Sunday, October 19, 2025

Brightburn

Movie Name:
Brightburn
Year of Release: 2019
Director: David Yarovesky
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Emmie Hunter, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Jennifer Holland, Gregory Alan Williams, Annie Humphrey, Terence Rosemore, Becky Wahlstrom, Michael Rooker
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 4
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review
David Yarovesky made a name for himself directing music videos before turning his attention to feature films. "Brightburn" is his sophomore directorial effort, and is written by Brian and Mark Gunn, and produced by James Gunn (the writer/producer/director of "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Slither", "Suicide Squad", and more recently, "Superman"). The film follows the story of the Breyer family. Originally composed of Tori and Kyle, they soon are joined by a little boy that as we find out, is adopted. They raise the young boy since he's an infant, and by the time he's in junior high, he's a kind and thoughtful young man, who is also quite intelligent. However something Tori and Kyle has in their barn starts emanating vibrations and waking young Brandon. Brandon also starts changing his personality, as he also realizes there's something quite different about himself. He realizes he's super strong, invulnerable to pain, can fly, and even shoot powerful beams of light from his eyes. He keeps this from his parents, but his behavior starts becoming more menacing, firstly hurting a girl who defended him at school, followed by killing her mother. Kyle starts suspecting there's something wrong going on with Brandon, and expresses his concerns to Tori. She refuses to believe him, even as Brandon becomes violent towards Kyle. When a fatal event occurs that touches upon their family, Tori and Kyle have to confront the fact that Brandon may not be the young boy they thought he was. 
There's something quite interesting about the premise of "Brighburn": the antithesis of Superman/Clark Kent. Whereas the Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel character is all about an alien that comes to Earth to make it a better place for all humans, the central character of "Brightburn" wants to dominate the human race, enslave them. Both Tori and Kyle (who are the counterparts of Martha and Jonathan Kent), are the nesting parents for the "cuckoo" who eventually kills them. This dark tale is an interesting one, though the script doesn't provide much nuance to the characters, their relationships, or even for the progression that turns Brandon from the thoughtful individual he was, to a psychopath that obliterates everything in sight. This aspect of the script development is what deflates the power of the film itself: there's more interest in showing the grotesqueness and monstrosity of Brandon's deranged actions, more so than trying to illustrate his transition to such a violent behavior (particularly towards his parents, who were always doting and loving). By playing loose with behaviors and aiming to get to the gratuitous violence, the film and the story loses much of its soul and impact. The cast tries their best with the characters they have, with the greatly underrated Elizabeth Banks and the always solid David Denman making a great couple (they have great chemistry and believability as a married couple), whereas Jackson A. Dunn fairs better as the kind Brandon, more so than the menacing one. The production team is solid with the visual effects being fairly rendered considering the modest budget of the film. It promised a lot more than it delivered, but it's still watchable.

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