Brightburn

**Brightburn** is a 2019 American superhero horror film directed by David Yarovesky.

The film was released on May 24, 2019 by Screen Gems.

## Plot

The film tells the story of Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn), a young boy of extraterrestrial origin who realizes he has superpowers and later turns evil, terrorizing his hometown and his parents.

## Cast

* Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer
* David Denman as Kyle Breyer
* Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon Breyer
* Matt Jones as Noah McNichol
* Meredith Hagner as Merilee McNichol
* Gregory Alan Williams as Sheriff Deever

## Production

The film (which was then untitled) was announced in December of 2017 with James Gunn as a producer; his brother, Brian and cousin, Mark writing the script; and David Yarovesky as the director.

James Gunn had been 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 him as director of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" due to offensive tweets on Twitter.

In March of 2018, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Meredith Hagner and Matt Jones were cast in the film.

Principal photography for "Brightburn" began in March of 2018 and ended in May of 2018 in Georgia.

The middle school scenes were filmed at the now-defunct Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, Georgia (which has been used in the Netflix series, "Stranger Things").

The building collapse was filmed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was the real demolition of The Sir John Carling Building on July 13th, 2014. The stock footage was shot by filmmaker Chris Chitaroni.

## Marketing

There were plans to promote "Blackburn" 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 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 the film 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 "Blackburn" 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, 2019 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.

## Box Office

"Brightburn" grossed $7,845,658 during its opening weekend. Overall, it grossed $32,893,421 on an estimated budget of $6,000,000.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Blackburn" has an approval rating of 58% based on 205 reviews with an average score of 5.7\10. The site's 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."*

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 39%.

The Playlist wrote: *"The film is a gem, especially for anyone yearning for a superhero film that gleefully torches the familiar “good versus evil” formula and introduces far more sinister sensibilities."*

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian said: *"It’s a film that’s good enough that you want it to be better, a rare genre example of less not proving to be more."*

Writing for IGN, Witney Seibold wrote: *"Brightburn doesn't take its satire to any kind of satisfying extreme – although a mid-credits stinger does include a larger joke at work – but as a superhero murder thriller, it is perfectly entertaining."*

Kate Erbland from Indiewire said: *"The film’s bent towards revisionist superhero history is certainly compelling, but stuck in the confines of the horror genre, it flames out far more than it flies."*

The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film *"lacks the visual stylization or wit to elevate it from the realm of the crudely effective B-movie."*

Dominick Suzanne-Mayer from Consequence called "Blackburn" a *"nasty piece of work, and one that at the very least stands as an active interruption of the escapist, family-friendly superhero fare currently dominating the industry."*

Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club wrote: *"Throwing in some gnarly gore—and Brightburn indulges a couple of truly gruesome flinches—doesn’t change the plodding inevitability with which Brandon goes super-evil."*

Dennis Harvey of Variety magazine called it a *"watchable but super-silly mix of superheroics and evil-child horror that mashes together singularly uninspired ideas from both."*