Brightburn

Brightburn is a 2019 American superhero horror film directed by David Yarovesky, written by Brian and Mark Gunn, and produced by James Gunn and Kenneth Huang, starring Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, and Meredith Hagner. The plot follows Brandon Breyer, a young boy of extraterrestrial origin reared on Earth who discovers he has superpowers, using them with dark intentions. The film was financed by The H Collective, who produced with Troll Court Entertainment.

Brightburn was announced as "Untitled James Gunn Horror Project" in December 2017. Gunn produced the film, while his brother Brian and cousin Mark penned the screenplay, which adapts the concept of Superman for explicit horror. Principal photography began in March 2018 and wrapped in May of that same year.

Brightburn was released in the United States on May 24, 2019, by Screen Gems and Stage 6 Films. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its visual effects, acting performances, cinematography, humor, and score, but felt that it did not deliver on the full potential of its premise. The film grossed $33.2 million against a production budget of $6–12 million and has gained a cult following.

Plot

A spaceship crashes in a forest in Brightburn, Kansas. Tori and Kyle Breyer, a couple struggling with fertility, witness the explosion from their house and decide to investigate the crash site. They find the spaceship with a baby inside, whom they adopt and name Brandon.

On Brandon's 12th birthday, he discovers he has super-strength and flight abilities. In middle school, Brandon is an academically exceptional student, despite being socially strange and frequently bullied. Brandon begins to show interest towards his classmate Caitlyn Connor, sneaking into her room at night, scaring her. During a trust exercise in a Physical Education class, Caitlyn lets Brandon fall to the ground, calling him a pervert. Angered by her accusation, Brandon crushes her hand, and is suspended from school after being accosted by Caitlyn's mother, Erika, who wants him arrested.

At night, the spaceship emits an otherworldly language that attracts Brandon to the barn. Tori follows, and sees him levitating, chanting the ship's alien message, before falling and accidentally cutting his hand on the wrecked ship. She reveals the truth of his origin, causing Brandon to angrily storm out of the house, and declare his hatred towards his adoptive parents. Brandon deciphers the spaceship's message ("Take the world"), causing his evil identity to take form. As revenge for being humiliated at school, Brandon uses his powers to torment and kill Erika at the diner.

Police discover a symbol drawn on all diner windows, made visible when the sheriff breathes on one of them while investigating Erika's disappearance. It is the same symbol Brandon is seen drawing in his notebook. Brandon visits his aunt's house to convince her to keep his incident at school a secret, but she refuses. Feeling rejected, Brandon begins to stalk her around the house but gets caught by his uncle, Noah. After Noah threatens to tell his father about his behavior, Brandon frightens and kills him by dropping his truck on a dark road. Brandon reaches into the wreckage and dips his finger in his uncle's blood to draw his notebook symbol on the pavement.

Tori and Kyle inform Brandon of Noah's death, which the police believe was an accident. Brandon attempts to cover up his action by dismissing his involvement. Suspecting him to be the culprit, Kyle finds Brandon's blood-stained shirt, and shows it to Tori, who refuses to believe Brandon is responsible. As a way to get rid of the extraterrestrial, Kyle lures Brandon on a father-son hunting trip in the woods. He attempts to shoot, and kill Brandon with his hunting rifle, but the bullet bounces off the back of his head. Brandon retaliates, and kills Kyle with heat vision.

The sheriff arrives at the Breyers' residence, showing Tori the symbol found at the scenes of Erika's and Noah's deaths, suggesting they are connected. Tori finds Brandon's notebook with drawings of his murders and the message, "Take the world." She calls Kyle, but Brandon answers, saying he is coming for her.

Brandon returns, and begins destroying the house. Tori calls the police, but Brandon swiftly kills the officers before backup can arrive. Remembering that the ship's hull can harm him, Tori runs to the barn, and discovers Erika's eviscerated body near the ship. Brandon pursues her into the barn. When he finds her, Tori tries to reassure the good side of Brandon. Using the distraction as an opportunity to stab him with a metal piece of the ship, Brandon anticipates the attack and catches her. Enraged by her betrayal, he takes her high up to the stratosphere and drops her to her death. After watching her fall, he notices an oncoming airplane, and destroys it.

The following morning, the airplane is revealed to have crashed into the farmhouse, destroying evidence of the murders from the previous night. Brandon's symbol is seen painted on a piece of the plane wreckage as rescue workers attend to him. In the credits, Brandon is seen in news reports over the locations of various disasters as an online conspiracy theorist points out the existence of other superpowered beings, and urges the public to take action before it is too late.

Cast

Rainn Wilson cameos in a photograph during the credits as his character Crimson Bolt from producer James Gunn's Super (2010).

Production

Development

The film was announced in December 2017, then untitled, with James Gunn as a producer, his brother Brian and cousin Mark writing the script, and David Yarovesky directing; The H Collective was fully financing, and producing with James Gunn's Troll Court Entertainment banner. In March 2018, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Meredith Hagner and Matt Jones were cast. Gunn was set to appear on a panel to discuss the project at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018, but his appearance was canceled after news broke that Disney had fired Gunn as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) due to offensive tweets; Gunn would later be reinstated by that October, with his return publicly revealed in March 2019.

Filming

Principal photography began in March 2018 and wrapped in May of that year in the U.S. state of Georgia. The building collapse portion of the mid-credits scene uses footage taken from the real-life demolition of the Sir John Carling Building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on July 13, 2014. The middle school scenes were shot at the now-defunct Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, Georgia, the same location used for both Hawkins Middle and Hawkins High Schools in the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Release

Marketing

There were plans to promote the film at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con in July, but it was pulled at the last minute in the wake of James Gunn's removal from the 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 viewed the trailer as an "Ultraman horror movie" due to the intentional similarities to Superman's origin story and as a deconstruction of the character. Fast Company stated 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".

On April 3, 2019, an art contest was launched after the release of the trailer to promote the film, and had concluded on May 20. The winners of the contest had their artworks used in marketing for the film, and received $2,000. On May 21, 2019, IGN promoted the film by uploading a prank of unsuspecting volunteers with the character Brandon Breyer. It was uploaded to their website and YouTube channel.

Another art contest was launched on August 5 to promote the home media release of the film titled "Band with Brightburn". Submissions had to depict other supervillains in reference to the ending scene of the film hinting at other superpowered characters. Actor Jackson A. Dunn was the judge of the contest, and it was sponsored by Collider.

Theatrical

Brightburn was released in the United States on May 24, 2019. It was originally scheduled for November 30, 2018. In the UK, a censored version of the film was released on June 19, 2019, the studio having reduced the level of violence to meet their preferred age certificate.

Home media

The film was released on Digital HD on August 6, 2019, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD on August 20, 2019. In the UK, the Blu-ray release contained the theatrical censored cut of the film, while the 4K Blu-ray contained the uncut 18 certificate version.

In April 2021, Sony signed a deal with Disney giving them access to their legacy content, including Brightburn to stream on Disney+ and Hulu and appear on Disney's linear television networks. Disney's access to Sony's titles would come following their availability on Netflix. Brightburn had previously been available on Starz and FX.

Merchandise

In August 2019, it was announced a Halloween costume of Brandon Breyer was going to be sold exclusively by Spirit Halloween in October.