There’s something in the floor. At least, that’s what young Aurora (Sophie Sloan) thinks is going bump in the night. Most kids are afraid of a monster lurking under their bed or within their closet, but in Dust Bunny — a delightful horror fantasy from Bryan Fuller — there may or may not be a monster lurking under the floor under Aurora’s bed. The problem is, no one she tells seems to believe her: not her caring yet oblivious parents, and definitely not the enigmatic stranger (Mads Mikkelsen) who’s only ever seen coming and going from Apartment 5B across the hall.
The question between what’s real, and what’s the product of an overblown imagination, dominates the push and pull in Dust Bunny. Aurora’s monster feels uncomfortably real. Even if it spends the majority of the film swathed in shadows, hiding behind doors or under floorboards, the terror it inflicts in its young lead is all too tangible. So is her hope of finally defeating the beast, even if it’s a bit misplaced. Aurora believes that her neighbor is a monster hunter: when she follows him out on the town one night, she watches him take down a group of hitmen hidden in a dragon costume. We know the truth, but to Aurora’s eyes, he’s the only person capable of destroying the cause of all her sleepless nights.
