Bryan Fuller was stunned that his monster movie Dust Bunny got an R rating
Two years ago, Hannibal TV series creator Bryan Fuller went into production on the family-oriented horror project Dust Bunny, which marks his feature directorial debut. Now, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are gearing up to send Dust Bunny out into theatres on December 12th – and on its way to the big screen, the film, which Fuller envisioned as being a gateway horror movie for younger viewers and a throwback to the family horror films of the ’80s, received a surprising rating from the MPA: it’s rated R for some violence. During an interview with The Horror Queers podcast, Fuller said he was “stunned” when he heard of the rating.
The story of Dust Bunny involves a 10-year-old girl who joins forces with her hit man neighbor to confront each other’s monsters. Here’s the synopsis: Ten-year-old Aurora has a mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters. He’s a hit man for hire. So, when Aurora needs help killing the monster she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that her parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, Aurora’s neighbor guiltily takes the job. Now, to protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins ― and accept that some monsters are real. The film stars Hannibal himself Mads Mikkelsen, along with Sigourney Weaver (Alien), David Dastmalchian (Late Night With the Devil) and Sophie Sloan (Chemistry of Death). Weaver told New York Social Diary that her character is “not so nice,” despite having “really beautiful costumes.”
Fuller produced the film with Entertainment One and Thunder Road‘s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee.
Speaking with The Horror Queers, Fuller said (with thanks to Bloody Disgusting for the transcription), “This is an R-rated film. We were stunned, too. The MPA is notorious about being really hard on independent movies and a little more lax on studio films. … I mean, M3GAN murdered children and ripped their ears off and slaughtered somebody with a paper cutter, and that was PG-13. [Dust Bunny has] no nudity. There’s no foul language. You know, it’s a conversation with the MPAA We got an R rating. They said what put us over the edge was the non-lethal toothbrush injury. I thought we were making a movie for the whole family, and I definitely wanted it to be a gateway experience where 10-year-olds would see this movie and say, ‘Yes, give me more.‘ That was certainly my experience seeing The Wizard of Oz and having my appetite whetted. And then, seeing Alien when I was nine years old and seeing Black Christmas when I was seven, and those types of things that I loved. I wasn’t traumatized by them. I was just excited to see people survive their stories. … I thought this was a family film, and so many people who have seen it feel like it’s a family film. I hope it’s a lot of kids’ first R-rated movie that they get to see and experience. I would tell adults, ‘Look, if you’re on the fence, see it first, and you’ll see that it’s a really fun, rompy movie about a child, who is wonderful in the film and a great heroine and protagonist, that can be aspirational for other children her age.‘“
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray got the chance to watch Dust Bunny at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) a while back and gave it a 6/10 review, saying the movie is “a lot of fun. Mikkelsen and Sloan’s chemistry, combined with Fuller’s eccentric vision, makes it feel refreshingly original.”
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