Erika Connor is a supporting character in the 2019 James Gunn horror film Brightburn. She was a waitress at Darbo's Family Grill and mother of Caitlyn Connor. Initially a friend of the Breyer family, she grew distrustful of them due to the behaviour of their son Brandon.
History[]
Erika was working at Darbo's Family Grill on the night of Brandon Breyer's 12th birthday. During that time, she saw Brandon throw a tantrum after his father Kyle confiscated a BB rifle that his uncle had bought him. As the boy got angrier, the power inside the diner went haywire, causing the lights and other electronics to flicker. Nobody considered that Brandon had caused this disruption, but regardless, the Breyers left the diner following Brandon's outburst, with Erika shaking her head in disappointment.
Two nights later, Erika was roused from sleep by the sound of her daughter screaming. When she entered Caitlyn's room to ask what was wrong, Caitlyn told her that she had seen Brandon hiding behind her curtains. Brandon was already gone by the time Erika had come in and so she saw nothing untowards, but still became wary of Brandon from then on.
The following day, Erika was called into the school after Brandon had broken Caitlyn's hand during a trust exercise in P.E. class. After seeing her daughter's injury, she went on a tangent to the school principal and the Breyers, demanding that Brandon be arrested for hurting Caitlyn, accusing Tori and Kyle of being bad parents and demanding to know who the boy's biological parents were. The principal assured Erika that Brandon would be suspended and that he would receive counseling, but Erika wasn't satisfied with this since the district's only child counselor was Brandon's aunt, Merilee, who's diagnosis could be biased. Erika then watched the Breyers leave, giving a parting sneer to Brandon, who looked back with cold indifference.
Death[]
The night following her daughter's injury, Erika was working alone at the diner to close up. Little did she know that she was being watched; as she was cleaning, the lights flickered briefly and she thought she witnessed movement outside. Looking at the windows, Erika saw that the glass had fogged over and someone had drawn a strange symbol multiple times in the condensation. Erika didn't know it, but Brandon had made this symbol, having drawn it many times in his sketchbook.
Looking up at one of the flickering light fixtures, Erika was shocked when the bulb above her suddenly shattered and broken glass rained down on her face, cutting her several times. One piece of glass had fallen into her left eye. She painstakingly removed the shard, but her field of vision was blurred and completely red on the left side. As she held a hand over her bleeding eye, Erika felt something whoosh around her. She looked around and saw a masked figure (Brandon) standing several feet away. In fear, she ran to the walk-in fridge and locked herself in. However, Brandon used his heat vision ability to carve through the metal door, then telekinetically pulled it apart. After a few tense seconds, Brandon then charged at Erika with super-speed.
The screen cuts to black just as Brandon attacks Erika, though her fate is never in doubt. Her body isn't found until near the end of the film when Tori discovers it pinned to the wall of her barn cellar, having been cut open with her organs on full display. The walls of the cellar had been decorated with Brandon's symbol scrawled in Erika's blood.