Among upcoming horror movies on the 2026 movie schedule is a mysterious one called The End Of Oak Street. For much of the year, I’ve been curious about what to expect from the J.J. Abrams-produced thriller, and now I have a much better idea. It’s a dinosaur movie with a twist – they’re somehow invading a typical American suburb.
CinemaBlend had the opportunity to experience fourteen minutes of The End Of Oak Street in 4DX and hear from producer J.J. Abrams. It’s about a nuclear family with a dog led by Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway (in her fourth of five movies this year alone). They live in a quiet suburb, but one morning there’s a number of dinosaur sightings that rattle them enough to attempt to leave home. The problem is at the end of their street now has a cliff that leads to a prehistoric land. Here’s what Abrams said of how he got involved:
When I was reading it, it felt like it had a little bit of that Amblin vibe, for sure. I mean the era, the family. It weirdly had almost a bit more in common with Poltergeist, frankly, than any of the other films, which is one of my favorites. And, it had this sense of absolute wonderful characters, a really incredible sense of humor, and this great sense [that] you’d wanna see it if it weren’t a genre film.
There’s absolutely a mystery afoot in The End Of Oak Street. But, when Abrams mentioned an “Amblin vibe” I was expecting a lot more comparisons to Jurassic Park than to Poltergeist. Between his comments and the footage we watched, I totally see what he’s saying.
This new summer flick and the actually cursed 1982 Spielberg movie feel like they come from the same DNA. Why? Because, it’s really more about the family and their dynamics than the creatures they are trying to survive. As Abrams put it:
The thing that I love the most is that, when you see movies with dinosaurs, you kinda think, ‘well, that’s gonna be just a monster movie’. This is a people movie with monsters in it.
The End Of Oak Street was written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, who was previously behind It Follows and Under The Silver Lake. In the same conversation, the filmmaker talked about wanting to connect “the average and mundane” with something fantastical. And, he had always wanted to make a dinosaur movie. In a quick interview with him at the event, I had to ask how much of his horror sensibilities to expect in the family-centered film. He said this:
There are certainly moments of horror with Oak. It moves through a range in terms of a tone and genre in terms of what it feels like, but there are absolutely some serious moments of suspense and mystery and genuine terror.
How exciting! The End Of Oak Street may very much be a dinosaur movie, but it’s drawing from much different influences than I expected. And, that only has me more interested in it. The End Of Oak Street comes to theaters on August 14.
