Tori and Kyle Breyer are trying hard to add a child to their family, but with no luck. When one night a spaceship crashes into their garden, they adopt the little boy they find inside. Ten years later young Brandon starts to hear voices helping him to discover that he is in fact a true superman. And suggesting that he should use his powers to conquer the planet, starting with the cute classmate Brandon has a crush on. Will his adoptive parents manage to guide Brandon towards love, justice and the American way?

Starting off as a subversion of the MAN OF STEEL origin story, BRIGHTBURN soon becomes a proper horror film, losing narrative coherence towards the end but delivering entertaining scares and a fair amount of gore all the way.