be played for straight camp.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch

The dialogue often is laughably cheesy at times.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The thematic underpinnings are where The End of Oak Street gets a little shaky.
– Matt Goldberg, Decoding Everything

Lazy screenwriting that Amblin itself would’ve never let fly.
– Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

Will we laugh?

Mitchell doesn’t shy away from the humor that comes from the inherent absurdity of this insane scenario.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

The audience at a press-and-public preview was certainly laughing up a storm, both in moments where the comedy was intentional and others where… well, who knows?
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

If The End of Oak Street took itself too seriously, it wouldn’t work. The fact that it does laugh at things… allows the audience to laugh and go on this journey with a lighter energy.
– Rachel Leishman, CBR

Is it scary?

There’s no shortage of decent scares, all amped up by Michael Giacchino’s frantic score and sound design that rips through you like a surprise bowel movement.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Mitchell’s dinosaurs are older and more bird-like than the ones from Jurassic Park, striking a balance between realism and spectacle that’s cartoonish enough to be fun but convincing enough to be scary.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The End of Oak Street is sometimes scary, more so than anything in the lumbering last few Jurassic sequels.
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety

What makes these dinosaurs more terrifying than those in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is that the characters (and by extension, the audience) are in their world.
– Rachel Leishman, CBR

How brutal is the dinosaur carnage?

Mitchell… proves he still has a mean streak, with a fair amount of blood and a few dino attacks that push the forgiving limits of a PG-13 rating.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch

Mitchell makes it clear early and often that The End of Oak Street is going to push its PG-13 rating as far as Amblin classics once pushed their PGs, not just in the movie’s liberal approach to blood, but also in the unsparing glee of its cruelty.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

It… feels like it is skirting on the edge of R territory in terms of vividly gross dino dining habits.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

It’s a tricky balance to show the danger these creatures pose without getting too grim, but The End of Oak Street manages to show dinosaurs picking off neighbors without veering into the macabre.
– Matt Goldberg, Decoding Everything

How is the action?

The sheer level of balls-out action at a pace that never lets the audience breathe is kind of jaw-dropping.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Mostly it’s run, shoot, and hide. But Mitchell stages the creature attacks with witty timing and skill.
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety

The action may not boast quite the same level of heart-stopping ingenuity as the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park, but The End of Oak Street gets a lot nearer than most.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Its set-pieces are never particularly urgent or exciting.
– Trace Sauveur, AwardsWatch

How does the movie look?

Working with his regular cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, Mitchell gives the movie a dynamic visual kick, with lots of vigorous tracking shots, rapid zooms and split diopters.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis has us split diopter lovers smiling with glee, deploying them in heightened emotional moments where they count.
– Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

These giant reptiles are both (as far as this decidedly non-expert is aware) more scientifically accurate and realistically detailed in their appearance than most cinematic dinosaurs.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

Can we add this to Anne Hathaway’s year of stellar performances?

Continuing her Hall of Fame-worthy year, Hathaway seethes with the well-earned resentment of a wife who’s forced to start every argument because her husband refuses to acknowledge that anything’s wrong.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The End of Oak Street is the one that clearly isn’t going to take her back to the Academy Awards. However, considering the sheer hell her suburban wife and mother goes through battling packs of dinosaurs while trying to save her marriage and family is worthy of something.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Hathaway is an absolute star as Denise, carrying the film almost entirely on her shoulders.
– Molly Freeman, Screen Rant

Anne Hathaway is, as always, willing to totally go there when it comes to depicting a character at the end of her emotional rope… She brings to mind the work of Shelley Duvall in The Shining.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

How is Ewan McGregor?

McGregor feels right at home playing a father who has found himself unwittingly straying from his mission of being a good husband and attentive father.
– Cody Dericks, Next Best Picture

Greg’s character wouldn’t work nearly as well if not for the inherent charm of McGregor, though even he struggles to make Greg likable at times.
– Molly Freeman, Screen Rant

McGregor, to put it bluntly, is terrible.
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Will we leave wanting more summer movies like it?

The End of Oak Street is what multiplexes have been missing from recent summers: Lean, clever, original, cheer-at-the-screen entertainment that will traumatize 10-year-olds for life and make their parents feel like they’re kids again.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire