Brightburn

Brightburn is a 2019 American superhero horror film produced by James Gunn and Kenneth Huang. The film was directed by David Yarovesky and stars Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, and Meredith Hagner, and follows a young alien who lands on earth and realizes he has super powers. The film is produced and financed by Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films, Troll Court Entertainment, and The H Collective.

Brightburn was announced as Untitled James Gunn Horror Project in December 2017. Gunn acts as a producer on the film, with his brother Mark and cousin Brian Gunn writing the screenplay. Principal photography began in March 2018 and filming wrapped in May of that same year.

Brightburn was released in the United States on May 24, 2019, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the horror elements and Banks' performance, but felt the film did not fully deliver on its premise.

Plot
In 2006, Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) are a farm couple living in Brightburn, Kansas. The two are trying to have a child, but have failed to conceive due to infertility issues. One night, a spaceship falls from the sky near their farm with a baby boy inside. Upon finding him, the couple decide to adopt him as their own, naming him Brandon Breyer.

Twelve years later, Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) discovers that he has superhuman strength after strange voices in his head tell him to plunge his hand into an active lawnmower blade. That same night, Brandon sleepwalks to the farmhouse, trying to open a trapdoor which contains the spaceship he arrived in. Tori intervenes and wakes him, with Brandon appearing delirious.

After this, Brandon grows more disobedient and disrespectful towards Tori and Kyle. To his father's surprise, Brandon chews a fork with his own teeth, damaging it. Kyle begins to suspect that something has become wrong with Brandon.

While cleaning out Brandon’s room, Tori finds strange and disturbing drawings in his notebook, leading Kyle to talk with Brandon about puberty and girls. That night, Brandon goes to the house of his classmate Caitlyn (Emmie Hunter), staring at her through a window until she notices him. The next night, Kyle discovers that their chickens have been slaughtered. Tori suggests that it was a wolf attack, but Kyle insists that Brandon is responsible.

The next morning at school, students do a trust fall exercise, but Caitlyn does not catch Brandon, calling him a pervert for spying on her. Brandon breaks Caitlyn's hand in retaliation when she tries to pick him up under the orders of the gym teacher (Terence Rosemore). The school’s principal (Elizabeth Becka) suspends Brandon for two days, reporting to his aunt Merilee (Meredith Hagner) for counselling afterwards.

Later, Tori finds her son levitating above the open trapdoor containing the hidden spaceship, repeating the phrase "take the world" in an alien language. After finding him, Tori then reveals the truth to him about his birth, but despite her coaxing, Brandon leaves in a rage, unleashing laser eyes to let out his frustration.

Brandon visits Caitlyn, who tells him that her mother has forbidden her from talking to him. Furious, a masked Brandon murders her mother in the town’s diner. Merilee attempts counselling her nephew to no avail, only for Brandon to appear at her home unannounced to intimidate her when she threatens to call the police.

Merilee's husband Noah (Matt Jones) finds Brandon hiding in the closet and decides to tell his parents. Brandon dons his mask again and attacks Noah, killing him in his car when he tries to drive away.

Tori and Kyle learn of Noah's death and are alarmed when Brandon does not emotionally react to the news. As Kyle angrily grabs Brandon’s arm and accuses him of lying, Brandon violently propels Kyle into their kitchen wall. Unnerved and desperate for a solution, Kyle confronts Tori privately and blames Noah’s death on Brandon. Tori accuses Kyle of trying to assuage his guilt, for allowing Noah to drive after drinking, by blaming the accident on Brandon. Realising that Brandon must die in order to prevent future killings, Kyle plans a hunting trip with the intention of killing his son. Kyle makes Tori believe that the father-son hunting trip will show Brandon how much he is loved. While in a secluded, wooded area, Kyle shoots Brandon in the back of the head only to watch the bullet bounce off-leaving Brandon unharmed and vengeful. Outraged at his father’s betrayal, Brandon uses his laser vision to burn through Kyle's eye sockets, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile, Tori finds drawings depicting the various murders in Brandon's room. Finally understanding the extent of Brandon’s depravity and involvement in the recent deaths, she frantically attempts to reach her husband-only to be told by Brandon that Kyle is “gone“ and that he (Brandon) is “home.” As Brandon begins destroying the house by flying through the walls, Tori manages to get a call out to local authorities. Brandon brutally murders the two responding officers before searching for his mother. Escaping through a bedroom window, an injured Tori limps down to the barn where the spaceship is and takes a sharp piece as a shiv, hoping it will serve as Brandon's weakness as it had previously made him bleed.

Brandon finds Tori, who tries to calm him down. Tori assures Brandon that she still loves him, confident he is still normal. Brandon tells Tori that he wants to do good. Once they embrace, Tori tries to stab him but fails. Enraged by her betrayal, Brandon lifts Tori above the clouds and drops her to her death as a plane flies towards him. Brandon purposely crashes the plane into the farm, in turn, killing everyone onboard and covering up the true turn of events that previously took place at the farm.

News reports about the deaths of Brandon's parents were attributed to the crash as well. A final news report shows Brandon destroying Brightburn, setting nearby forests ablaze and killing numerous people. Meanwhile a conspiracy theorist blogger called The Big T (Michael Rooker) reports on the existence of other malevolent superpowered individuals.

Cast

 * Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer
 * David Denman as Kyle Breyer
 * Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon Breyer / Brightburn
 * Matt Jones as Noah McNichol
 * Meredith Hagner as Merilee McNichol
 * Steve Agee as EJ
 * Becky Wahlstrom as Erica
 * Emmie Hunter as Caitlyn
 * Stephen Blackehart as Travis
 * Gregory Alan Williams as Chief Deputy Deever
 * Jennifer Holland as Ms. Espenschied
 * Elizabeth Becka as Principal
 * Christian Finlayson as Fauxhawk
 * Terence Rosemore as P.E. Teacher
 * Anne Humphrey as Deputy Aryes
 * Michael Rooker as The Big T
 * Rainn Wilson as Frank Darbo / The Crimson Bolt (photograph)

Production
The film was announced in December 2017 as an untitled horror film with James Gunn as a producer, his brother Brian and cousin Mark writing the script, and David Yarovesky directing. In March 2018, Elizabeth Banks, Jackson A. Dunn, David Denman, Meredith Hagner and Matt Jones were cast, and filming began the same month.

Principal photography took place in March 2018 and wrapped in May of that same year.

Marketing
There were plans to promote the film at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, but it was pulled at the last minute in the wake of James Gunn's removal from Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios, only for Disney and Marvel to reconcile with Gunn nine months later. On December 8, 2018, the first trailer for Brightburn was released online.

Critics reviewed the trailer as a "Ultraman horror movie" due to the intentional similarities to Superman's origin story and as a deconstruction of the character. Fast Company states that "although it's not officially a Superman movie, it walks viewers through every step of Clark Kent's origin story before taking a hard left turn."

Release
Brightburn was released in the United States on May 24, 2019. It was originally scheduled to be released on November 30, 2018.

In the United States and Canada, Brightburn is scheduled to release alongside Aladdin and Booksmart, additionally being projected to gross $10-$12 million in its opening weekend.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Brightburn was released alongside Aladdin and Booksmart, and is projected to gross around $12–16 million from 2,607 theaters in its four-day opening weekend. The film made $3 million on its first day, including $950,000 from Thursday night previews.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 99 reviews, with an average rating of 5.68/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Although Brightburn doesn't fully deliver on the pitch-black promise of its setup, it's still enough to offer a diverting subversion of the superhero genre." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 39%.