{"id":3304,"date":"2026-08-21T22:39:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=3304"},"modified":"2026-08-21T22:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:39:49","slug":"the-end-of-oak-street-jurassic-park-meets-poltergeist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/the-end-of-oak-street-jurassic-park-meets-poltergeist\/","title":{"rendered":"“The End of Oak Street”: Jurassic Park Meets Poltergeist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I caught the new \u201cfantasy-disaster\u201d movie\u00a0The End of Oak Street<\/em>, the second one in a week. It echoes Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Last House<\/em>. Both feature cutesy nuclear families with well-behaved kids and put-upon parents. Both feature impossible scenarios involving some very unlikely natural or unnatural disasters happening to said \u201caverage\u201d American family.\u00a0Oak Street<\/em>\u00a0trumps\u00a0Last House<\/em>\u00a0in star billing: It features Ewan MacGregor and Anne Hathaway as the parents, an A-list cast if there ever was one. For my money Oak Street is quite a bit better, even if it\u2019s high implausible, to say the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Movie poster <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My thumbnail summation: It\u2019s like Jurassic<\/em> Park<\/em> meets Poltergeist<\/em>. Set in a middle-class suburb circa 1982, it features a family that resembles the cast of Poltergeist<\/em>, except there\u2019s no youngster who gets spirited into the TV to hang out with the \u201cTV people\u201d who happen to be ghosts. Jurassic<\/em> Park<\/em> because, well, unlikely as it may seem for 1982, there are dinosaurs. At times it seems a homage to the iconic suburban-set horror films of the 1980s like Poltergeist and Goonies, but once the dinos show up, it\u2019s Action-Adventure time. Ewan MacGregor plays the Dad well, being a bit down-on-his-luck and desperate, and Anne Hathaway plays his wife, a wannabe writer, who ends up playing the most important role in the drama. At some point one of the kids asks, \u201cIs this the end of the world?\u201d Answer is No. Not that inclusive. It\u2019s just the end of Oak Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s like\u00a0Jurassic\u00a0Park\u00a0meets\u00a0Poltergeist. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,8,13,284,1],"tags":[520],"class_list":["post-3304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-end-of-oak-street-film","category-booksfilm","category-cryptozoology","category-disaster-movies","category-uncategorized","tag-the-end-of-oak-street-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t