David Yarovesky
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Connections, in both directions
Just as it’s difficult to parse Snyder’s self-awareness about his own excesses and limitations, it’s hard to figure out whether his Dawn Of The Dead remake collaborator James Gunn has produced a pointed satire of Snyder’s point of view in Brightburn , or if he simply believes that Snyder should stop beating around the bush and embrace his Superman’s nasty side.
“Brightburn” is a welcome harkening back to Gunn’s savagely violent (“Dawn of the Dead,” screenwriter), over-the-top, gory horror-comedy (“Slither,” writer, director), Vantablack comedy superhero indie (“Super,” writer, director), and horror-satire (“The Belko Experiment,” screenwriter) roots, drawing inspiration from and paying homage to the director’s filmography.
After penning the Troma produced Tromeo & Juliet , a splatter-heavy horror take on Shakespeare’s classic romance, he assisted Zack Snyder on his 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, before honing his own love of 1950’s monster B-movies on his directorial debut Slither (2006).
Brightburn will probably draw comparisons to other darker superhero flicks like Chronicle or Split.
While not entirely original (the superior 2012 film Chronicle dealt with similar material), Brightburn delivers on its promise as a tense filled sci-fi horror, with much in the way of gruesome (yet thankfully not exploitative) pay-offs that will shock many.
The 2012 drama Chronicle wielded a similar scenario when a high school kid acquired superpowers and allowed his own petty human foibles to sour the gift — perhaps because Brandon is an e.t., the Gunns opted to make him just a surly individual with no remorse for anything.
You can compare Brandon’s character outline to Dane DeHaan’s Andrew from Chronicle.
No tenemos, ni siquiera, el intento de Chronicle pensando en Akira.
But the result is a one-dimensional splatter fest instead of something a little more complete like Josh Trank’s 2012 film “Chronicle.”
In that sense, Ritter’s performance channels Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada.”
An old console TV flickers and plays The Lost Boys , which is catnip to Alex. Next to it is a slice of pumpkin pie, and he takes a big old bite of it like a total rube.
His passion for the horror genre has made him a pariah among his grade-school peers, which leads him to dismantle a bedroom full of posters for movies such as “The Lost Boys” and “The People Under the Stairs,” and to gather his “nightbooks” of self-penned short stories for disposal in the basement furnace of his apartment building.
The opening scene of Netflix’s new horror-lite offering finds the film’s pint-size protagonist, Alex (Winslow Fegley), in a bedroom festooned with posters from the same scary movies we all grew up on, from The Lost Boys to A Nightmare on Elm Street — movies that weren’t necessarily made for kids, yet made a deep impression on the generation of youngsters who managed to clap their eyeballs on them anyway.
Fangoria magazines, The Lost Boys playing in the background (with Cry Little Sister playing on and off in little bursts); these little winks are like little spoonfuls of candy to the modern horror fan.
Alex doesn’t get very far; he passes by an apartment with a door wide open and the TV playing The Lost Boys .
Dressed like a modern-day version of David Bowie’s Jareth from Labyrinth , her looks are that of a glam villain, complete with capes, a frosty blue wig, and jewel gloves with cat nails.
Que tal vez se creen más intentos, aunque fallen, como Midnight Special y esta película.
It’s missing the metaphorical layers and more assured pacing of 2016’s similarly themed Midnight Special .
That’s why it’s not surprising to see it come from producer James Gunn, the man behind Super and Slither , genre films that didn’t pull their punches when it came to going all in on their premise.
Producer James Gunn helmed the horror flick Slither and the superhero indie Super before graduating to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
The script for Brightburn from the writing team of Brian and Mark Gunn (one of the brothers and cousins of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither filmmaker and this this movie’s producer James Gunn, respectively) is useable at best, and the direction of music video veteran and frequent Gunn collaborator David Yarovesky is competent, if unexceptional.
It might be unfair to state that Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn are the Frank Stallone to James Gunn’s Sylvester, but the truth is that James made a nifty horror film back in 2006 called Slither (also starring Banks).
For genre aficionados, Brightburn has a lot less in common with Gunn’s Marvel work; it hails from the same gore-horror camp as Slither, Super and, in moments where it really lets loose, some of his Troma work.
That said, this is the James Gunn who produced The Belko Experiment and directed Slither, not the version that helmed Guardians of the Galaxy and wrote the live-action Scooby Doo movies.
If you watched “Locked” (2025) and found the philosophical debate between a rich sociopath and a tender-hearted thief annoying, you will not be let down with “Death of a Unicorn.”
With Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) now on Homelander’s side, this could become a frightening concept with hints of Brightburn and Invincible’s Omni-Man side-by-side.
Save for a small handful of recent films like “The House with the Clock in Its Walls” or the “Goosebumps” movies — nearly all with Jack Black as comic relief — chillers for children are an uncommon and somewhat dicey proposition.
The Big Bad, the Void, feels like “Brightburn” (2019) meets “The Boys” though less profane and rapey.
Films like Monster House and Coraline have proven there is a space for fun and frightening horror films aimed at a younger demographic.
Fortunately, there’s another kid around, a fellow prisoner named Yasmin (Lidya Jewett, The Darkest Minds ), and she shows him the ropes, which in this case means learning how to stay alive.
[READ MORE: Our review of Brightburn, the little-seen James Gunn-produced “What if Superman bad?” 2019 horror movie]…