David Robert Mitchell | Bouquets & Brickbats

18/08/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

I know, I know, the Edinburgh Fringe is in full swing, we’ve got umpteen shows to review and cinema is supposed to be taking a back seat for a while… but…

Well, I was a big fan of director David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 horror, It Follows – and I also know that a sequel, They Follow, is currently in the works. But The End of Oak Street, a mega-budget extravaganza featuring dinosaurs, has been quietly dropped into the multiplexes with hardly any fanfare at all and I’m intrigued. Because this is the last thing I would have expected from a director who seems previously to have worked on low-budget indie films.

It’s 1982 and the Platt family are living in a suburb that looks like it’s been inspired by a Steven Spielberg dream. Dutiful Mom Denise (Anne Hathaway) works hard looking after the family and secretly harbours desires of being an author. She spends hours toiling away on her novel down in the basement. Dad Greg (Ewan McGregor) can’t seem to find regular employment and works part-time as a pizza-delivery man, mostly to fuel his drink problem. Daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella) can’t make friends at school and son Brian (Christian Convery) is developing into a bit of a tearaway.

And then, one fateful night, their neighbourhood is suddenly transported millions of years into the past and, when they wake up, the electricity and water have been turned off and the house is surrounded by dinosaurs…

Yes, I know. Stay with me.

Now, the familiar images of screen dinosaurs have been established since the earliest days of cinema – you know: reptilian, smooth-skinned. And that concept was pretty much cemented in 1993’s Jurassic Park. These dinosaurs – when we finally get to see them – are different. They are feathery, hairy and, in some cases, very poopy. Ever watched that Spielberg classic and wondered why there’s never any sign of dino-poop? Well, in Oak Street, the first intimation we have of their presence is a great big steaming pile of the stuff in the Platts’ neighbours’ back garden. And it’s a good half hour before we actually see one of the beasts properly. But I quite like the gradual way they are introduced; it somehow makes them more threatening.

However, once they are in the story, the film becomes problematic. Mitchell has opted for a kid-friendly 12A certificate, but some of the dino-kills here are pretty gnarly, meaning that the camera is obliged to cut quickly away from the chomping and chewing. The effect of this is that the carnage will probably still induce nightmares in younger kids, who have been brought along to this by their well-meaning parents, but will fail to satiate the teenage thrill-seekers who will be shouting for more bloodshed.

Hathaway really sells the premise of the film, putting everything into her role, but McGregor occasionally looks a bit dazed as though he’s wondering how his agent ever got him into this mess. However, I cannot deny that some of the chases are thrilling and one scene in particular – where a giant snake-like creature invades the family home – is a real high point. In the movie’s final third, I am genuinely shocked by one incident which appears to break that unwritten law that lead characters cannot be killed – but then the script impudently undoes the damage in a have-your-cake-and-eat-it twist. Hmm.

All-in-all, I’m glad I’ve seen The End of Oak Street (though I still think that title fails to sell the movie’s premise) but ,for a variety of reasons, it falls somewhat short of that all-important four stars. But kudos to David Robert Mitchell, who at least has the guts to give this well-trodden genre a thorough reinvention.

3. 8 stars

Philip Caveney

01/03/15

The horror movie genre has been in a sorry state for some time now, lost in a welter of found-footage shaky-cam cliches that neither surprise nor scare the viewer – so it’s heartening to witness what feels like the beginning of a new wave of scare movies that offer something a bit more original. First up was Jennifer Kent’s antipodean frightener, The Babadook, which delivered a well needed kick to the ailing beast. Now comes It Follows, a film that despite owing a massive debt to the work of John Carpenter, nonetheless offers an interesting new direction, one that manages to generate genuine dread throughout the film’s duration.

Jay (Maika Monroe) is the unfortunate teenager who after indulging in a little casual sex with Hugh (Jake Weary) is rather bluntly informed that she has now inherited the unwelcome attentions of a shapeshifting creature that will pursue her (luckily it only moves slowly) and will kill her unless she first has sex with somebody else, thereby diverting the creature’s attentions to the new partner. The creature, which comes in a whole variety of guises, from an old lady to a urinating teenager, is only visible to those who are being hunted by it.

You could look at this film as an allegory about STDs and you could also criticise its rather protestant approach to promiscuity (something else it has in common with Carpenter – in Halloween, the sexually active girls are murdered by Michael Myers, whilst virginal Jaime Lee Curtis survives) but what you won’t be able to deny is that David Robert Mitchell’s adept handling of the material wracks up almost unbearable levels of tension. The comparisons with early John Carpenter don’t stop there – the gliding steadicam shots along suburban streets evoke the semi-legendary setting of Haddonfield, while the wiry synthesised score also recalls that director at the height of his powers. It’s hard to believe that this is accidental, more likely a homage.

But while it wears its influences on its sleeve, I don’t want to deny Robert Mitchell’s undoubted skill at creating something refreshingly original in the world of horror. This is unsettling stuff that will make you feel very uncomfortable and that, after all, is the name of the game.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney