Brightburn

Since superhero origin stories and subversive horror movies currently dominate the box-office, it’s not surprising that someone came up with a premise that combines both genres. About a dozen years ago in the rural town of Brightburn, KS, a meteor crashes on the farm of childless couple Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) Breyer. Aboard is a healthy baby boy—a heaven-sent answer to their prayers. Naming him Brandon, they tell others that he’s adopted. As he approaches puberty, strange things start happening to Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn). While helping his dad with chores, for instance, he accidentally throws a lawnmower 100 yards across a field, noting, “I’m special.” So he stalks a pretty classmate (Emmie Hunter), who once sympathized with him when he was teased for being so smart, but she is not pleased, calling him a pervert, and then dropping him during a “trust fall” exercise in gym. In response, Brandon crushes the bones in her hand after she’s forced to help him up. Brandon then becomes defiant, manipulative and, eventually, homicidal, wearing a cape fashioned out of his baby blanket. Is all of this somehow inexplicably connected to that malevolent space pod, vibrating and glowing in a locked cellar in the barn? Director David Yarovesky turns Superman into the Bad Seed in this formulaic tale that focuses on grisly gore rather than delving into the creepy concept of an evil superhero who is eminently capable of mass destruction. Optional. (S. Granger)