The End Of Oak Street tries too hard to be like Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park but makes one mistake. More thoughts on that below. 

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“Oh, Mr Arnold” Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler sighs in relief as an arm lands on her shoulder after an intense escape from a velociraptor. Unfortunately, she soon finds out it’s nothing but disembodied arm. Mr Arnold has become dinosaur food. 

This is perhaps the most obvious example of how Steven Spielberg managed to push the PG-13 rating to its limit with Jurassic Park. Kids, including this writer, were disgusted and thrilled in equal measure as dinosaurs roamed free, devouring the greedy humans who brought them back to life. You can’t necessarily describe the dino classic as gory, but it’s certainly intense. 

David Robert Mitchell’s The End Of Oak Street is the latest film to riff on Spielberg’s style and tone. The film is desperate to be the new Jurassic Park, but it gets one crucial thing wrong: the violence. 

Credit: Warner Bros.

For decades, filmmakers have proved that you don’t need an R rating to create a good, effective film, whether it’s horror, sci-fi, adventure or anything else. Sam Raimi, Gore Verbinski and James Wan are just a few of the filmmakers that have scared the socks off us while also ensuring younger viewers can experience those same thrills. Best case scenario? Films like The Mummy, The Ring and Insidious might have ignited a lifelong interest in movies that aim to terrify you (though, admittedly, the two filmslatter were rated 15 in the UK).

The End Of Oak Street wants to cook up that Spielbergian cocktail of whimsy and terror into a similarly entertaining mix, but making a film about dinosaurs eating people PG-13 takes some care and planning.

It was Spielberg’s Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom that essentially created the PG-13 rating. At the time of its release, in 1984, the PG-13 rating didn’t exist, so the film was rated PG, implying that there would only be brief comic or realistic violence.

This is the film where people eat monkey brains, a man is stabbed with a shish kebab and someone’s heart is ripped from their chest before they burn to death in a pit of lava. You can imagine how well that went. The UK trimmed some of the more graphic scenes in order for the film to get a PG rating for its initial cinema release. Similarly, Joe Dante’s Gremlins caused similar complaints for its goofy, but graphic violence. 

The PG-13 rating officially came into effect in July 1984, the rating making it possible for filmmakers to pursue a little more violence before getting the feared R rating. 

According to today’s terms, for a film to receive a PG-13 rating, its violence “may have some realism to it or there may be frequent scenes of violence, but generally, violence will not be both realistic and pervasive or extreme.” On top of that, the violence “may include some blood but there is little to no lingering details. May contain some stronger scenes of violence but such scenes are infrequent.” 

I suppose no violence featuring feathered velociraptors is particularly realistic, but in a film like The End Of Oak Street, it’s relatively frequent, which is what you want from a film like this. People rarely buy a ticket for a dinosaur movie for the themes of family and coming together, but for the dinosaur action. Here, that action rarely involves any blood and it seldom manages to find a way to replace that blood with something else to get the same effect. 

People get attacked by dinosaurs, sure, but there’s a distinct feel that every one of these scenes has been envisioned in its full gory glory and only then figured out how to make that action PG-13 friendly. The gory action on screen might be blocked by a plank of wood used to board the family’s house or maybe a dinosaur simply swallows someone and is done with it, no chewing necessary. 

It’s not like we need to see the T-Rex use a femur as a toothpick or slurp someone’s intestines like oysters, but a little more effectiveness would go a long way in making The End Of Oak Street, a film that dedicates impressively little effort in making any kind of sense, a more memorable experience. 

In a more effective scene, Anne Hathaway’s Denise and Ewan McGregor’s Greg watch as one of their neighbours is dined on and we rarely see much of that action, but we do see the effect of it on Denise and Greg’s faces. They watch in horror as someone they’ve known for years is turned into a sharing platter for prehistoric creatures. 

It’s a trick Mitchell repeats often, soon revealing that he has few other cards up his sleeve. It works a few times, but soon, you’re left wanting more variety.

The End Of Oak Street seemingly refuses to work with the cards it’s been dealt. There’s a distinct sense while watching Mitchell’s film that there’s a better version of this somewhere. One that’s a little more uncompromising, more successful than the more recent Jurassic World adventures that also struggled to hit those same highs as the franchise’s starting points. 

The End Of Oak Street isn’t a terrible film if you’re willing to overlook its blatant plot holes, but it was always going to face harsh comparisons to Steven Spielberg’s classics, especially since it so desperately chases that same tone and style. It would have been better off doing something original and pushing a few more boundaries. 

The End Of Oak Street is in cinemas now.

The End Of Oak Street is now in cinemas.