Film Review: Brightburn

We all know the story. Spaceship crashes near a farmhouse outside of a small Kansas town. A couple investigates. They find a baby boy. The boy learns of his special abilities, great powers. The couple nurture him to be the very best he can be. It’s a tale as old as…well, 1938, but the point stands that Superman’s origin has long been a part of the pop culture fabric informing media for over 80 years now. Brightburn takes that well known story, and takes a rather hard left turn with it courtesy of writers Mark and Brian Gunn, director, David Yarovesky, and producer, James Gunn.

The baby boy discovered by Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, respectively) on that fateful night grows into Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn). A seemingly normal pre-teen boy going through the awkward phase every kid deals with when they have strange thoughts, feelings, and urges, as well as changes in their bodies that they don’t fully understand. Except in Brandon’s case, it’s the fact that he has superpowers. Unfortunately, teen angst isn’t the only thing his parents have to deal with, it’s the fact that voices from the spaceship that brought him to Earth begins speaking to him, pushing him into a state that makes him a force of evil.

It’s a classic example of a high concept film, a very easy to explain premise that gives you a clear idea of what kind of movie you will be watching. What if Superman was a slasher villain? The simplicity is easily the film’s greatest asset, but it can also be considered a weakness for anyone who might be hoping for a more thoughtful and intricate superhero subversion. Not to mention the implication of this approach considering Superman has largely been seen as the ultimate immigrant story. This film isn’t aiming particularly high, it’s a total, unabashed B-movie, like a lost 80s genre film you’d sit and watch with your friends on VHS, or even perhaps – to a lesser degree – a Twilight Zone episode.

So, as far as being a superpowered slasher, it’s not bad at all. The suspense is fairly well done, Yarovesky cleverly utilizes and subverts the visual language we associate with Superman, the kills are gnarly as all hell, and it knows to get in and out fast, keeping its runtime at a clean 90 minutes. What also helps is that the performances are rock solid through and through. Dunn does a good job at selling his shift from well-mannered to sociopathic to startling effect. The real standout is Banks as the mother, who is desperate to make things work, and to keep her child safe, initially thinking she could set him right. She puts in so much empathy and sorrow and pain into what was probably a simplistic character on the page, and really brought her to life. It doesn’t play too much into it, but it does explore the idea of the nightmare that I’m sure many parents experience where they wonder how they would react if their kids turn out to be monsters. Banks’ performance leans on that thematic element really hard, and it gives the film some semblance of emotional complexity. Everyone else is good, but they are very much leaning in on their types.

So…yeah, Brightburn, it delivers exactly what it promises, and if you expect anything more than that, you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. As a genre exercise, it totally works in all the ways that it needs to. It is ultimately thin and one-note, but it is, at the very least, a fun note. It’s delightfully mean-spirited, incredibly vicious, and just playful enough to not leave a sour taste in your mouth from all the grisliness. If we’re going to keep seeing superheros dominate the mainstream cinematic landscape, it’s good to know that filmmakers are trying to explore different avenues, techniques, and even genres to tell these kinds of stories. Brightburn definitely isn’t for everyone, but I had fun with it.