“Dust Bunny” (2025) is “Hannibal” television series creator Bryan Fuller’s feature debut. Fuller’s muse, Mads Mikkelsen, appears as an unnamed hitman credited as the Intriguing Neighbor that the eight-year-old Aurora (Sophia Sloan) hires to kill the titular monster hiding underneath her bed. He believes that some bad guys killed her parents, and she witnessed it but is communicating what happened through a child’s understanding, but she never changes her story. As their worlds collide, the truth comes out. Who is seeing clearly? Underwritten, but beautiful, it is a must see for fans of anyone in the cast or production, but everyone else may not be willing to spend money or time for a sumptuous visual feast with an undercooked story.
If you watched “Hannibal,” you may be familiar with Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohls), a serial killer’s daughter who winds up with surrogate father figures: a psychiatrist/serial killer and a FBI agent. Hannibal, the genius, therapist and cannibal, was a monster who kept deliberately trying to make more. Allyson was an innocent who was culpable and manipulated. Creatives often look at the same story from different angles, and Fuller’s Hannibal was objectively a bad guy, but in many ways, the hero of his own story with a twisted set of morals and a queer, star-crossed romance between “murder husbands,” Will and Hannibal. Fuller loves his monsters and does not usually kill them whether they deserve it or not. Fuller plays with the formula in “Dust Bunny.” Fuller gives Aurora a fuller story than the hitman. I do not read director’s statements until after the movie. Fuller revealed that his central question: who does the viewer believe? He wants people to learn a moral from this story. I did not necessarily have the experience that Fuller intended.
When I watch a movie, I ask if it is supernatural, alien, a person and/or science. For most of “Dust Bunny,” I assumed that Aurora had supernatural powers, but was clueless that she was causing it, which makes her story more messed up than it is. If a little girl is more successful at tailing a hit man than the people who want him dead, I’m assuming that she is a child, but not some simple little girl. Aurora was giving “Carrie” (1976) and “Firestarter” (1984). Also, that kid has impeccable taste to stalk Mikkelsen. It is also possible that the bed from “The Exorcist” (1973) finally got work again.
If anything, the hitman and his world feel comparatively hastily sketched and thin. People are after him for *waves hand in air* reasons, and he is a monster who kills monsters. OK, Danish Dexter. Fuller makes the world visually detailed and sumptuous. Casting Director Margery Simkin populates this world with innately interesting actors. With all that spectacle and excellence, it is easy to go with it if you do not mind that it occupies a world that seems to be in an indeterminate era. Even though it is set in New York, it is as fantastical as the city in “Wonka” (2023), Fuller’s complete brainchild, nothing like the reality, but just as rich and vibrant.
Mikkelsen and Sloan are as serious as a heart attack, and thankfully it has none of the disturbing undertones that “Léon: The Professional” (1994) had. The Intriguing Neighbor does not patronize Aurora, is completely inappropriate as a father figure even while he is trying his darndest to shield her, and automatically assumes his involvement in her mystery, which is plausible, but always felt like correlation, not causation. Both characters project their reality on the other instead of believing each other and not making their personal, unique experience as universal and definitive. He is trying to be reassuring, and their constant verbal sparring and correcting each other feels less antagonist than insistent regarding their mutual position and reality.
Mikkelsen plays his character as more reserved with Aurora, and shows more emotion with his mysterious, amoral associate, who is apparently called Laverne (Sigourney Weaver) though I do not recall anyone using her name. Animated for Mikkelsen, he vents about the predicament to her. It feels unlike any of Weaver’s previous extensive work and more like her impression of one of the xenomorphs that she had to square up against as Ripley (compliment). There is a scene that feels like CGI as she looks as if she is trying to unhinge her jaw to eat someone whole, and it was more surprising that she did not after all the monster talk. In another scene, it feels as if she is related to the titular character in “Veep” in the best way possible.
Production designer Jeremy Reed, set decorators Dorka and Kata Kiss and costume designers Olivier Bériot and Catherine Leterrier save their best work for Weaver’s scenes. She has pistols as heels in shoes, and if you are angry at Fuller, be angry that he did not emulate Robert Rodriguez and have her be able to shoot them while wearing them, especially with a monster under the floorboards. It is almost an unforgivable sin. The heavy-handed circular lights near the tops of their heads are like halos signaling that they are not the bad guys.
A problem with creatives transitioning from television to film is adapting to the best format for the medium. Fuller is a television veteran, but a first time filmmaker. He has the visuals down, but not the understanding of how to fully tell a story during a shorter runtime, one and done. Laverne alludes to a trauma that the Intriguing Neighbor had. What? Laverne alludes to the theory that people who were abused usually realize it when they have a kid who reaches the age when their parent was abused. Then the parent realizes that they were just a kid and did not deserve that treatment. Laverne cautions him against healing himself by trying to give Aurora what he did not have, but the connective tissue is missing about his backstory. If there were no allusions to his past, it would not feel as if a part of the story ended up on the cutting room floor. The Intriguing Neighbor is riddled with guilt, but it was frustrating not getting more answers about him though a lot is implied. He says, “Happiest I’ve ever been is believing in something impossible.” It sounds cool, but when and what was that?
The real narrative payoff starts after the fifty-minute mark, but there are only answers about Aurora so if you are hoping to explore a “John Wick”-esque like world and discover all of the hitman’s secrets, the best that you are going to get are hints and vibes. Brenda Bautista (Sheila Atim, “The Woman King”), a social worker, reveals tons of Aurora lore that raises the stakes for both characters.
Mikkelsen was a professional dancer and executes some amazing physical feats, but Fuller’s style of capturing action is frustrating if you prefer the Fred Astaire approach: shoot the action with a long-sustained shot to see the entire fight. While it is not over edited like “A Working Man” (2025), considering the amount of work put into the fight scenes, it is a shame that Fuller did not give everyone the showcase to display it fully. He has a wonderful eye, but not for movement. At the end, as characters begin repeating a line, is there a musical in Fuller’s future?
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It turns out that all the hints that Aurora was the monster, including from Aurora, were true. Aurora made the monster to defend herself and get the parent that suited her through parricide and only controls her power to save her monster, the hitman. She was not aware of it fully but hiring him to kill a monster means killing herself for doing something horrible even if warranted. She wears a bunny mask while tailing the hitman. There are hints that she was abused at the beginning of her homicidal journey, and her shame makes her believe that she is bad and needs to be eliminated. She turned her monster against herself, but through this journey, she begins to accept it as acceptable self-defense though there are innocent casualties. There were some rule changes that were irritating on first watch such as the monster appearing at daytime, but it is supposed to symbolize her growing acceptance of her shadow self and making peace with it. Through working with Aurora, the hitman also gets over his issues. At the end of his journey, he no longer feels the need to kill monsters and rejects killing Aurora. He becomes a Jonah figure who eventually chooses redemption over destruction. “Dust Bunny” makes more sense the second time around.
Slight quibble: Weaver is only sixteen years older than Mikkelsen.
