10 Movies Where The Villain And The Hero Are Close Relatives

Despite the media hype generated around its release back in May 2019, Brightburn failed to meet audience expectations and was quickly removed from US and international movie theatres. Among the worst infractions: shoddy unrealistic CGI, over-the-top performances and a painfully plain plot progression. Despite its undeniable flaws, Brightburn still preserves an interesting premise that ultimately questions the viewer’s sense of familiar duty.

In this film, Tori Breyer is the loving mom of shy Brandon, a kind-hearted kid that is bullied in school because of his higher learning capacity and his fascination for studies. Slap the genius in the back of the head and all that. However, since the beginning of the movie we learn that Brandon is Tori’s adopted son, a very special boy that crash landed in an alien spacecraft many years ago. This truth has been kept a secret from Brandon since infancy, but everything changes when he turns 12 years old and unravels the mystery behind his origins.

Adolescence is confusing yet fleeting, it's a time of unexplained pain and tribulation. A period in life so filled with hormones and emotions that it's unbelievable that most people come out of it unscathed. Oh, almost anybody does, you say? Well, Brandon’s growing pains are not so different and the once shy kid finally explodes fulfilling his own principles of justice and atonement. And the American way? No, that’s another guy with a red cape.

By the end of the movie, Brandon’s parents are killed by the wrathful hands of his adoptive son, the one they had picked up from that wreckage and had cared for with joy. Parenthood is sometimes a heroic and unrewarded act. A whole morgue full of fresh bodies is proof enough that Brandon’s kind heart has turned merciless. And he gets away with it, too, the little rascal.