Brightburn Review

The “what if Superman was evil?” plotline that the superhero/horror film hybrid Brightburn entertains is far from an original premise, though it is one that hosts an inconceivable amount of possibilities. Unfortunately, the story that writers Brian and Mark Gunn have conjured refuses to pursue a complex narrative, instead favouring one that feels uninspired, quickly becoming linear and small in scope. Brightburn abandons any efforts to give an origin or explanation to its villain, nor does it give any development to the films frustratingly inept characters, resulting in a predictable movie that resorts to gory horror spectacles to fill much of its shallow 91-minute runtime.

Brightburn follows the Breyer’s in the town of Brightburn, Kansas. After struggling for years to conceive a child, Tori and Kyle Breyer thought that they would never be able to start a family. However, their lives change when a mysterious spaceship crashes on their farm. When the Breyer’s investigate the crash and discover a small baby boy, they decide to adopt the child and raise him as their own, naming him Brandon. Twelve years later, the Breyer’s live their seemingly normal lives. But Brandon begins to realize that he is not like everyone else, discovering that he possesses superhuman powers and evil tendencies.

Brightburn is predominantly a horror film, and therefore borrows many classic tropes from the genre. None of which are more apparent than characters doing idiotic and unexplainable things for the convenience of the plot. But the characters of Brightburn often transcend clueless and unsympathetic emotions, police take their time and feel completely uninvolved, while Tori and Kyle constantly forgive and find excuses not to blame Brandon, despite already knowing that he’s not from Earth. Potent moments of a mother struggling to admit that her son is a sinister being from another planet fall flat due to how painfully oblivious Tori is to each sign of Brandon’s increasingly erratic and bizarre behaviour. Perhaps the stupidity of everyone in Brightburn would be more entertaining if any of it was well acted, but the performances that are given are both lazy and infuriating.

Much of the entertainment in Brightburn resides in its special effects, horror fans will enjoy the gruesome deaths that happen throughout the film, all of which are complimented with grotesque CGI that dares the audience to keep watching. Director David Yarovesky also does his part by making each scene visually engaging with his use of wide shots and slow pans.

The execution in filmmaking is not where Brightburn goes wrong, it’s the films incredibly bland story and excruciating characters reinforced by bad acting that makes it unforgivable. There’s enough destruction to distract the viewer during a first viewing, but Brightburn quickly becomes forgettable.

Unlikable characters with a dull and predictable story makes Brightburn an uninspired mess.

Produced By: Screen Gems
Runtime: 91 minutes
Rating: R