IN one of the later Superman reboots, a government official asks a question of the Man of Steel: “What if he was a bad guy?”
This question clearly piqued the interest of Guardians of the Galaxy’s director James Gunn, who produces this David Yarovesky film about that very theoretical problem.
Brightburn is a superhero horror movie that doesn’t always hit it’s mark, but carries enough intrigue and gives just enough scares to warrant a visit.
In the opening scenes we see Kansas dwellers Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman), a newly married couple struggling to conceive (not literally). A montage shows their prayers answered in the form of a son named Brandon. However, as we progress we find out Brandon was not adopted, but found in a meteorite/spaceship that is now locked away in the family barn. Told you it was like Superman…
All seems fine up until the point of puberty, when the spaceship starts throbbing red and, like an extremely over-friendly email from a stranger, “reaches out” to Brandon. Brightburn is with us, and he most certainly doesn’t wear his pants on the outside, instead choosing to kill every single person in his way.
You know what, it’s pretty good. Much like Child’s Play this week — it tends to rely too much on jump scares and some extremely gory special effects, but as a decent-ish horror that moody teenagers will be all over like a rash (Brightburn’s outfit was seemingly designed to be copied at every comic-con across the globe), it serves its purpose well.
If, like the end-credit scenes suggest, there’s an attempt to build a universe out of these deadly villains, I’m kinda down with that.
