Brightburn
Directed by David Yarovesky
#Brightburn – a genre-defying, intriguing concept that sounds brilliant on the outset, but execution and treatment somehow disintegrate before the story hits the ground. What would an evil Superman do to the planet?
Elizabeth Banks and David Denman play Tori and Kyle Brenner – a childless rural couple who find a child inside a crashed meteor. The child grows up with care and love, though bullied at school for being shy and exceptional. When Brandon reaches the age of 12, sinister and brutal things happen as soon as Brandon hears the calls of the thing hidden in the barn.
If it sounds like an evil Superman origin, it practically is. The concept is very intriguing, and packaging this as a horror film is almost genius.
Except that the film hardly functions as a proper horror film even though it’s replete with jump scares. Horror has to build up, but most importantly, audiences should be able to understand the mechanics what makes the thing horrific in the first place – knowing this builds the tension. I can’t even say that it’s because there’s an attempt by the filmmakers to subvert the genre, because they bothered for the jump scares. It’s a horror film, plain and simple. But it ignores to make proper preparation to bring the audience to that state of disbelief (Why does Brandon interpret “Take the planet” to mass slaughter humans? Is he acting that way due to pubescence? How could he change his personality literally overnight? Why does the scene abruptly, confusingly cut away to a dream sequence immediately after the couple makes a big argument? Etcetera.) I’ll blame the writers and the director for this.
It was interesting at some point when the drama seemed to explore the struggles that the couple were facing considering the bloody circumstances involving Brandon soon after his 12th birthday. But no. What’s more bewildering is how the previously-reliable Ms Banks seemed to have winged this production to look wooden in her scenes. Those eyes were dead, and she doesn’t look like she really cares for the troubled son.
Watch for the premise, but I can’t promise satisfaction.
Trailer here: https://youtu.be/kxSYjqRWb1k
Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
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