2019’s Brightburn had a genius premise via its simple pitch, but the superhero horror movie needed to settle on a more decisive tone in order to work well — not doing this was the movie's biggest mistake. Released to critical disinterest in 2019, Brightburn was a horror reimagining of Superman’s iconic backstory, telling the tale of a withdrawn young outcast who is adopted by loving parents, but soon brainwashed into terrorizing his small town by the same spaceship he arrived on Earth in.
Essentially Man of Steel rewritten as a horror movie, Brightburn had some impressive genre pedigree in the form of producer James Gunn. Gunn’s contributions to both horror and comic book movies are legendary, with the former Troma director helming both Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as 2006’s underrated body horror outing, Slither. As such, it’s ironic that Brightburn would have benefited from leaning further into either the horror or comic side of movie conventions.
Although Brightburn didn’t need to be outright comedic in order to succeed, the movie was too relentlessly bleak and hopeless - as well as unflinchingly violent - for viewers to have the sort of fun they expected from its interesting premise. Even if the filmmakers didn't want to lighten the tone with laughs, leaning into the horror aspect of Brightburn could have worked just as effectively as playing up its comic book tone. However, the intensity of the gore rendered that option unavailable too, and left Brightburn stuck in an unenviable tonal chasm.
By taking the dark-upon-dark approach that was popularized by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and subsequent knock-offs, Brightburn missed out on a chance to effectively satirize the mega-popular MCU. An injection of humor could have made Brightburn more akin to a traditional superhero movie, and thus made the horror elements more effective. Plenty of recent horror releases have succeeded by finding a careful balance between dark horror/comedy, such as the same year’s Us and Ready Or Not. While Brightburn has moments of levity, the film didn't remind viewers of modern superhero movies tonally. As a result, Brightburn couldn't effectively satirize them, which made any hopes of a Brightburn sequel unlikely — audiences didn't want more of the same. The likes of The Boys have proven that dark, gory superhero satires can work, but the difference is that The Boys makes it clear it's written in response to the MCU phenomenon, due to the show's pitch black, but ever-present humor making it feel like a Bizarro version of MCU movies.
In comparison, Brightburn is a humorless, fully dark horror outing that never feels comparable to modern superhero movies and their quip-heavy action. Through to Brightburn's brutally bleak ending, the movie's tone is all grim, all the time. This is an aspect that the movie could have leaned into, but only if it eased up on the gore. Instead, the filmmakers leaned into both gore and an unsparingly dark tone, resulting in a finished product that is less scary or funny and more desolate. A Brightburn that held onto a fully dark tone with less gore - more akin to a mash-up of The Omen and Superman - could have been an effective slice of self-serious horror.
The more over-the-top moments of gore and occasional broad humor (like Brightburn's Alex Jones parody) would then need to be excised to maintain a more straight-faced style of horror. By not finding this balance and being scattered with its tonal identity, Brightburn ends up too gory and over-the-top for subtle horror success, but not self-referential and snarky enough to register as a contemporary superhero movie.