By John Corrado
A young girl has to confront the monster under her bed in Dust Bunny, the imaginative feature directorial debut of TV writer and producer Bryan Fuller, who is best known for series like Star Trek: Discovery, Pushing Daisies, and fan favourite Hannibal.
Despite reuniting him with his Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen, Fuller is operating in a very different key from that series here, crafting what works as a dark children’s fantasy film instead. The main character is Aurora (Sophie Sloan), an 10-year-old girl who believes that a monster lives under her bed.
As she warns everyone, whether or not they believe her, you can’t touch the floor or else you’ll be eaten by this giant fluffy creature that comes up through the floorboards. When her foster parents get devoured by this monster, Aurora hires her mysterious neighbour (Mikkelsen), a hitman who she follows one night to a job in Chinatown, to kill the beast.
A lot of this only works if you accept that it is operating off a child-like sense of imagination, with much of Dust Bunny playing out like a giant game of pretending the floor is lava. Fuller does a good job of teasing out the look of the titular creature itself, and smartly saving it for the last act reveal. The imaginative production design, which mixes elements of the whimsical and the macabre in a way that recalls Tim Burton, is another key element, with much of the film taking place within Aurora’s apartment.
The film also works thanks to an impressive performance from newcomer Sloan, who carries much of the movie on her shoulders and holds her own in scenes with Mikkelsen. Fuller knows how to utilize Mikkelsen’s quietly stoic presence; his character often says very little, his Danish accent making it hard to even properly pronounce Aurora’s name. Sigourney Weaver rounds out the cast as his hitman character’s mysterious handler, whom he consults with on downtown trips into a retro-futuristic city inspired by Blade Runner.
The film moves at a deliberate pace for what is essentially a children’s fantasy, and the 106 minute running time does feel slightly padded in places. It can feel a bit like a short film concept that has been stretched to feature length, and the screenplay’s deeper themes about childhood trauma also feel a little underdeveloped.
But Dust Bunny, which premiered at the Midnight Madness section at TIFF, has enough enjoyable aspects to it to function as a solid and promising feature directorial debut from Fuller. The director also does a fine job staging some John Wick-inspired action in the fantastical final sequence. While it might be a little too mature and scary for younger viewers, Dust Bunny also functions as a good genre introduction for older kids who are comfortable with the darkness of a classic fairy tale.
The Joy of Movies 