David Robert Mitchell has never been a filmmaker interested in making audiences feel comfortable. Whether it was the inescapable dread of It Follows or the sun-soaked paranoia of Under the Silver Lake, his movies make familiar places feel just a little wrong. The End of Oak Street continues that tradition, but this time Mitchell seems to be reaching for something more crowd-friendly. With J.J. Abrams involved, there is a noticeable Amblin-era spirit running through the film, allowing Mitchell to express his inner Steven Spielberg without losing the qualities that make his work distinctive.
That combination works surprisingly well.
There is a Spielberg-like sense of emotion beneath the science-fiction spectacle and growing dread. Mitchell lets the film breathe enough for its characters to establish themselves before things start going horribly wrong. At the same time, nobody will mistake this for Mitchell suddenly becoming restrained. His camera still has that wonderfully uneasy quality, dwelling just long enough to make you wonder if something important is hiding in the frame. When the movie gets nasty, Mitchell’s fondness for gore comes through clearly. The result feels like a strange collision between classic blockbuster filmmaking and a much meaner genre movie.
What really keeps The End of Oak Street moving is how unpredictable it becomes. The basic setup might make you believe you know the kind of science-fiction thriller you are watching. Mitchell seems aware of those expectations and spends much of the movie setting them up so he can knock them down. Several moments take sharp turns into territory I wasn’t expecting. For better or worse, that willingness to get weird gives it an energy many polished studio sci-fi films lack.
David Robert Mitchell channels Spielberg in The End of Oak Street, a bloody sci-fi thriller packed with surprises and made for a rowdy theater crowd.
It is also funnier than its grim circumstances suggest. The humor doesn’t turn the movie into a comedy, thankfully, but brief moments of silliness and well-timed reactions keep the doom and gloom from becoming exhausting. More importantly, those laughs make the darker moments hit harder.
Sometimes the movie feels like it is testing how far it can push the expectations of this kind of thriller. Not all swings will land equally for everyone, though. Yet, I would rather watch Mitchell (or any other director) take those swings than not at all. And if possible, see this one with a crowd.
Overall, The End of Oak Street feels designed for that communal theater experience: the nervous laughter, the sudden gasps, the occasional horrified yell, and those wonderful moments when an entire auditorium realizes, almost exactly at the same time, that something terrible is about to happen. Mitchell has made a sci-fi thriller with plenty of tension and gore, but also heart, humor, and a cheeky desire to keep pulling the rug out from underneath you. That unpredictability is exactly what makes it such a blast.
Rating: 3.5/5 atoms
The End of Oak Street hits theaters on August 14th.
