‘Dust Bunny’ Is Dazzling Gateway Horror from Visionary ‘Hannibal’ Creator Bryan Fuller [TIFF 2025 Review]
Bryan Fuller is finally unleashing his feature film debut with Dust Bunny, a big screen vision that’s part gateway horror, part vintage action-adventure with its influences worn like gemstones on its white-fur collar sleeves. Imagine a bizarre and colorful fusion of The Goonies meets Léon: The Professional, then make it a horror movie that’s almost appropriate for kids. The result is stylish and exceptionally charming (if slightly fluffy, excuse the pun) cinema magic.
Dust Bunny tells an odd-couple story about Aurora (Sophie Sloan), a young girl who hires what she believes is a monster hunter to eliminate the terrifying and gigantic dust bunny under her bed that has been devouring her family. Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) plays the supposed demon hunter, who turns out to be more of a hitman. His bond with Aurora inadvertently puts her in serious danger, leaving him responsible not only for defeating her monstrous dust bunny but also for protecting her from an endless parade of assassins sent after her just for knowing his face. It’s Kill Bill and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: an inventive narrative hybrid that works surprisingly well.
Visually, the film is a feast. True to Fuller’s trademark style, the details demand close attention. Food once again becomes a central motif: exquisite displays of sweets and surreal, artful dim sum, like tiny edible sculptures, complete with bunny designs, pepper the ornate settings. Elsewhere, whimsical design flourishes like a chicken lamp laying a glowing egg-shaped bulb elevate the world-building, making it colorful, abstract, and endlessly charming. And always with intention.
The performances, however, are what anchor the magic. The young Sophie Sloan as Aurora delivers a remarkable turn: sharp and intelligent without veering into precociousness, always a step ahead of the adults in her life in a way that feels natural and endearing. Mikkelsen is magnetic as the quintessential silent assassin with a prickly sense of humor and a reluctant father-figure warmth. Their dynamic is the emotional heartbeat of the story. Genre legend Sigourney Weaver delights as an unexpected antagonist capable of terrible actions but performed with such kooky charm that you almost root for her whenever she appears. David Dastmalchian (of Late Night with the Devil) pops up in a smaller role, bringing his usual eccentric energy, while the supporting assassins and FBI agents add layers of humor and menace as they’re dispatched one by one.
Beneath its whimsy, Dust Bunny has a clear thesis: it asks us to consider what the real domestic monsters are—the ones in our homes, and the ones within ourselves. The film suggests that maybe the healthiest path forward is not to banish those inner monsters, but to make peace with them, carrying them alongside us rather than hiding from them for the rest of time. After all, that’s far easier than trying to tiptoe through life on top of the furniture, without ever being able to touch the floor.
Dust Bunny can still feel a bit fluffy and light most steps of the way, never truly pushing its ideas much beyond familiar emotional safety nets. This is not necessarily a flaw. Its ornate settings, colorful production design, and stylish costumes are well-matched to this tone, but it does prevent the film from ascending into something truly exceptional and timeless, which I think it was close to achieving. The notion of befriending our trauma, soothing it, and reframing it as a misguided helper rather than malicious attacker, could have been explored more deeply. Fuller brushes up against a profound statement, but stops just short of pushing his film into the daring territory that would have made it unforgettable. That said, something tells me this was all by design, if it pleases me or not.
I also can’t help but relish in this world’s old-school charming levity and character dynamics that never insist on pushing too far into the complex, prestige or overwrought. It’s a movie through and through, and it’s one that deserves to be seen on the big screen if it’s at all possible. The design, effects and performances are all so colourful and bright, it’s like a mildly dangerous, balcony-set fireworks display in the night sky high above.
In the end, Dust Bunny is a charming, stylish, and wonderfully imaginative oddity that delights in its Rococo playground of prestige visuals and powerful performances all through the lens of gateway-horror accessibility. While it occasionally feels a bit too light to fully deliver on the weight of its themes, it remains a heartfelt story about befriending the monsters we carry with us. Fuller may not push his ideas as far into daring territory as he could, but the result is still a uniquely sweet and spooky fable that proves impossible not to enjoy. Combined with his longtime reliable brilliance as a storyteller, I’ve got imagine it’s all very much intentional.
Dust Bunny had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, September 8, 2025 as part of Midnight Madness.
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Dust Bunny
Summary
Like a dazzling, mildly dangerous display of backyard fireworks, Bryan Fuller’s ‘Dust Bunny’ is charming and stylish gateway horror.
