Dust Bunny: Mads Mikkelsen Makes Assassin-as-Father-Figure Work in Eccentric Drama

By Liz Braun

Rating: A

Bryan Fuller knows his way around things that go bump in the night. The mind behind TV’s Hannibal and Pushing Daisies makes his feature directorial debut with Dust Bunny, a wonderfully strange mix of murder, mayhem, and childhood monsters-under-the-bed.

Dust Bunny is centred on Aurora (Sophie Sloan), a girl of about 10 who has a terrible monster living under her bed. One surreal night she follows the mysterious neighbour (Mads Mikkelsen) who lives across the hall, and watches as he slays a dragon. It seems to Aurora that the neighbour might be just the person to get rid of that monster under her bed. She decides to hire him.

The neighbour — a killer for hire — has little interest in children or monsters lurking under beds, but he decides to help Aurora, whose parents have apparently vanished. He seems to have some insight into her situation, although he understands what’s happening in a very different way than she does.

The neighbour has his own set of monsters to deal with. What he guides Aurora to understand — sort of — is that the monsters they are both dealing with are quite human. Some of those wicked humans begin to make attempts on the lives of both Aurora and her neighbour, which inspires the neighbour to be ever more protective of the little girl.

The neighbour’s scary boss (Sigourney Weaver) tells him to ditch Aurora and leave town at once for his own safety, but he has other ideas. Among those ideas is protecting Aurora.

Does that sound sweet? It isn’t. Dust Bunny is a modern fairy tale and every bit as grim as a Brothers Grimm tale — with their murderous kings, hideous trolls, evil stepmothers and child-eating witches of yore.

The Dust Bunny bogeymen and women are more contemporary but likewise hair-raising.

Dust Bunny is told from Aurora’s point of view, so everything you see and hear is vaguely exaggerated, often dazzling and generally quite wonderful. The film is visually fantastic, full of the colour and detail a child’s fresh eye might bring to things; the sound is likewise inspired.

Full marks to composer Isabella Summers, cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, and production designer Jeremy Reed; they essentially transport a viewer into Aurora’s world.

Dust Bunny is funny, frightening and fantastical, macabre fare carried nicely by Mikkelsen and comparative newcomer Sloan, who is a delight. Their characters are played as equals — both deadpan, both world-weary — and it’s a treat to watch Sloan go toe-to-toe with Mikkelsen.

Like any decent fairy tale, Dust Bunny is full of Freudian family weirdness, magical events and impossible sights and creatures. But do not bring the kids. Dust Bunny had its world premiere at TIFF 2025.

Dust Bunny. Written and directed by Bryan Fuller. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, and Sigourney Weaver. In theatres December 12.