Raising a child is a terrifying, thrilling experience for all first-time parents because there’s no one way to make sure that you’re doing everything the “right” way and what said way would even necessarily look like. For the Breyers, the family at the center of David Yarovesky’s sci-fi/horror film Brightburn, the arrival of their first son, parenthood’s nothing they could have ever prepared for.
Much like DC’s Martha and Jonathan Kent, Mr. and Mrs. Breyer (portrayed by David Denman and Elizabeth Banks, respectively) suddenly become adoptive parents after they discover a crashed spaceship carrying a baby on their rural farm. Though the Breyers raise the baby, Brendan (Jackson A. Dunn) as one of their own and love him, he grows up being bullied by his peers, turning him into something like a dark mirror reflection of the carefree boy Clark Kent was in his formative years. Here’s the new trailer from IGN.
Being a moody kid is nothing out of the ordinary, but Brendan’s inner darkness becomes something much more serious and dangerous as he discovers and begins to experiment with his newfound, and very Kryptonian-like, superpowers. An average kid might see their inhuman super strength and speed as a means to have fun in a place like where Brandan grows up, but for him, his gifts are a chance to seek out revenge on all the people who’ve ever hurt him.
Coincidentally, Brightburn’s plot bears a striking resemblance to Keith Giffen, Edward Lee, Howard Porter, and Hi-Fi’s produced by James Gunn — is going to give its child monster quite a bit more people to slaughter when Brightburn hits theatres May 23.