This 2025 Fantasy Movie From Hannibal's Creator Is A Must-Watch On HBO Max

Television, where episodes are made by many different writers and directors, isn't really the medium of the auteur (i.e. the idea there's a single "author" of a film). But if there is a television auteur, it's Bryan Fuller. Creator of "Dead Like Me," "Pushing Daisies," and "Hannibal," all of Fuller's shows fit his style, and no-one blends whimsy and morbid material like he does. He even took an adaptation like "Hannibal" and made it entirely his; no one will confuse Fuller's surreal and queer take on Hannibal Lecter for "The Silence of the Lambs."

Given he's such a distinctive voice even in the collaborative form of TV, it's a bit surprising Fuller took so long to direct a feature film. (The medium for which "auteur theory" was coined.) But he finally did in 2025, with "Dust Bunny" reuniting Fuller and "Hannibal" star Mads Mikkelsen. The movie barely left a scratch at the box office, given it only had a limited theatrical release, but this writer was one of the few who saw it in a theater. I can safely say that, now that "Dust Bunny" is both streaming and thriving on HBO Max (per FlixPatrol), every Fuller fan should give it a chance. It may not be the "Hannibal" sequel mini-series Fuller has said he wants to make, but him working with Mikkelsen again might remind you of why you loved that show.

But as for "Dust Bunny," what's it about? It's like a fantasy riff on "Leon: The Professional," in which a hitman (Jean Reno) raises a young girl (Natalie Portman in her first movie role as a child actor) after her parents are murdered. In "Dust Bunny," however, young Aurora (Sophie Sloan) wants her neighbor (Mikkelsen) to kill the monster under her bed who ate her parents.

From its premise, "Dust Bunny" sounds like a child's bedtime story, and, in some ways, it is — but don't think the stakes aren't real. Aurora goes to her neighbor, known only as Resident 5B, for help because she thinks that he "kills monsters." In truth, he's a simple hitman; his "killing monsters" was the film showing us his work through Aurora's childlike eyes. But if you think that means the monster under Aurora's bed isn't real, it's your funeral (as it is for many poor souls who venture into her apartment). There's another monster around, too: Laverne (Sigourney Weaver), 5B's handler, who pushes him to dispose of Aurora as a witness.

(While the monster was a practical effect, in motion, it looks cartoonish. The movie gets around this by mostly showing the monster in the dark or keeping it offscreen, like the shark in "Jaws.")

This mix of violence and childlike fantasy is nothing new for Bryan Fuller. Take "Pushing Daisies," which is a cutesy show on the surface. (One producer even blamed its cutesy scripts for "Pushing Daisies" being canceled.) It's got a candy-coated color palette, quirky dialogue, etc. But as a murder mystery, it's fundamentally a show about death, and its sense of humor is often pitch dark. 

"Hannibal" proved that Fuller could go even darker into modern gothic and straight-up horror, so "Dust Bunny" sees him pull back to the "Pushing Daises" style. That idiosyncratic approach is not for everyone, but if you do vibe with "Dust Bunny," Fuller's TV work is the definitive next step. Even though "Dust Bunny" functions perfectly as a one-off, episodic storytelling is where Fuller's talents with character-building soar highest.

"Dust Bunny" is streaming on HBO Max.