Brightburn
Screen Gems | Release Date: May 24, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
14
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistAlex ArabianMay 22, 2019
The film is a gem, especially for anyone yearning for a superhero film that gleefully torches the familiar “good versus evil” formula and introduces far more sinister sensibilities. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 22, 2019
It’s got more than its share of disturbing sequences, and a string of brutal murders. It’s also got surprisingly decent special effects for a movie that was surely made on a fraction of the budget of a DC Comics film. And it has a perfectly cast Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon. Read full review
71
IGNWitney SeiboldMay 22, 2019
Brightburn doesn't take its satire to any kind of satisfying extreme – although a mid-credits stinger does include a larger joke at work – but as a superhero murder thriller, it is perfectly entertaining. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMay 24, 2019
Brightburn doesn't ask if you want blood, but you've damn-well got it in this nastily gruesome superhero hack-n-slash that's a nightmare for parents everywhere. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersMay 23, 2019
There’s some truly nasty stuff here — both violence-wise and in its outlook on evil — but it still somehow manages to be fun amid all the carnage. Read full review
67
The Film StageAlycia RipleyMay 24, 2019
Brutal and bludgeoning, David Yarovesky’s Brightburn is a film designed to knock the breath from your chest and subvert expectations. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 24, 2019
It may be an elevator pitch stretched to 90 minutes, and never aspires to more than that, but it's a fine and distinct funhouse ride designed to elicit cackles, then be forgotten about by the next ride. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 23, 2019
The gore and the scares work pretty well. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 22, 2019
It’s a film that’s good enough that you want it to be better, a rare genre example of less not proving to be more. Read full review
58
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 23, 2019
The movie rattles through ninety minutes of episodic jolts, the visual style is jumbled. Distinctive only in having a better effects budget than your average demons-in-the-attic quickie. While the super-parody elements offer a few snorts of amusement, the movie avoids taking on more complex ideas about Superman as an American ideal, though the filmmakers are obviously aware of the Bizarro context. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 22, 2019
The movie is more or less all premise. The rest is just an occasionally suspenseful, occasionally gory sci-fi riff on any number of earthbound creepy-kid thrillers. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandMay 22, 2019
The film’s bent towards revisionist superhero history is certainly compelling, but stuck in the confines of the horror genre, it flames out far more than it flies. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 23, 2019
Most of Brightburn belabors the obvious. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 23, 2019
The film is not nearly as strong as its villain. It is, however, just as immature. Read full review
50
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMay 22, 2019
It’s a nasty piece of work, and one that at the very least stands as an active interruption of the escapist, family-friendly superhero fare currently dominating the industry. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMay 22, 2019
While not exactly original, the premise is certainly effective enough. But Brightburn lacks the visual stylization or wit to elevate it from the realm of the crudely effective B-movie. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 22, 2019
Throwing in some gnarly gore—and Brightburn indulges a couple of truly gruesome flinches—doesn’t change the plodding inevitability with which Brandon goes super-evil. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJun 23, 2019
In its attempts to provide an antidote to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s catalogue of liberal fantasies, the film swings too far in the other direction. Read full review
40
EmpireJames WhiteJun 17, 2019
Crossbreeding superhero tropes with horror staples was an idea laden with promise. Brightburn is enlivened by trademark James Gunn black comedy, but hamstrung by sketchy writing and a botched sense of dread. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 23, 2019
It’s “The Bad Seed meets The Omen,” and it’s predictable, plodding and dim-witted every step of the way. To be fair, if you like watching someone pull a shard of glass out of her eyeball, you won’t be disappointed. But there’s a difference between gory and scary that this movie doesn’t seem to grasp. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis HarveyMay 22, 2019
A watchable but super-silly mix of superheroics and evil-child horror that mashes together singularly uninspired ideas from both. Read full review
38
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMay 23, 2019
Brightburn was a good idea. Unfortunately the creativity stopped there. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 23, 2019
Clever trappings aside, Brightburn is filmed mostly as a horror movie, with the monster lurking just around the corner or pounding on the door as the dopey victims behave just like all the other dopey victims in forgettable slasher films. Read full review
38
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMay 22, 2019
The only creepy things about Brightburn, though, are its labored, derivative narrative, its giddy sadism (it gets off on Brandon’s adolescent power trip, and expects its audience to do the same), and its cynical built-in branding. Read full review
33
TheWrapRobert AbeleMay 22, 2019
While we can perhaps be grateful that the superficiality of Brightburn probably kept it from opting to exploit elements of disturbed-kid narratives that have been all too common in our more tragic news stories, what remains is still never terribly entertaining as either popcorn or a bent take on superhero myths. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 25, 2019
When the end credits roll, it’s hard to decide whether the most appropriate feeling should be disgust, despair, or despondency. This is one of 2019’s worst films. Read full review
25
ObserverOliver JonesMay 25, 2019
The movie has nary a thought in its red-hooded head, only a lot of blood. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 24, 2019
Brightburn is a generally humorless affair, with the only “laughs” given a sadistic edge, with paint-by-numbers frights and cut-and-paste “big emotional moments” that even the formidable Banks cannot make pay off. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsMay 24, 2019
A machine to deliver gore and violence, Brightburn also features some of the most improbably and even hatefully dumb salt-of-the-Earth type characters in a recent American horror movie. But even if you watch Brightburn knowing that it doesn't have much going for it beyond a few disturbing kill scenes, you will still be disappointed. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 22, 2019
With Brightburn there’s not even the pretense of idealism. It’s a superhero movie with the soul of an ’80s slasher film. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezMay 22, 2019
The way the film shuttles through its 90 minutes, it’s as if it’s been stripped of its most crucial narrative parts. Read full review
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