Remember that wholesome story about the alien baby who crashed on Earth and grew up to be a shining beacon of hope? Well, forget it. That’s for simpletons. This is the movie for the rest of us who always suspected that if a super-powered toddler landed on a Kansas farm, he’d probably grow up to be a murderous little sociopath. In a twist on the classic origin story, the struggling Breyer couple gets their miracle baby from the stars, only to realize their bundle of joy is actually a harbinger of doom with glowing red eyes and a deeply unsettling fashion sense.
Brightburn is a dark, R-rated horror flick that swaps capes for gore and wholesome values for bloody mayhem. It’s directed by David Yarovesky, but let’s be honest, everyone’s talking about producer James Gunn. If you’ve been waiting for a superhero movie where the “hero” brutally murders people for minor slights and leaves behind a creepy crop circle meets fraternity symbol, then get ready. Just don’t expect any deep, thoughtful character studies. This kid is evil because… well, because his spaceship told him to be. It’s a 90-minute reminder that sometimes, what you wish for is a total nightmare.
Review by Ben Dover
I went into Brightburn hoping for something that would finally give this ridiculous superhero craze a swift, violent kick in the pants. Did I get it? Mostly. The premise is fantastic: take the most famous origin story in comics, strip out all the “truth, justice, and the American way” drivel, and replace it with good old-fashioned horror. The whole “What if Superman was a monster?” idea is a winner, and for a good forty minutes, this movie had me grinning like a fool. It’s got a great nasty streak, especially in the kill scenes. One poor sap gets a shard of glass in the eye, and the director practically sets up a spotlight to make sure you see every gruesome, eye-squishy detail. Good for them! The kids today need to see some real violence, not that antiseptic CGI garbage.
But then, the movie starts tripping over its own feet. The characters are stupider than a box of rocks. The mother, Tori Breyer, is in such deep denial about her clearly psychopathic child—who, I might add, kills their chickens first—that it stretches belief. I get that a mother’s love is blind, but this woman is willfully ignoring the flaming wreckage of a car accident caused by her son! What did they raise him on, a steady diet of participation trophies and excuses? The dad, Kyle, figures it out pretty quickly and decides the only logical step is to take the super-powered alien to the woods and try to kill him with a deer rifle. Seriously? This kid can fly and is bulletproof, and you bring a hunting rifle? The sheer lack of common sense is an insult to my intelligence, and I’m 60 years old.
The biggest crime here is the wasted potential. They set up this great idea, and then they play it safe by making it a standard “evil kid” horror movie. Why is he evil? Because his spaceship told him so. That’s it. No internal struggle, no complex descent into madness, just “Must. Take. World.” It’s a plot that’s as thin as a slice of deli turkey. (It’s also the base premise of Gunn’s 2025 Superman take) I wanted a subversive comic book movie, and I got a predictable splatter film with a red cape. It’s like they were too scared to actually write a character, so they just gave him a spooky mask and let him fly around smashing things.
Having said all that, the final twenty minutes are worth the price of admission if you like your endings dark and decisive. There’s no last-minute redemption, no talking the psycho kid down. He just finishes the job and sets up a nice little news report montage that hints at a whole universe of super-freaks out there, including what looks like an evil Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Of course, they had to throw in a sequel tease, because nothing is sacred anymore. But the movie wraps up its central story with a punch, which is more than I can say for most of the bloated, three-hour epics the youngsters line up for nowadays. It’s a fun B-movie, but it’s not the smart satire it desperately wanted to be.
Cast
- Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon Breyer / Brightburn: The alien boy with all the powers of Superman but the demeanor of a disgruntled middle-schooler who just discovered the word “edgy.” He was good, which is rare for a child actor. Too many of them look like they’re reading the lines off the director’s forehead.
- Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer: The adoptive mother who treats her flying, laser-eyed son like he just needs a time-out. Banks plays the maternal denial well, right up until the point where she becomes a human paperweight.
- David Denman as Kyle Breyer: The adoptive father who is the only adult in the county with a lick of sense. He figures out the kid is a menace and tries to stop him, bless his heart. His attempt is pitifully misguided, but you have to admire the effort.
- Matt Jones as Noah McNichol: Kyle’s brother and the ill-fated uncle. He’s just there to be flipped around in a truck like a tiny toy car.
- Meredith Hagner as Merilee McNichol: Noah’s wife and Brandon’s school counselor who makes the fatal mistake of trying to “connect” with a space demon.
Casting Note: We also get the great Gunn cast that includes Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, and of course a little Michael Rooker, because what’s a Gunn joint without the whole family.
Special Effects and Music
The special effects are shockingly decent for a movie that didn’t cost as much as one of Robert Downey Jr.’s pinky rings. The heat vision is great—a nasty, focused beam that looks like it hurts. When the kid flies, it’s suitably menacing, like a demonic blur, not a big blue boy scout floating gently. The gory scenes are the real stars here, though. The practical effects work on the victims, especially the jaw and the eye injuries, are gruesome and realistic. It’s the kind of stuff that makes the popcorn taste a little metallic.
As for the music, it’s got the usual spooky horror score, but the best part is easily the end credits. They throw on Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy”—the ultimate anthem for today’s moody, unwashed youth. It was actually a perfect choice, and I’ll begrudgingly admit it. It’s the only thing in the movie that felt genuinely clever about the modern teenage psyche, which I still don’t understand one bit. Why can’t they just listen to some nice, loud Creedence Clearwater Revival like I do?
Rating
4 / 5 Stars
It’s nasty fun, but it’s still just a B-movie with an A-list premise.
Complete Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
In 2006, Tori and Kyle Breyer, a couple living on a farm in Brightburn, Kansas, are desperate to have a child. Their wish is granted in the most bizarre way when a small spacecraft crashes onto their property, carrying a baby boy whom they adopt and name Brandon. They hide the spaceship in a locked cellar beneath their barn and tell Brandon he was adopted.
Fast forward twelve years, and Brandon is a quiet, exceptionally intelligent, but awkward preteen. He begins to hear a humming in his head which draws him to the barn and his hidden spaceship. As he touches the ship, a red light pulses, and his powers begin to manifest: super strength, invulnerability, and flight. The ship’s influence seems to be overriding his human upbringing, implanting a singular, sinister directive: “Take the world.” He starts by killing the family’s chickens and drawing a creepy symbol everywhere.
His descent into villainy quickens when a classmate, Caitlyn, calls him a pervert after he spooks her. In a fit of rage during a P.E. trust exercise, he crushes her hand. When Caitlyn’s mother, Erika, confronts Tori and Kyle at the school, demanding Brandon be arrested, Brandon decides to retaliate. He stalks Erika at a diner, putting on a makeshift cape and mask, and murders her in a brutally bloody fashion, leaving his symbol at the scene.
Brandon’s uncle, Noah, becomes suspicious and tells Kyle he’s worried. Brandon intercepts Noah on a lonely road, using his super strength to lift Noah’s truck and drop it repeatedly, killing him and making it look like a tragic accident. Tori tries to believe her son is innocent, clinging to the idea that he is a “gift,” while Kyle, recognizing the monster his son has become, finds Brandon’s blood-stained shirt and knows the truth. Kyle takes Brandon hunting, pretending it’s a father-son trip, but attempts to shoot him in the back of the head. The bullet harmlessly ricochets, and Brandon uses his heat vision to kill Kyle instantly.
The local Sheriff’s Deputy, an acquaintance of the family, shows Tori the symbol found at the crime scenes, matching the one Brandon drew repeatedly. Finally accepting the horrifying truth, Tori goes to the barn, retrieves a sharp shard from the wreckage of the spaceship (the only material known to be able to cut him), and confronts Brandon. She tries to appeal to his humanity, but Brandon is too far gone. He flies her high into the sky, telling her he loves her, before dropping her to her death. He then destroys the farmhouse, using his flight to direct a passing passenger plane to crash directly into the home, incinerating the evidence and making himself look like the sole, miraculously unharmed survivor of a terrible “accident.” The final scene of the film shows Brandon continuing his reign of terror as a fully realized super-villain, now known publicly as “Brightburn,” as news reports highlight his continued destructive acts across the globe.
Famous Quotes from the Movie
- “Shikaro larem olen. Shikaro larem olen. Shikaro… ‘Shikaro’ means take. Take… the… Take the world.”
- “I’m his real mother!”
- “He’s not our son!”
- “Whatever you’ve done, I know there is good inside you!”
- “Do you even know who his real mother is? I meant whatever inbred psycho gave birth to him.”
Interesting Facts and Notes
- Gunn Family Production: The film was produced by James Gunn (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame), and the screenplay was written by his brother, Brian Gunn, and cousin, Mark Gunn. It’s like a twisted family reunion project.
- The Superman Homage: The whole movie is a direct, dark inversion of Superman’s origin story, right down to the childless farm couple in Kansas and the alien ship being hidden in a barn. The final costume is a nasty take on the classic hero uniform.
- The Crimson Bolt Cameo: In the post-credits sequence featuring Michael Rooker’s character, there is a subtle nod to James Gunn’s earlier film, Super (2010), by referencing the vigilante character, “The Crimson Bolt.”
- Lois Lane Echo: Brandon’s classmate, Caitlyn, is seen working on an essay titled “The Decline of Truth and Justice in the Modern World,” which is a clear, if heavy-handed, nod to Superman’s love interest, Lois Lane, a writer for the Daily Planet.
- Darbo’s Family Grill: The diner where Brandon brutally kills Erika is named “Darbo’s Family Grill,” another Easter Egg reference to the main character, Frank Darbo, from James Gunn’s film Super.
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