Brightburn movie
- Year: 2019.
- Director: David Yarovesky.
- Writer: Mark Gunn, Brian Gunn.
- Producer: James Gunn, Kenneth Huang.
“Take the world,” say voices from the spaceship. Thus begins a superhero movie with a horror twist, and vice versa – horror with a superhero twist.
Brightburn movie background: the Superman story
We all know the Superman story. A mysterious child, who no one knows where it came from, finds a married couple who cannot have their own children. They decide to foster the child and tell everyone it’s theirs. As the boy grows up it becomes clear that this is not an ordinary boy, but a very special child with alien abilities. In the end, the boy, now a super man, fully reveals his powers and origins and becomes a well-known hero who subordinates his life to saving humanity.
But what if the story went in the other direction?
What if a boy with incredible abilities decided to use his powers for another goal, completely contrary to saving the world? What if the son of Krypton was actually evil and there was no good Clark Kent to confront him. It is a question that, distorting the mythology of the Man of Steel, sets up the superhero horror movie Brightburn, which is produced by director James Gunn (Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2) and directed by David Yaroveski (The Hive).
Brightburn tells a story of a boy who did not become a superhero, but a terrible force of evil.
Brightburn movie synopsis
After a difficult battle with infertility, Tori’s dream of motherhood is realized by the arrival of a mysterious baby boy. Brandon seems to be all that Tori and her husband Kyle ever wanted – smart, talented, curious about discovering the world. But they quickly realize that their greatest gift is in fact a curse, for themselves and for the whole country. Brandon, seeking answers to questions about himself because he has always felt different, growing up reveals his incredible abilities as well as how to use them. But his incredible abilities, is not for the benefit of humanity.
As Brandon approaches puberty, an evil force awakens within him, and Tori becomes horrified by the terrible doubts about her son. A miraculous child turns into a wicked predator. Although in danger herself, Brandon’s mother, Tori, does not give up on the pursuit of the good in him because, despite everything, he is still her son.
Brightburn review
Brightburn is not the first superhero horror in history (think Darkman, Constantine, Ghost Rider, Hellboy, Chronicles), but so far it’s the first to do a sombre twist on Superman turning the superhero protagonist into an antagonist, from the saviour of humanity into the potential destroyer of it.
He is also the most brutal, especially when compared to last year’s synthetic ‘Venom’ as ‘anti-spidey’. The concept of the movie came from a screenplay by Brian and Mark Gunn that mixes two Richard Donner classics (Superman and Omen), forming something that looks to be a maniacal Damien Thorn dressed in a superhero cloak with super abilities.
The theme of the movie works great. The subversion of the superhero and superhero genre makes Brightburn quite intriguing. There are many parallels between Superman and Brightburn, but Brightburn’s grotesque inversion of Superman also makes it quite frightening. The film starts out slow, though it does create some slight tension, while building intimacy between the characters and explaining their background stories. The moment when Brandon becomes aware of his powers, all hell breaks loose and does not stop until the very end. The killings are brutal yet fun enough that you can’t turn your head away. And to be expected, there is also a ‘jump scare’ scene.
Although superheroes are usually kid-friendly, we should point out that kids should by no means see Brightburn because of the few truly gruesome, even excessive scenes of inhumane violence. This is a horribly sinister, pessimistic and subversive view of the superhero genre that can be seen as the culmination of Gunn’s dark period.
Brightburn review of casting, music and visual effects
The music is creepy and has a lot of impact on the film’s tension. For the most part, the film is very tense, and only at a few moments does some calmer music emerge. Compliments to Timothy Williams for the musical score.
Given that Brightburn had a budget of $6 million, the visual effects are quite satisfactory. Much of the film looks quite decent, especially the brutal, creepy and interesting scenes associated with the young anti-Superman. The movie is visually not Avengers: Infinity War, but it is definitely not some C production. Solid work given his budget.
The cast is good. They are not some big, expensive paid actors, but they did their job quite well. Lead actor Jackson A. Dunn, who embodied Brandon Breyer did very well in scenes where he had to act like a complete lunatic, but also in which he was an innocent 12-year-old. The mother and father, Tori Breyer (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle Breyer (David Denman), are more convincing in the film and their intimacy, love and concern for the boy are felt very well. All the other actors are quite solid.
Brightburn review of character development
Unfortunately, the psychological transformation from a dear ordinary little boy into a dark villain, with all the possible reasons that could have triggered this, is portrayed quite superficially. It would have been more interesting if there had been more fracturing and turmoil between the sense of humanity he learnt and his psychopathic leanings that allow him to coldly study the anatomy of the person he killed.
Changes in Brandon’s mood and manifestation of power are attributed to puberty, much like in Spider-Man. The movie is typified by parental fears about raising a child, especially today when many over-worked mothers and fathers barely know who their children are (or who they have become). Fears that, regardless of the parental love provided, may result in a beloved child who ends up slipping to this or that dark side.
“You will always be my boyfriend,” the mother Tori said, often emphasizing her son’s uniqueness and special qualities, of which he would soon become aware. “I know I’m something else, something superior,” Brandon says, as his powers begin to grow, his eyes turn red, and he puts a simple but effective mask on his head that is sure to cause creepy tension.
The anti-superhero mask, by the way, is a creation of costume designer Autumn Steed, the wife of director Yaroveski. The aim was to create a horror mask as iconic as Freddy’s, Leatherface’s and Jason’s. The mask certainly gets some added weight as Brandon begins resemble a stereotypical possessed, demonic kid like we’ve seen in supernatural horrors including ‘Omen’, ‘Pet Sematary’ and more. As an antagonist, Brandon is like the Terminator. There are no maybes with him. He feels no regrets, no remorse.
Memorable Brightburn movie scenes
The treatment of some scenes in Brightburn are quite unique and have not been seen even in recent horror films, because where many directors make a cut, Yarovesky continues to shoot. Stand outs include the scene when Brandon attacks a waitress (Becky Wahlstrom), the mother of a classmate (Emmie Hunter), whose hand he crushed. When a shard of glass ends up in the waitress’s eye after a burst of lightning, it will make you writhe in your seat, as will her subjective bloody perspective. And that is nothing compared to the scene of a car accident where the injured bites the steering wheel.
Conclusion
In short, Brightburn is a great example of how an intelligent idea, even with a small budget, can create a good and original movie. It takes one very popular superhero theme and reworks it in a completely different way, resulting in a good horror movie and something not seen so far in this genre. The acting in the movie is mostly satisfying, the effects solid, and the horror and especially the brutality is at its peak. They did their best to make brutal killings that even Mortal Kombat would not be ashamed of.
IMDB gives Brightburn an average score of 6.1/10 while on Rotten Tomatoes it gets a fairly low critic score of 57% and audience score of 67%. So basically, don’t expect a masterpiece with Brightburn, but it is still a fun piece of entertainment to wile away a few hours.
Lastly, just a tip for parents – if your child throws a lawn mower at 100 meters, chews metal accessories and breaks the arms of his or her colleagues, you should get them assessed. They may not be who you think!
