After a long career in TV, Bryan Fuller decided to leap to the movie screen. At the age of 56, 2025’s Dust Bunny represents his cinematic debut.

Young Aurora (Sophie Sloan) believes a monster lives under her bed. When her parents (Caspar Phillipson and Line Kruse) end up slaughtered, she blames this creature.

A real-life hitman, Aurora’s neighbor in Apartment 5B (Mads Mikkelsen) suspects that her folks ended up dead due to assassins who actually targeted him. When Aurora asks 5B to take down the “monster” that slew her folks, he agrees as an act of penance, a choice that leads to a variety of violent clashes.

As mentioned at the start, Bunny represented Fuller’s feature film debut after years of TV work. In terms of finances, it represents a less than promising launch, as the film earned barely $1 million worldwide.

Did Bunny deserve a better fate? Yeah, though it can feel like Fuller pushes too hard to make it a Big Cinematic Statement.

Perhaps Fuller figured Bunny might become his one and only shot at a feature film. Given its financial failures, that might prove accurate.

It does feel like he throws every idea he can conjure at the screen in an effort to go all-out for his first theatrical release. This can make Bunny feel like it tries too hard to dazzle us.

Don’t get me wrong: I admire the ambition Fuller brings to Bunny. Essentially a mix of fairy tale and John Wick, it definitely attempts to give us something different.

And it succeeds in that regard. While we can see influences such as Terry Gilliam’s sense of whimsy and fantasy, Fuller nonetheless delivers a film that doesn’t fit into the usual genre categories.

Unfortunately, “something different” doesn’t necessarily mean “something good”. While Bunny sparks to life at times, too often it feels somewhat muddled and slow.

The story takes far too long to really kick into gear, and Bunny tends to dally too often. Though it doesn’t need to zip along at a relentless pace, it feels as though Fuller came up with enough content for a short film that he then prolonged to fill 106 minutes.

Much of Bunny shows us the world from Aurora’s POV, and that can become an effective story-telling technique. However, it varies in its perspective in ways that don’t really make sense, especially since this sense of child-like fear and wonder pervades scenes that don’t involve Aurora.

For instance, even though Aurora witnesses the way 5B kills “a dragon”, the sequence shows what really happens. However, it does so in a manner that still feels like it comes from Aurora’s viewpoint, and that doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Other scenes without Aurora still provide a quirky impression of whimsy. For example, when 5B meets with his adviser Laverne (Signorney Weaver), it adapts the same jaunty vibe seen with other Aurora-focused sequences.

This becomes a perplexing choice. It makes no obvious sense that a serious discussion of assassins and violence comes with jovial music and a light tone.

At its core, Bunny feels like it wants to give us a tale of the burgeoning role of 5B as surrogate parent. It only dabbles in that domain, though, mainly because it casts so a broad net.

To be sure, even though it runs too long, Bunny comes with enough crazed ambition to keep us with it. A good cast helps, as the actors fill out their roles well.

Too much of Bunny simply feels like a mix of Big Cinematic Moments awkwardly combined into one semi-coherent project. While I admire its guts and gusto, it can’t live up to its ambitions.

Footnote: a very brief tag scene appears early in the end credits.

Dust Bunny appears in an aspect ratio of 3.00:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K production, the Dolby Vision image handled that crazy wide 3.00:1 frame with aplomb.

For the most part, sharpness worked well. A little softness occasionally hit some wide elements, but the majority of the movie boasted accurate delineation.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I witnessed no instances of edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to mar the proceedings.

To the surprise of no one, Bunny heavily emphasized teal and orange. Tedious as these choices seemed, the disc replicated the hues as intended and HDR gave them emphasis.

Blacks seemed dense and deep, while shadows offered appropriate smoothness and clarity. HDR added impact to contrast and whites. The 4K UHD reproduced the film well.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added oomph to the proceedings, as the soundscape opened up matters in a positive manner. Music offered nice breadth and filled the channels in a consistent manner.

With a mix of lively scenes, the soundfield offered a lot of chances for fireworks, and it used them well. All the usual action components popped up and created an involving impression, especially given the film’s fantasy bent.

Audio quality appeared good, with speech that came across as natural and distinctive. Effects also seemed accurate and tight, with clear reproduction of these components.

Music worked well, as the songs/score boasted solid range and dimensionality. This became a more than satisfactory track for the film.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we get a mix of video programs. Making Dust Bunny spans 11 minutes, 56 seconds and involves writer/director Bryan Fuller, executive producer Charlie Morrison, producer Erica Lee, costume designers Catherine Leterrier and Olivier Beriot, production designer Jeremy Reed, director of photography Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, key artist Mike Manzel and Cary Gunnar Lee, mechanical department Lon Muckey, and actors Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, and Sophie Sloan.

The featurette looks at story, characters and inspirations, style and tone, cast and performances, costumes, sets and visual design, cinematography, and various effects. The program offers a few useful tidbits but it mostly feels promotional and superficial.

Monster Craft occupies a mere 36 seconds and gives us notes from Fuller, Sloan and Mikkelsen about the title creature’s design. Far too short to give us anything of interest, it exists as an ad for the film.

Next comes Q&A Sizzle, a quick 43-second reel with Fuller and Mikkelsen as they discuss aspects of the film’s development. Like “Craft”, it tells us little of value and just tries to sell the movie.

At 26 seconds, Cute to Cutthroat continues the parade of ridiculously short reels and features Mikkelsen, Weaver, and Sloan as they talk about the title character. Expect zero substance.

Mads Choreography Video (1:01) shows the actor as he uses action figures to play out one of the movie’s violent scenes. We don’t learn anything but it offers silly charm.

Finally, Cast Explainers (0:32) brings quick remarks from Mikkelsen, Weaver and Sloan as they relate some story/character elements. Yes, it simply promotes the film.

Essentially a mix of childhood fable and violent action flick, Dust Bunny gets credit for its ambition. Unfortunately, it doesn’t connect on a consistent basis and becomes an up and down cinematic experience. The 4K UHD boasts excellent picture and audio but it lacks substantial supplements. Bunny shows promise but doesn’t quite click.