It is, without question, an intriguing concept. The new film Brightburn is essentially a ‘What if…?’ movie, posing the question what if Superman hadn’t been the hero he became? What if he came to earth in the belly of a spaceship and was discovered by a couple desperate for a child? And what if this child wasn’t the blessing he might seem?
Brightburn is written by Brian Gunn, brother of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s James Gunn, and Mark Gunn, a cousin in the same clan. In the director’s chair is David Yarovesky, who served as director of the Belko Experiment video game and is perhaps best known in horror circles as the director of The Hive. Elizabeth Banks and David Denman assume the roles of our couple at the center of the film, Tori and Kyle Breyer. As you can tell, this feels like the James Gunn family home videos with all the relatives and returning friends – Banks from Slither and we even get a MIchael Rooker cameo!
The central conflict of the film is also the film’s conceit – what if Superman came to earth as a child, only once he hit puberty, the superheroic kaka hit the fan? Brandon, the space child in question as played by Jackson A. Dunn, is essentially a good kid when first we encounter him and his hippie-ish mother Tori and farmer Kyle. It’s the perfect family. Until the spaceship Brandon arrived in begins whispering to him in a foreign tongue. Oh, and there’s the matter of Brandon’s newfound superstrength and apparent inability to be harmed. When his darker impulses come to the surface, who could possibly stop an adolescent run wild when he’s unstoppable?
Because of its premise, Brightburn can’t help but be enjoyable on some level. The thought experiment of seeing an evil Superman create chaos and destruction is enjoyable splayed on the big screen, and Brightburn boasts some surprisingly gruesome moments, these apparently trimmed for the UK release. The whole tone, in fact, is one of oppression and grim inevitability. It is the antithesis of the fun summer blockbuster, a relentlessly dark movie that holds little hope for the viewer. The color palette is likewise dull, and lends to the overall sense of dread.
Unfortunately, the characters are thin, and in the case of Denman’s Kyle, there is so much more hinted at, a really intriguing discussion of the relationship between adoptive parents and their children, but Brightburn is not concerned with being a terribly sophisticated or deep movie. It is, when considered outside the superhero trappings, just a slasher film with a child as the villain. The Bad Seed or The Omen inform this movie as much as Superman, and when the appropriately creepy Brandon begins letting his superfreak flag fly, it’s far more the tale of a child run amok than a spin on a superhero movie. I wish it had been more clever with its use of the superhero tropes, but that lack of originality or playfulness with the subject matter is another source if dissatisfaction with the film.
It’s not an entirely bad movie, it simply feels lightweight. Banks is good in the role of devoted mother, and some of the more horrific scenes produce some jump scares and a few moments of shock at how grim this film is willing to get. Still, these seem the best tricks up Brightburn‘s sleeve, and gore alone can’t drive a horror film. It’s not particularly fun, not well-written enough to be remarkable for its characters or creativity, it’s simple an acceptable piece of horror entertainment that will best be remembered for a few scenes of intense violence. If you’re looking for a movie to watch on a hot summer day in the cool of a theater, you can do worse than Brightburn, but you can probably do a whole lot better, too.