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).