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With: Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, Sheila Atim, David Dastmalchian, Sigourney Weaver, Rebecca Henderson, Nóra Trokán
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Written by: Bryan Fuller
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Directed by: Bryan Fuller
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MPAA Rating: R for some violence
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Running Time: 106
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Date: 12/12/2025
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Rabbit Troll
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
A dazzling, imaginative fantasy horror movie, Bryan Fuller's Dust Bunny moves fluidly and inventively at first, and becomes more frenetic and reckless as it goes, but is still a unique and memorable time spent with monsters.
Eight-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) has a monster under her bed. One night, the monster eats her parents. Curious, she follows her neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) and witnesses him killing a dragon in Chinatown. She steals money from a collection basket in a church and offers to hire him to kill her monster, the way he killed the dragon. Both neighbors are harboring secrets, but once the truth comes out, the battle for their lives begins.
The feature writing and directing debut of Fuller — a veteran television writer and creator or co-creator of Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and Star Trek: Discovery — Dust Bunny tries everything. The first half-hour is impressively kinetic, a dark fantasy that recalls the work of Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Terry Gilliam. Every movement clicks into place with admirable precision. The design — a big-city apartment building, the strange wardrobe — challenges Wes Anderson movies.
It builds with wonderment, until it gets to a point in which all details are revealed, and then, with nothing left, it becomes a crazy chase and a violent showdown, less imaginative than the start, but still satisfying. Dust Bunny is perhaps a lesson in restraint, and in pacing, but it's also a glorious example of fantasy storytelling that isn't afraid to go bonkers, chewing through the floors and reaching for the skies with shockingly long teeth and claws.
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