Brightburn

There's been a fine tradition of comic-book creators putting a sinister twist on the well-worn origins of iconic superheroes, including Red Son (Superman grows up as a child of Soviet Russia) and Red Rain (Batman as a lethal crime-fighting vampire). Here, the Gunn clan - Guardians of the Galaxy director James (producing here), brother Brian and cousin Mark (co-writers) - contort the Superman mythos into disturbingly gruesome territory. The set-up is immediately familiar: a childless couple living in rural Kansas (by way of Norman Rockwell's Americana) adopt an alien tot who's crash-landed on their farm. However, when young Brandon Breyer (Jackson A Dunn) hits puberty, instead of truth, justice and the American way, this otherworldly visitor mangles a certain Marvel webslinger's credo so that with great power comes megalomania and savagery rather than responsibility. Elizabeth Banks and David Denman play the loving parents who realise too late that their "son" has abilities and is using them in a sadistic, super-powered killing spree. Director David Yarovesky keeps things pacey and the gore flowing, but his film lacks the psychological nuance that made Chronicle (2012) so captivating. This is straight-out slasher horror with superhero stylings, though it may be as much a comment on the tarnishing of America under Trump as it is a Twilight Zone-like spin on the Superman legend.