Ever wondered what would happen if Superboy came to Earth but decided to be a villain rather than a hero? BrightBurn answers that question in full and frightening detail, demonstrating just how dangerous and terrifying someone with Superman's powerset could be if they had no morality or humanity.
There's a reason many consider this to be the scariest Superhero Horror film ever made. By the time it's over, you will Beware the Superman.
All spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
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General
- The very concept of this film, involving a psychopathic child with the powers of Superman. Brandon takes pages from Ultraman's, Superboy-Prime's, and the Plutonian's books, but goes the extra mile in being explicitly played for horror.
- Brandon's Stylistic Suck can just be seen as a child attempting to make a costume, but the red mask over his head and his red eyes shining through the eyeholes as he glares as his victim? Horrifying.
- Even when he’s simply staring at people through his hood, the soulless apathy with which he regards his soon-to-be victims is bonechilling.
Film
- Brandon discovering his invulnerability by sticking his hand into the rotating blade of a lawn mower, crushing the blade in the process.
- The scene of Brandon just thrashing the door of the barn (the location of where his ship is).
- During breakfast, Brandon is seen chewing his fork. But when he pulls it out of his mouth, the prongs are twisted in horrific directions.
- Brandon brutally breaking Caitlyn’s hand. He doesn’t just squeeze until her bones crack, he actually snaps it graphically.
- Brandon killing the chickens in their pen.
- Brandon reaching the ship is extremely unnerving. The poor kid looks like he's having a seizure, for one thing. And then he starts floating...
- Brandon's reaction to learning about his heritage: activating his heat vision while unleashing a primal scream.
- Erika Connor tries to hide in the storage room of the restaurant she’s in, and covering her injured eye, only for Brandon to use his heat vision to cut through the door and tear it down. Then, using super speed, he pounces on the woman. The Sickening "Crunch!" when it happens certainly doesn’t help, standing in stark contrast to the more common, less lethal Barrier-Busting Blow that would be a superhero's attack at someone against a wall. The last time we saw Superman pull off such a move, he was careful enough not to kill his target. Brandon? He has nothing against killing.
- Typically, we see the heat vision from the hero's POV, shooting them from his eyes. This time, we see it from Erika's perspective, a flash of fire running down the door. It's scarier than you think.
- Most of the scene is shot from Erika's perspective after her eye has been injured. The entire left half of the screen is obscured in the red haze of Erika's blood. If you look carefully, Brandon is briefly visible on the blood-hazed half of the screen, seeming to flicker in and out of existence as he speeds around the restaurant.
- Brandon's drawings. Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book doesn't even begin to describe it.
- Brandon’s Uncle Noah’s demise. Ripping your bottom jaw off from slamming your face to the steering wheel is downright nasty. Even worse is that the guy is still living and trying to put it back on afterwards! He expires in a few seconds, releasing his grip and the jaw falling off, after Brandon puts his hand on his jaw but the scene is pure visceral in form. Always wear your seat-belts in case of car accidents, kids!
- Kyle's death is no slouch. After trying (and failing) to shoot Brandon, he's then briefly stalked throughout the woods by a costumed Brandon before having a hole burned through his head via Brandon's heat vision. And he stays alive for the first few seconds, in absolutely excruciating pain as Brandon directly targets his eyes.
- The fact that Brandon suddenly has his costume (and has ditched the heavier hunting clothes he was wearing). Either he brought it with him for whatever reason, or super-sped back home to change before murdering his father. Either way, it's a statement about who, and what, Brandon is.
- The deaths of the sheriff's deputies who respond to Brandon's attack on his mother's house. The first dies when Brandon flies into him with such speed that he explodes like a bug on a windshield. The second lasts a little longer, begging for backup as Brandon stalks her around the house. Then he appears behind her and savagely beats her against the walls as she screams in pain and terror, eventually dropping her mangled, dying body and letting her take a few last, gargling breaths, choking on her own blood. She's so badly beaten that her skin is bright red from internal bleeding.
- Brandon took Erika's corpse back to the barn and cut her open and dissected her, and if the secret stash of photos under his bed are any indication, he gets off to it. Pointing to this, she's been stripped to her underwear, and her breasts are exposed. This kid is sick.
- Tori is dropped from the upper atmosphere, screaming up at Brandon who passively floats above her.
- Immediately after killing his mother, Brandon brings down an airplane, killing over 200 people, and afterwards sitting there calmly eating a cookie on the wreckage of the crash site, utterly nonchalant at what he did the previous night.
- The Reveal in The Stinger that Brandon is not the only superhuman... but others, including Corrupted Character Copies of Aquaman, Wonder Woman and (possibly) Martian Manhunter are also evil (alongside a photograph / cameo of the Crimson Bolt from James Gunn's movie Super). Beware the Superman is kicking into high gear with this Played for Horror Superhero Prevalence Stages early take.
- One "picture" is just a black square with a question mark in it. Who's one of those heroes so mysterious even many in the know aren't sure if he exists?
- Also to add to the Paranoia Fuel above, the stinger shows that there are six evil superhumans out there, including Brandon, the half man half sea creature and the witch woman, but only 5 of them are revealed with sketches and photographs in The Big T's video, with the 6th image being a white question mark. Which only leaves the question, who is this sixth superhuman and given that we know that all these superhumans are evil, just how dangerous will this mysterious superhuman's powers be when they're unleashed onto humanity?
- What Caitlyn is going through in this film. Imagine a Stalker with a Crush with super powers knowing where you live. The cops and parents in your town would be unable to stop him. If you reject him, or try to leave him, he could go Axe-Crazy on you in a heartbeat.
- Appropriately enough, Kyle's actual nightmare about when he and Tori found Brandon's ship. It starts simply enough, with him following his wife into the woods, but then after she holds Brandon, blood starts coming from several places, including her eyes and the baby attacks Kyle, waking him.
