Perspective and use of geography matter when making a horror film. Where you place your camera and position your actors in the frame go a long way in delivering the intended chilling build-up before inducing relentless dread. David Robert Mitchell, who directed “The End of Oak Street”, knows this

Perspective and use of geography matter when making a horror film. Where you place your camera and position your actors in the frame go a long way in delivering the intended chilling build-up before inducing relentless dread. David Robert Mitchell, who directed “The End of Oak Street”, knows this

Perspective and use of geography matter when making a horror film. Where you place your camera and position your actors in the frame go a long way in delivering the intended chilling build-up before inducing relentless dread. David Robert Mitchell, who directed “The End of Oak Street”, knows this

Perspective and use of geography matter when making a horror film. Where you place your camera and position your actors in the frame go a long way in delivering the intended chilling build-up before inducing relentless dread. David Robert Mitchell, who directed “The End of Oak Street”, knows this well. How do you keep a viewer, who has seen countless creature features, invested in something familiar yet unique? The ‘Jurassic’ franchise has spawned so many sequels that now seem unnecessary. They could’ve stopped with Spielberg’s first two.

That said, I’ve a soft corner for the last one, directed by Gareth Edwards, mostly on account of its retro-flavoured aesthetic that brings back the visual goodness of the Spielberg films. Mitchell, too, knows where to put the camera, but it manages to do what the Edwards entry, or any of the other dinosaur movies that succeeded Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Lost World’ failed to do: terrify us.

Here’s what Mitchell does, which was already revealed in the trailer: a time-travel spin on the dinosaur mayhem narrative. Now that makes it quite intriguing, doesn’t it? What the trailer didn’t show are the twists, which I won’t divulge in this review.

Remember your childhood days, especially for Indian residents who grew up when daily evening power cuts were a thing? You imagined all sorts of scary scenarios about something hiding in the woods, and when your parents stepped out for a bit, you were concerned about their safety. Mitchell triggers those dormant memories through “The End of Oak Street.”

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor play parents with unresolved issues. Their children, played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery, sense some marital discord. But they’ll soon learn that it would be the least of their concerns.

The film’s title holds a special significance within the context of the film’s events, which recall several titles from popular fiction: from Spielberg’s “E.T.” to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” to “War of the Worlds” to Rob Reiner’s “Stand By Me” to Stephen King’s “IT”. Set in the 1980s, Mitchell’s film doesn’t evoke the atmosphere of the iconic 80s Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters; for a brief period, the saturation-drained, bland colour grading felt like a bummer.

But then, I thought of the possibility that the atmosphere may have already undergone certain changes, because it is suggested in a couple of places that a ‘shift’ has been happening for a while until a complete transplant happens, dropping the characters right into the prehistoric era when dinosaurs (non-vegetarian and otherwise) and giant slithery snakes moved freely across Earth.

What would you do if you found your nice little suburban home and neighbourhood — well, at least part of it — surrounded by flora and fauna that’s 200 million years old?

The film has some sequences that look better on IMAX, creating a sense of immersive isolation and fear that feels quite palpable. The filmmaking borrows a leaf from Spielberg’s textbook — unsettling sounds and distant human cries, bloody dinosaur footprints, excreta heaps, power outages, and a lightning-like phenomenon are among the first signs of things having gone completely awry — a possible end of the world scenario.

There’s much damage caused, including loss of human lives, ultimately shrinking the survivor group to a number you can count on your fingers. Of course, there’s an explanation for what caused this event, but Mitchell has no intention of explaining the origin of it all.

In that regard, it’s very much like an episode from Rod Serling’s masterpiece 1959 TV series “The Twilight Zone” (for me, it beats anything made today). We get a delightful perspective-altering Shyamalan-esque climax twist, but don’t expect all your questions concerning the logic of it all to be answered. Oh, and it doesn't forget to find some humour and calm amidst the chaos. One scene has the couple making an awkward discovery and decides to use that as a backdrop for a polaroid photograph. Another has their daughter listening to Steven Winwood's 'Valerie' in her car to calm herself down. 

Sometimes, it’s more fun to leave things that way. It’s the scariest dinosaur mayhem movie in my book, and the best since Spielberg’s first “Jurassic Park”. Some may find this blasphemous, but I found “The End of Oak Street” far scarier than the iconic 1993 film.

But, hey, without that film, this wouldn’t exist. So, yeah, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that “The End of Oak Street” is overall better than “Jurassic Park”, because the Spielberg film is far superior in terms of aesthetic sense.

Film: The End of Oak Street

Director: David Robert Mitchell

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

Rating: 4.5/5

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