Director: Bryan Fuller
Writer: Bryan Fuller
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian
Synopsis: An eight-year-old girl asks her scheming neighbor for help in killing the monster under her bed that she thinks ate her family.
The biggest fear most children have at a young age is wondering if there is a monster under the bed. More often than not, we would ask our parents to check there or in the closet, in case something was ready to pop out and either give us nightmares for life or eat us up. But what if there was indeed a monster under the bed and it actually did want to eat everything in its path? This–among other things–is the question posed by Dust Bunny, the directorial debut from Bryan Fuller (Hannibal).
The plot is simple: Aurora (Sophie Sloan) is a 10-year-old girl living in New York City who is fully convinced that her home is haunted by a monster under the bed that comes out at night to try and eat her. This thought is escalated by the sudden death of her parents, who she believes was killed by the monster in the middle of the night. She eventually has to move around the house in a rowing hippo, afraid that she will be eaten if she steps foot on the floor. Taking matters into her own hands, Aurora decides to enlist the help of her neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen), who she sees fight monsters as a skilled hitman and believes could kill her own monster.
Dust Bunny often feels like the moments in Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes strips where Calvin checks if there’s a monster under the bed and hears or sees no one, but then they make a noise or move something on the bed to give themselves away. Given how vibrant Calvin’s imagination is, readers can flip a coin on whether or not the monsters are in fact real, or if Calvin’s tiger Hobbes is even real, and much of that plays into the ongoings of Dust Bunny as well. Aurora believes it without question, and wants to convince others of the fact, but often to no avail. Her neighbor–referred only to as Resident 5B–is still fascinated by the notion however, and does decide to look into it, leading to an incredibly entertaining flick that’s as charming and funny as it is often intense and unsettling.
Where Dust Bunny succeeds a lot is in its clever and inventive visuals. Fuller fills the movie with tons of visual gags and surreal props to make Aurora’s reality even more fantastical (watch out for the chicken lamp), while built over something that is definitely much darker and sinister beneath, and very much tapping into the childlike wonder of the situation, which increasingly becomes more sinister as the movie progresses, and the line between what is real and what might not be becomes more blurred, albeit in some incredibly unexpected ways. The movie is incredibly colorful, with some vibrant cinematography from Nicole Hirsch Whitaker and stylized violence where blood is either confetti, and the often wacky production design with maze-like homes and restaurants shown throughout, amplified by Aurora’s perspective of everything. Adding to that is Isabella Summers’ score that also brings the emotional beats and the bizarre New York City to life in truly fantastical ways.
Sophie Sloan conveys all those feelings wonderfully, giving a great performance and holding her own terrifically next to Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the assassin next door in a cold and calculated manner, but one who cannot help but be charmed and curious about what Aurora claims exists while helping her. The two have hilarious chemistry throughout as they navigate different facets of the underworld trying to find answers, even when the people they interact with become increasingly more evil, including a very fun turn from Sigourney Weaver who plays a mob boss trying her best to keep up with everything and get Resident 5B away from this situation.
When the action does go down, Fuller directs it in the most amusing ways, with everything given a more kid-friendly approach so Aurora doesn’t have to witness something too intense, with not a single drop of blood spilled (at least, not that she can see) and everything looking more like a comic panel than often. The more creepy moments as Aurora wakes up at night to the monster under her bed becoming bigger and angrier are also incredibly well done, with a very effective blend of practical effects and CGI throughout. Towards the third act, these hit exhilarating highs and lead to some lovely use of said practical effects and even solid puppetry, and even more clever use of the malleable sets present in the movie.
Could Dust Bunny delve a bit more into what led to everything with Aurora and her family? Perhaps, as the movie does allude often to a shadier past with her parents and what may have really gone down with them, and the story doesn’t look into that aspect as much as it hints at past a certain point, or what else is going on with Resident 5B and his line of work, but by the end, Dust Bunny is so much fun and so charming in its execution that it is able to overcome those minor flaws and result in an entertaining experience that is definitely worth a watch. Make sure to look under the bed after seeing it though, just in case.
