“Dust Bunny” is a whimsical fantasy adventure film about a young little girl who happens to hire a professional killer for taking care of a monster under her bad. Now this sounds pretty preposterous to you to say the least, the movie handles the story and characters with enough gravitas even while wielding deliberately its offbeat style across the screen, and we come to care about its two different main characters as occasionally amused by their absurd relationship.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes its young heroine’s serious trouble. Aurora (Sophie Sloan) has been quite terrified by some mysterious monster under her bed, but her parents, who later turn out to be her latest foster parents, do not believe her at all even though they care a lot about her. Unfortunately, this monster turns out to be not a pigment of her imagination at all, and her parents are soon killed and then eaten by it to Aurora’s horror. 

Now left alone by herself in their apartment, Aurora certainly becomes all the more terrified than before, so she decides to seek some help from the aforementioned professional killer, who happens to be one of the neighbors residing on the same floor. After watching this dude killing a “dragon” in a nearby Chinatown neighborhood, Aurora is convinced that he is the one who can take care of her big problem, so she sends him a letter with some money (How she gets that money is one of the most amusing moments in the film, by the way).

When he receives the request from Aurora, the killer, played Mads Mikkelsen, is not particularly amused. While he seems touched by Aurora’s helpless status, he does not believe much of what she tells him, and what follows next is a series of funny moments as he tries to handle his situation with her as tactfully as possible. He comes to stay with Aurora in her apartment, and he willingly goes along with her several cautions involved with that monster, though he does not still believe her monster at all.

Meanwhile, things become a bit more complicated for this mismatched duo. When the killer later notifies that Aurora witnessed what he did in that Chinatown neighborhood, his no-nonsense handler, played by Sigourney Weaver, is not so pleased about that because their business does not allow any witness at all. In addition, the killer and Aurora are visited by a female social service worker, who instantly senses something strange is going on in Aurora’s apartment even though she does not say anything too directly.

As its story becomes more absurd, the movie cheerfully throws a lot of offbeat style upon the screen. Because of the numerous stylized aspects in the film, we come to accept its decidedly unrealistic background, and Aurora’s monster feels all the more real even though it does not reveal itself a lot during the first half of the movie. At the beginning, we only see how it grows from a little dust ball as reflected by the very title of the film, and then it becomes quite terrifying as swiftly moving beneath the floor of Aurora’s apartment.

The screenplay by Bryan Fuller, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several acclaimed American TV series including “Hannibal”, dexterously goes back and forth between humor and drama as its two main characters pull and push each other along the story. Yes, it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our gruff killer hero comes to care a lot more about Aurora than expected, but it is still engaging to observe how they gradually bond with each other along the story, and we naturally come to root for both of them when they have to face not only the monster but also some other trouble involved with the killer.

Needless to say, the movie depends much on the chemistry between its two lead performers. Mikkelson, who can be both intense and humorous as shown from his darkly amusing performance as Dr. Hannibal Lector in “Hannibal”, dutifully holds the ground for his younger co-star, but he also reminds us again that he is quite good at comedy as shown from “Another Round” (2020) and “Riders of Justice” (2020). While fairly convincing in several action scenes of the film, he also adds a sense of deadpan humor to them without any misstep, and his unflappable appearance in the film often functions as its main source of humor.

On the opposite, young performer Sophie Sloane holds her own place well with her natural charm and pluck. Thanks to her good performance, we are engaged in her growing fear toward that monster, and we are not so disappointed at all when it is fully shown on the screen at last. It may look a bit ridiculous, but it looks quite scary with its very, very, very sharp teeth, and the movie has some nasty fun with its brutal nature.

In case of several notable cast members placed around the fringe of the story, they also have each own small moment to shine. Weaver clearly enjoys every minute of her brief but juicy appearance in the film, and she and Mikkelsen did a good job of conveying to us an old history between their characters. Sheila Atim and David Dastmalchian are also effective in their respective supporting parts, and Atim is subtly funny when her social service worker character confronts Mikkelsen’s character at one point in the story. 

Overall, “Dust Bunny” is a competent genre flick packed with enough style, wit, and personality, and Fuller made a modest but solid start for his nascent filmmaking career. Considering how skillfully he showed his own touches in “Hannibal” and his several other TV series, he is a promising filmmaker in my trivial opinion, and it will be interesting to see what he will direct next.