Bryan Fuller is the writer/director famous for his series Pushing Daisies (2007-2009) Hannibal (2013-2015) starring Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lector, and American Gods (2017-2021). He hasn’t been doing much since the end of his last series, but he’s made his feature film directorial debut with his latest project, “Dust Bunny,”. He once again works with his Hannibal star Mikkelsen for this fantasy horror film. It’s definitely a different turn for this writer/director who hasn’t worked with kids much in his career. He makes it work despite the unfamiliarity with the genre and star.

Aurora (Sophie Sloan) is a ten-year old girl who lives with her parents in a swanky, beautifully decorated apartment building in New York City in the 1970s. When she starts to hear noises at night, she gets scared. She tells her parents, but the unthinkable happens. Something she can’t see or describe kills her parents. She’s now on her own. The only person she can think of who can help her is the resident in apartment 5B (Mads Mikkelsen), whom she has shared an elevator ride with in the past. He’s her only hope, so she does something she normally wouldn’t do. And that is to steal to get money to pay him to help her. This adventure they are about to go on in their building is much more complicated than either of them knew.

Mikkelsen is known for doing a lot of films with a major IP attached to them, like Star Wars, The MCU, and James Bond, but he also does a lot of small independent films. Another Round, The Hunt, and The Promised Land are a few that come to mind. This type of film is a little out of his wheelhouse. I haven’t seen him do a fantasy/horror movie before. I’m sure the opportunity to work with Fuller again was an enticing offer he couldn’t pass up. He plays his usually very serious self once again in this movie despite working with CGI effects and a child actor. The effects he’s used to because of the role he played in Doctor Strange. The child actor not so much, but they have good chemistry, it seemed, anyway. I liked him in the role but think he could have shown he was having more fun than he was.

Besides Mikkelsen, the cast is filled with some other actors in various roles you’ve might’ve seen before. Namely Sigourney Weaver (Alien/Aliens) and David Dastmalchian (Dune/Dune Pt 2), but the real star of the film is the aforementioned Sophie Sloan, a newcomer to acting. She was fantastic opposite the established star Mikkelsen.  She held her own with a lot going on in this movie. Most of the picture was set in this apartment/ bedroom, and all of the acting opposite nothing couldn’t have been easy for her. I was truly impressed by this young actress. She was quite a find by the casting director. Even though there were more actors in the movie, this was more or less a two-hander, though. 

I had parents when I grew up, but they weren’t that great. I don’t know which is worse, growing up with bad parents or ending up with foster parents. That was the case with the little girl here in this movie. She was a foster child, and her inner turmoil manifested itself into a monster that took the people she didn’t like out of her life. The idea of the story was a very fascinating one. A child’s dreams turning into a monstrous creature under their bed. Who saw that coming? Even throwing in a bunch of other stuff like FBI Agents and assassins for good measure made the story a little bit more interesting. I feel bad for kids like myself who grew up with a bad parenting situation. It couldn’t have been good for their learning or happiness. 

There were few technical aspects of the film I was impressed by. Those were the CGI effects to start with. The filmmaker got this little room, and the hall of this apartment turned into a death trap with a monstrous bunny coming out of the floor. That was pretty impressive to me. I believed wholeheartedly that there was a monster in the floor. That’s how realistic the CGI was in this movie. The second thing I noticed that stood out to me was the score. The music had a childlike feel to it that went perfectly with the story the writer/director was telling. I love when great technical elements compliment a good story.

“Dust Bunny” was a pleasant surprise to me. I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that it was a reunion of Fuller and Mikkelsen. They completely surprised me with the fantasy/horror. The story was fleshed out nicely within the context of the film. The little actress Sloane was quite the revolution. She held her own against one of the best actors working today. Using CGI and a monster as a metaphor for not having good parents or the foster care program was a brilliant move on Fuller’s part. Hopefully, many families will find this little movie this holiday season. It definitely deserves an audience, that’s for sure.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen