Brightburn

Produced by James Gunn, Brightburn follows Elizabeth Banks’ Tori and David Denman’s Kyle as they rescue a small boy that’s crash-landed on their property and raise him as their own – with problems (and horror) ensuing as it becomes increasingly clear that said boy (Jackson A. Dunn’s Brandon) might not be as sweet and docile as he seems. There’s little doubt that Brightburn improves rather dramatically as it progresses, as filmmaker David Yarovesky delivers a first half that boasts the feel of a fairly (and disappointingly) by-the-numbers creepy-kid thriller – with the emphasis, in the movie’s sluggish midsection, placed mostly on generic sequences wherein Brandon terrorizes an assortment of hapless characters (ie these scenes could’ve been pulled from any random similarly-themed picture). The less-than-impressive atmosphere is compounded by the almost absurd degree to which Banks’ Tori refuses to believe that there’s something off about her son, despite a growing collection of rather hard-to-deny bits of concrete evidence (ie it seems likely that one would at least grow suspicious after he broke a classmate’s hand). It’s not until Brightburn charges into its captivating third act that it begins to live up to its irresistible premise, as scripters Brian and Mark Gunn finally begin suffusing the narrative with exactly the sort of elements one might’ve hoped for based on the setup – which, when coupled with an absolutely enthralling (and impressively grim) finale, ultimately does confirm the movie’s place as an erratic yet rewarding thriller.

*** out of ****