DUST BUNNY

DUST BUNNY

Mads Mikkelsen fights a monster

Aurora is a little girl — a streetwise trickster in a dress, clutching her stuffed animal under her arm. She has a wild imagination, which has helped her survive being shuffled from one foster family to another. The problem? Her adoptive parents have a strange habit of vanishing without a trace. Aurora blames the monster under her bed — a creature from another dimension.

When yet another set of parents mysteriously disappears, Aurora turns to her neighbor for help: an eccentric man with the fashion sense of a thrift-store queen, blood-stained socks, and the unmistakable face of Mads Mikkelsen. Most importantly, Aurora is convinced he has an impressive résumé when it comes to monster hunting. She saw him in action one night in Chinatown, when New Year’s dragons attacked him in the dark — and he fought them off with kung-fu kicks straight out of a Hong Kong action flick.

“Dust Bunny” is a dazzling piece of celluloid extravagance, the feature debut of Bryan Fuller — creator of the brilliant series “Pushing Daisies,” numerous episodes of “Hannibal” (hence his excellent rapport with Mikkelsen), and several other projects that showcased his love of retro aesthetics laced with nightmare imagery. The film features gorgeously designed monsters, deliriously detailed production design, and action sequences where excitement collides with irony — all trademarks of Fuller.

The true strength of “Dust Bunny,” a genre-bending blend of fantasy, horror, and drama, lies in its cast. The chemistry between Mikkelsen and his young co-star Sophie Sloan is sharp, witty, and surprisingly tender. Reluctantly forced into the role of a surrogate father, Mikkelsen’s character oozes sarcasm, hidden vulnerability, and dark humor — making even the scariest moments something you can lean into and enjoy in the safety of the cinema’s darkness.

This is a film that reminds every viewer what it felt like to be a child — especially one who was lonely and overrun by imagination. And it’s wickedly fun. Highlights include Mikkelsen wiping blood off the floor with his sock — and Sigourney Weaver, deliciously cast as a bossy villain in a power suit.