Dust Bunny (2025)
Director: Bryan Fuller
Writer: Bryan Fuller
Release Dates: September 9, 2025 (TIFF); December 12, 2025 (United States)
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen (Resident 5B), Sophie Sloan (Aurora), Sigourney Weaver (Laverne), Sheila Atim (Brenda), David Dastmalchian (Conspicuously Inconspicuous Man), Rebecca Henderson (Intimidating Woman)
Plot: Eight-year-old Aurora lives in an unnamed city with her two parents, where she’s intrigued by the nocturnal exploits of her neighbor across the hall in unit 5B. One night she sneaks out and witnesses him defeat a “dragon” in Chinatown — in reality, several armed gang members hiding under a dragon costume.
Aurora becomes convinced there is a monster under her bed. She warns her parents to avoid stepping on the floor, which she says will trigger its appearance, but they brush aside her concerns and attempt to soothe her. After telling them “Goodbye” one evening, she hears them being attacked and wakes up alone in a ravaged apartment.
Aurora tries to hire Resident 5B to kill the monster, as she believes he did in Chinatown. Convinced her parents were really killed by assassins who were looking for him, he tells his handler Laverne that he feels a responsibility to protect her.
That evening two hitmen arrive in Aurora’s apartment. 5B kills one after a hand-to-hand battle; the other is consumed by an unseen force. As Aurora and 5B work together to hide the evidence, they narrowly avoiding the questioning of Brenda, her child protection agent who informs 5B that Aurora’s parents were fostering her.
Aurora becomes more deeply immersed in 5B’s world. They meet with a chagrined Laverne, who reveals to 5B that she hired Aurora’s attackers to remove loose ends, as well as with a nameless assassin who has a bounty on 5B.
The assassin and his team follow them home and converge on Aurora’s apartment. Brenda returns as well, revealing that she is an FBI agent tracking the disappearance of Aurora’s previous three families. 5B, the FBI, and the hitmen engage in a fierce firefight that ends when the monster — a vicious, giant bunny that emerges from the floors — consumes everyone except Aurora.
After 5B emerges from the floor, spat out by the monster due to a previously applied coating of thumb-sucking deterrent, Laverne arrives to finish the job. Before she can shoot Aurora the monster re-emerges to consume her and attack 5B. Aurora ends the rampage by standing in front of him, telling the monster, “No.”
5B tells Aurora that the monster is hers and she must learn to control it. Together they leave the city to start anew. As they drive on a sunny highway, the monster is seen running alongside the car.
* * *
The Monster She Keeps
by Chris Montanelli
Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny is the kind of picture that restores your faith in what movies can still be when someone with genuine vision gets to make one. Here is a film that arrives in theaters with virtually no marketing muscle behind it, a film that most audiences will never hear about, and yet it has more genuine personality in its opening ten minutes than the entire holiday blockbuster slate combined. Fuller, the television creator who gave us the gorgeous perversity of “Hannibal” and the candy-colored mortality of “Pushing Daisies,” has finally made his feature directorial debut, and what he’s delivered is something genuinely peculiar: a fairy tale about a hired killer and an orphan that somehow manages to be both a brutal action picture and a warm embrace.
The setup is deceptively simple. Eight-year-old Aurora, played by the remarkable Sophie Sloan with a gravity that belies her age, lives in a fantastical apartment building that looks like it was designed by Gustav Klimt during a fever dream. Her neighbor in unit 5B, known only by his address, is a professional assassin played by Mads Mikkelsen with the kind of deadpan stoicism that disguises genuine feeling. When Aurora’s parents are devoured by the monster she’s been warning them about—a creature that emerges when feet touch the floor beside her bed—she does the logical thing: she empties a church’s collection plate and attempts to hire the man she watched “slay a dragon” in Chinatown. The dragon, of course, was actually a gang of armed men hiding inside a parade costume, but to Aurora’s eyes, 5B is a warrior capable of vanquishing anything.
What Fuller understands, and what makes Dust Bunny work despite its wobbles, is that the line between metaphor and reality doesn’t need to be policed with bureaucratic precision. Aurora’s monster is both literally real—a vicious giant rabbit-creature that consumes assassins and FBI agents with equal appetite—and a manifestation of the trauma that has followed this foster child through three previous families. The film never asks us to choose between interpretations because it doesn’t care about that kind of intellectual tidiness. It cares about a scared little girl who has learned to be wise beyond her years because wisdom is what orphans develop instead of security.
Sloan is the discovery here, and I mean that in the fullest sense. She holds her own against Mikkelsen, which would be an accomplishment for any actor, let alone a child making her first significant screen appearance. There’s a weariness in her performance, a sense that Aurora has seen enough disappointment to expect nothing but more of it, that gives her precociousness real weight. She’s a kid who has had to become her own protector, her gravity earned through survival rather than scripted with an adult screenwriter’s wit. When she explains her predicament to 5B with the exhausted patience of someone waiting for adults to catch up, you believe absolutely in her intelligence and her vulnerability.
Mikkelsen, for his part, does something rather lovely with 5B. He’s been playing variations on cold menace for years now, and he’s brilliant at it, but here he gets to let the mask slip gradually over the course of the film. The character is initially opaque, defined by his Bruce Lee tracksuits and his methodical violence, but as his bond with Aurora deepens, Mikkelsen reveals the loneliness underneath. The revelation that his handler Laverne—played by Sigourney Weaver with the lupine hunger of someone who might devour you whole—is actually his mother adds a layer of psychological texture to what could have been a one-dimensional tough guy. 5B protects Aurora because he recognizes something of himself in her isolation, a kinship that runs deeper than his guilt over the assassins who came for her.
Weaver is having a ball here. Laverne is all refined menace and wolfish smiles, a fixer with impeccable manners and absolutely no mercy. She’s the wicked stepmother of this fairy tale, except she’s 5B’s actual mother, which makes the dynamic even more perverse. When she arrives in the climax to “finish the job,” the confrontation carries the weight of genuine family dysfunction. There’s something about Weaver’s face in this film—unnervingly smooth, digitally enhanced perhaps—that adds to her unreality, as if Laverne exists slightly outside the human register, which of course she does, at least in any meaningful emotional sense.
Fuller has constructed his film as a visual confection, and this is both its glory and occasionally its weakness. The production design by Jeremy Reed creates an Art Nouveau fantasia, shot on location in Budapest using buildings by the architect Ödön Lechner that look like they were grown rather than built. The color palette is aggressively vibrant, full of the same candy hues that made “Pushing Daisies” look like a storybook illustration come to life. There are moments when this aesthetic abundance tips into fussiness, when the camera swoops and slides with a restlessness that suggests Fuller doesn’t quite trust his audience to appreciate a static frame. But more often, the stylization serves the material, creating a world where the boundary between the ordinary and the marvelous has simply dissolved.
The action sequences are uneven. Fuller is not a natural choreographer of violence, and some of the fight scenes have a clunky quality that undercuts their intended impact. The CGI monster, when it finally appears in full, is more endearing than terrifying—a giant dust bunny that looks like it escaped from a particularly nightmarish children’s book. But the climactic battle, in which assassins, FBI agents, and the monster converge on Aurora’s apartment in a bloody free-for-all, achieves a kind of lunatic grandeur. When 5B survives being swallowed by the creature only because he’d coated himself in thumb-sucking deterrent—a detail so specific it has to be invention—the film earns its absurdist credentials.
What finally makes Dust Bunny affecting rather than merely eccentric is its emotional sincerity. Fuller commits fully to a film about how children survive the unsurvivable. When 5B tells Aurora at the end that the monster is hers, that she must learn to control it, he’s articulating something true about trauma and agency. The monster is something to be integrated, to be lived with. The final image—Aurora and 5B driving down a sunny highway while the monster lopes alongside their car—is ridiculous and tender in equal measure. This is a film that knows the difference between a happy ending and a hopeful one.
Dust Bunny will probably disappear without a trace, the victim of poor distribution and audience appetite only for sequels and franchise extensions. That’s a shame, because what Fuller has made here is exactly the kind of mid-budget oddity that Hollywood has largely abandoned: a film with personality, a film that takes genuine risks, a film that trusts its audience to follow it into strangeness. It’s flawed, yes, but flawed through ambition and risk rather than caution and calculation. I’ll take Fuller’s messy vitality over corporate competence any day.
* * *
Transcript
Note for Students & Writers: This transcript is archived here for educational purposes, critical analysis, and screenwriting study. All rights belong to the original creators.
[insects trilling]
[dog barking in distance]
[vehicles droning]
[unsettling music playing]
[unsettling music continues]
[rumbling]
[suspenseful music plays]
[shuddering breaths]
[creaking, rumbling]
[creaking, rumbling]
[dust bunny growls]
[screaming loudly]
[rumbling, thudding]
There’s something under my bed.
[breathing heavily]
Don’t touch the floor.
It can’t get you if you don’t touch the floor.
[breathing heavily]
[floor creaks]
There’s nothing under your bed.
Nothing but dust bunnies.
I know.
He’ll eat you.
Go to sleep, Aurora.
[door clacks]
Good night, Aurora.
[door creaks]
[Aurora breathing heavily]
[light bulb clicks]
[breathing heavily]
[car horns honking in distance]
[breathing heavily]
[rumbling, growling]
[tense music playing]
[growling]
[Aurora] I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish, I wish. I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish, I wish, I wish…
[door opens]
[footsteps tapping]
[door closes]
[soft playful music playing]
[mouse squeaking]
[Mother] Aurora?
Yeah?
[Mother] Get up here.
[elevator clanks]
[door thuds]
[keys jangle]
[grunts softly]
[paper rustles]
[keys jangle]
[button buzzes]
[elevator rumbles, clanks]
[elevator bell dings]
[door creaks]
[buzzes]
[door thuds]
[elevator bell dings]
[door creaks, thuds]
[Mother] Come on.
[door clicks, creaks]
[car horns honking in distance]
[footsteps tapping]
[ladder thuds]
[fireworks exploding in distance]
[fireworks exploding]
[siren wailing]
[mouse squeaking]
[fireworks exploding]
[mice squeaking]
[mysterious music playing]
[explosions continue]
[indistinct shouting]
[car horn honking]
[bicycle bell rings]
[explosions continue]
[shouting continues]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
[upbeat drum music playing]
[fireworks whistling]
[fireworks exploding]
[fireworks whistling]
[sizzling, popping loudly]
[intense action music playing]
[grunting]
[parade dragon growling, roaring]
[Intriguing Neighbor grunting]
[parade men grunt, yell]
[firecrackers whistling, exploding]
[parade dragon growling]
[parade dragon roaring]
[clinks]
[parade man grunts]
[clinking]
[groans, thuds]
[parade men grunting]
[parade man grunts, groans]
[both grunting]
[parade dragon roars]
[grunts]
[parade dragon roars]
[all grunting]
[Intriguing Neighbor grunts]
[parade dragon roars]
[intense action music continues]
[music stops]
[fireworks exploding]
[panting]
[soft playful music playing]
[breathes deeply]
[elevator whirring]
[breathing heavily]
[thuds]
[elevator bell dings]
[button buzzes]
[whirring]
[thuds]
[blood drips]
[elevator bell dings]
[door opens]
[blood drips]
[elevator door closes]
[keys jangle]
[blood drips]
[breathes deeply]
[soft whimsical music playing]
[effort grunts]
[door creaks]
[Mother] Aurora?
[Father] Aurora!
[Mother] What are you doing out there?
How’d you get outside?
Get in here. Are you okay?
Get in here.
[door creaks, thuds]
[door creaks, thuds]
[muffled, indistinct chatter]
[water dripping]
[tense music playing]
[dust bunny growling]
[Father] I don’t like you going to bed so upset, Aurora. [echoing] I want you to think about all your worries and put them in my pocket. Everything you’re afraid of. Everything you’re afraid will happen.
Put it all in my pocket and I’ll hold it for you so you can sleep.
[insects trilling outside]
[Father] Hmm?
Are all your worries in there?
[shuddering breaths]
Oh. Boop.
[chuckles lightly]
Good night, Aurora.
Goodbye, Daddy.
You’re too old to suck your knuckle.
You’re gonna get buck teeth.
Good night, Aurora.
Goodbye, Mommy.
[light switch clicks]
[door creaks]
[shuddering breaths]
[light switch clicks]
[dust bunny growling]
[breathing heavily]
[floorboard rumbling, thudding]
[breathing heavily]
[dust bunny growling]
[rumbling continues]
[dust bunny growling intensifies]
[shuddering breaths]
[dust bunny growling]
[Mother] Aurora?
[Father] Aurora?
What is going on in there?
[loud thud]
[dust bunny growls]
[door opens]
[Father] Aurora?
[dust bunny growling]
[Father and Mother screaming]
[screaming continues, stops]
[soft music playing]
[elevator bell dings]
[elevator rattles]
[cars honking in distance]
[birds chirping]
[alarm blaring]
[alarm blaring continues]
[thuds]
[ottoman rolling] Mom?
[alarm blaring]
Mom?
[munching]
[door clacks]
[dog pants]
[elevator bell dings]
[dark music playing]
[sighs deeply]
[dust bunny growling]
[door rumbling, creaking]
[door breathing deeply]
[shuddering breaths]
[keys turn, jangles]
[door creaks, thuds]
[sighs deeply]
[ottoman rolling]
[leaves fluttering]
[exhales sharply]
[grape thuds, rolls]
[breathing heavily]
[tense music playing]
[sighs]
[bed rattles, creaks]
[gasps]
[bed creaks]
[loud thud]
[floorboard creaking]
[shuddering breaths]
[tense music rising]
[switch clicks]
[rumbling]
[Aurora breathing heavily]
[monster growling, chewing]
[loud thud]
[bulb shatters]
[electricity buzzes, stops]
[monster growling, huffs]
[growling continues]
[growling continues]
[monster roaring]
[gasps, pants]
[monster growls]
[intense music swells]
[panting]
[monster growling]
[rumbling intensifies]
[monster roaring]
[monster sniffing]
[shuddering breaths]
[growling]
[bed creaks]
[breathing heavily]
[monster growling]
[monster roaring]
[monster sniffing]
[growling, roaring continues]
[floorboard rumbling]
[breathing heavily]
[dark whimsical music plays]
[birds chirping]
[bed creaks]
[exhales softly]
[soft whimsical music playing]
[tense musical sting]
[upbeat music begins]
♪ Our Father,
who art in heaven ♪
♪ Hallowed be Thy name ♪
♪ Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done ♪
♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪
♪ Our Father,
who art in heaven ♪
♪ Hallowed be Thy name ♪
♪ Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done ♪
♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪
♪ Give us this day
our daily bread ♪
♪ Forgive us our trespasses ♪
♪ As we forgive them
who trespass against us ♪
♪ Forgive us
our trespasses, oh ♪
♪ Our Father,
who art in heaven ♪
♪ Hallowed be Thy name ♪
♪ Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done ♪
♪ On earth
as it is in heaven… ♪
[song ends]
[elevator bell dings]
[whirring]
[coins clinking]
[thuds]
[elevator bell dings]
[coins clinking]
[elevator rattles, whirs]
[object clunks]
[footsteps receding]
[keys jangle]
[door creaks, thuds]
[coins clink]
[paper bills rustle]
[chicken lamp squeaks]
[switch clicks]
[electricity buzzes]
[knock on door]
[footsteps tapping]
Is that enough money?
For what?
To procure your services.
I haven’t counted it.
How do you know the word “procure”?
Wordaday calendar.
[elevator bell dings]
[coins clink]
[switch clicks]
[electricity buzzes]
[coins clinking]
[switch clicking]
[switch clicks]
[electricity buzzes] What’s your name?
Or is “A” your name?
Aurora. What’s your name?
[clears throat]
I’ve got 327 dollars and…
42 cents here, Aurora.
[breathes deeply]
Where’d you get all this money?
I robbed a church.
Is that enough to kill a monster?
What makes you think I kill monsters?
I saw you kill one.
What did you see?
[switch clicks]
[Aurora] In Chinatown.
[switch clicks]
[electricity buzzes] Behind a dim sum restaurant.
[switch clicks]
I saw a dragon.
[switch clicks]
[electricity buzzes] And you killed it.
You saw me kill a dragon?
How did I kill it, Aurora?
You slid under its belly…
[switch clicks]
…gut it like a fish.
[switch clicks]
And then you cut off its head.
You got some imagination.
I got two eyes.
[gulps]
Monsters aren’t real.
[Aurora] Yes, they are.
Don’t pretend.
Grownups don’t pretend.
Grownups pretend not to be afraid.
But they are. All the time.
That’s mostly true.
Erora…
Aurora.
Erora.
Aurora.
Little girl… have you told your parents I kill monsters?
[switch clicks]
[switch clicks]
Stop it.
[switch clicks]
What do your parents think about monsters?
Do they believe in them?
They do now.
Now they do?
They didn’t before, but now they do.
It’s hard not to believe in something when it’s eating you.
Ate you.
A monster ate your parents?
Yep.
Like the one you think you saw me slide under its belly and gut like a fish?
Yeah.
And this monster lives under your bed?
Yes.
[paper rustles]
Show me.
[soft music playing]
[breathes deeply]
[clacks]
[door creaks, thuds]
[exhales sharply]
Did you see it eat your parents?
I was under my blanket.
You just heard them getting eaten?
I just… heard them getting got.
[ottoman rolling]
That’s my mom and dad’s room.
I think they tried to hide in there.
There’s no blood.
Generally, when something is eaten, there’s blood.
It ate them whole.
[Intriguing Neighbor sighs]
[sighs deeply]
Did your mom or dad have a gun?
Somebody had a gun.
You hear a gun go off?
Told you so.
This all looks like it made some noise.
Your parents didn’t call for help?
You have neighbors.
No one heard this?
It eats everything.
It even eats your screams.
Will it eat your “I told you so” when it eats me?
I’ll tell you “I told you so” now, and when you get eaten, you’ll know I already told you so.
[tense music playing]
[sighs]
Why didn’t you go to the police?
Why aren’t you going to the police now?
I don’t know what I would tell them.
See?
[inhales]
I could tell them, uh, there’s a little girl who’s been abandoned by her parents.
You can tell them that.
After you kill it.
[Aurora munching]
I’m trying to understand this the way you understand this, little girl. [exhales] The monster you think you saw me kill…
I know, I saw you kill it.
Your monster, it’s like that?
That’s why I hired you.
[coins clink]
I haven’t agreed to be hired.
I don’t know what you saw behind that dim sum restaurant but I didn’t kill any monsters.
I didn’t kill anything.
[Intriguing Neighbor munches]
That’s really why you won’t go to the police.
Killing things is against the law.
Have you killed a lot of things?
You seem like you’ve killed a lot of things.
[exhales deeply]
In my experience, the sort of monster that can eat a person whole and not spill a drop does not do so randomly.
Are you done pretending now?
I’m seeing things how you see things.
[breathes deeply]
Why would a monster eat your family?
They touched the floor.
If your monster’s like mine, it doesn’t eat people for walking on the floor.
Why did your monster want to eat you?
[breathes deeply]
Because I kill monsters.
Hmm.
Yeah. Uh, go home, little girl.
There’s something under my bed that wants to eat me.
Then don’t touch the floor.
[dramatic violin music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[chuckles]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
[Laverne sighs]
Didn’t think I’d see you again.
I’d hug you, but as you know, I really don’t put effort into such things.
You ordered a sandwich?
I did.
You want half?
[bell dings]
[inhales deeply]
I’m trying to unclench my jaw.
It’s in a perpetual state of clench, so I have to… uh, release it… [whiffs] so it doesn’t pop out of my skull when I take a bite of food.
[inhales]
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm, mm.
Mm, mm, mm.
Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
Mm.
Either of these familiar?
Should they be?
They’re my neighbors.
Professionally disappeared.
You’ve actually met your neighbors?
I’m aware of them.
Daughter was home when it happened.
She see it?
She heard it.
Thought it was a monster under her bed.
You’re looking for a monster?
The monster’s looking for me.
And I think that monster got the wrong apartment.
Monster’s lucky it got the wrong apartment.
Must have broken in and realized their mistake.
Had to kill the parents who’d seen them.
That girl didn’t see anything.
They let her live.
I’ll take a look at these.
[sighs]
How do you know the little girl didn’t see anything?
She told me she didn’t see anything.
She saw you.
There’s a little girl who knows your face.
She know what you do?
She doesn’t know anything.
She saw monsters.
She believes in monsters.
You’re a monster.
She believe in you?
I’m not gonna kill a little girl.
Because you already killed her parents?
You did not kill that girl’s parents.
Ah, I almost certainly, if not at least arguably, did.
[sighs]
A cheetah kills a baboon.
Discovers its baby is still clinging onto dead mom.
What’s the cheetah do?
Doesn’t eat the baby.
Even a cheetah knows it’s an asshole thing to orphan a child.
Yeah, I saw that Nat Geo.
Baby died anyway.
Cheetah moved on.
So should you.
[shuddering breaths]
[floorboard creaking]
[monster growling]
[elevator bell dings]
[clacks]
[breathing heavily]
[monster growling]
[keys jangle]
[clanking]
[clacking]
[door creaks]
[ottoman rolling]
Get off the floor!
A monster’s coming.
Get under your bed.
There’s a monster under my bed.
Get in the closet then.
[door slams]
[elevator bell dings]
[elevator rattles]
[switch clicks]
[effort grunts]
[clinks, thuds]
[tense music plays]
[door creaks]
[tense music continues]
[footsteps tap]
[floorboard creaks]
[both grunting]
[impact grunts]
[groans, pants]
[knife clinks]
[both grunting]
[Formidable Man groans]
[groans]
[shuddering breaths]
[tense music continues]
[gunshots continue]
[grunting]
[thuds]
[groans]
[impact grunts]
[muffled grunting]
[shuddering breaths]
[men grunting continues]
[labored grunting]
[effort grunts]
[groans]
[both panting]
[both grunting]
[panting]
[labored grunting]
[impact grunting]
[panting]
[both grunting]
[labored grunting]
[effort grunts]
[stifled groans]
[tense music rising]
[music fades]
[Aurora breathing heavily]
[footsteps approaching]
[breathing heavily]
[creaking]
[breathing heavily]
[intense music swells]
[monster growls]
[Formidable Woman screaming]
[monster roaring]
[screaming continues]
[monster roaring]
[breathes deeply]
[exhales]
Was there someone in here?
[breathing heavily]
They get out the fire escape?
She got got.
[breathes deeply]
Your monster?
[breathes deeply]
[stomps feet]
I’m touching the floor.
Where’s your monster now?
Why’s it not here?
It’s eating.
[shuddering breaths]
[breathes deeply]
[Intriguing Neighbor] Come here.
[somber music plays]
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
If there was someone in your room and they got away, they will be back.
They didn’t get away.
Stay there.
[mysterious music plays]
[exhales deeply]
[grunts softly]
[grunts softly]
[creaks]
[tense music swells]
[Intriguing Neighbor grunts]
[whimsical music playing]
What are you doing?
[body thuds]
[pants]
[breathes deeply]
I’m draining his fluids so when I cut him into pieces, it won’t be messy.
Why do you have to cut him into pieces?
[sighs] I have to get rid of the body.
Why don’t you just put it in my room?
Let the monster eat him.
[breathes deeply]
Have you ever been to a butcher?
Yes.
What I need to do is like what they do with pigs and cows at the butcher, but with a person.
Only we’re trying to get him in a suitcase, not our stomachs.
I love pigs.
Ah, a cow, then.
So anything you’re comfortable with being done to a cow, you should be fine with me doing to this guy.
Can I watch?
No.
[loud thud]
[sighs]
[playful music playing]
[metal clanking, scraping]
[object clacking]
[object clinking]
You can’t tell he’s people anymore.
You can help me wrap up the pieces, if you want.
[Aurora chuckles lightly]
Who was he?
A killer.
Did he come to kill the monster?
Oh, you have to stop talking about monsters.
A monster didn’t eat your parents.
Your parents were killed.
Did someone cut them into pieces?
[Intriguing Neighbor sighs]
[clears throat]
He came to kill me.
Or you.
He came to kill one of us.
Me, for my reasons.
You, for my mistake.
Why would he wanna kill me?
There was no monster in Chinatown.
Those were men.
A monster didn’t kill your parents.
Those were men who wanted to kill me because of monsters I’ve killed.
Monsters who were men.
You don’t have to feel bad because a monster
ate my parents.
Stop saying that.
Just ’cause you don’t want it to be that way doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be that way.
‘Cause that’s the way it is.
A monster ate my parents.
A monster will always eat my parents, unless you kill it.
I’d love to believe there was a monster under your bed,
little girl.
[object clacks] Happiest I’ve ever been was believing
in something impossible.
You’re gonna be very happy.
[knock on door]
[tense music plays]
[door creaks]
Hi.
I’m Brenda Bautista with Child and Family Services.
[ottoman rolls]
Are you Aurora’s…
Yes.
Hello, Aurora.
Hi.
We had an appointment.
We did?
If you’d like, I can give you a few minutes to get yourself together.
This isn’t coming together anytime soon.
We’ll have to reschedule.
It’s challenging being a parent.
[Brenda] Hmm. Particularly being a foster parent.
Yeah.
Particularly… being a foster parent.
[ottoman rolls]
We’re the first… family to come into her life since what happened.
And trust isn’t easy in the best of circumstances.
[clears throat]
Third family.
You’re her third foster family.
They did go over that with you, right?
And you do know that?
Yes. Of course.
Of course, I’m-I’m speaking in that we’re the first family to come into her life since the last family did so.
And I’ve always been… [coughs] I’m sorry.
I’m under the weather.
We are all under the weather here.
You shouldn’t come any closer, or inside.
I was hoping I could use your restroom.
No.
[door creaks]
I should tell you and I hate to tell you this because I know how it sounds, but if you fail to keep your appointment, it does go on your permanent record.
Brenda, you know how that sounds,
and you still said it anyway.
I know. It’s not a threat.
I know. Let’s reschedule.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Bye-bye.
[shakes hands]
You should wash your hand.
[door thuds] Hmm.
That’s not your social worker.
[elevator bell dings]
[button buzzes] That’s not her foster father.
[thuds]
[playful music continues]
[indistinct chatter]
So, this is your third family.
How many of your families has this monster eaten?
All of them.
All of them?
And no one believes you?
Nope.
[Intriguing Neighbor breathes deeply] Maybe we approach this scientifically.
Children are scientists.
You don’t play, you experiment.
Gather data. Analyze.
But your heads are so full of shit and Santa Claus, you don’t know what’s real.
[inhales]
[thuds]
I know what’s real.
No.
You think you know.
You think you know.
[water running]
[breathes deeply]
Where did your monster come from?
I wished for it.
I wished on a shooting star, like I wished for you to kill it.
Wishing isn’t scientifically sound, evidence-based thinking, little girl.
[shower head turns off, thuds]
[exhales deeply]
Why did you wish for it?
I wanted it to eat my parents.
Why did you want a monster to eat your parents?
They weren’t very nice to me.
You’re mad at Mom and Dad.
You wished they’d go away so you wished a wish you wish you hadn’t wished.
All your parents weren’t very nice?
Some of them were nice.
Then why did the monster eat them?
It was trying to eat me.
[breathes deeply]
What have you done, hmm?
Have you seen something you shouldn’t have seen?
What makes you so tasty, Erora?
Aurora.
Arora.
Aurora.
Erora.
Aurora.
Yes. Aurora.
I’m wicked.
Who said you were wicked?
It knows I’m wicked.
It keeps eating my family ’cause I don’t deserve a family.
I’ve met wicked.
Trust me, you’re not wicked.
Where’s your monster now?
[grunts softly]
[grunts]
It sleeps during the day.
Under your bed?
Under the floor under my bed.
It mostly comes out at night and tries to eat me.
It won’t stop until it does eat me.
So you should kill it before it can do that.
Did you try wishing it away?
It didn’t work, obviously.
[grunting softly]
[bed creaking]
Say I do kill your monster.
Then what? Where do you go?
There are places where children in your position usually go.
If they catch me.
You don’t have any other family?
No.
Do you?
No one who’d miss you if you were gone?
No.
They were all eaten.
[somber music playing]
Anybody who’d miss you if you were gone?
I’d miss you if you were gone.
[thuds, creaks]
[door clacks]
What’s in the suitcase?
“Who’s in the suitcase?”
Is it the little one?
That’s the big one.
This is the little one.
He killed her.
You killed him.
[suitcase thuds]
Return to sender.
I sent two.
I only saw the one you sent to kill me.
Lapsang souchong.
You want some?
Yes, please.
I didn’t send anybody to kill you.
Now, I’m asking you to be honest.
Who was trying to kill whom and is there an argument to be made for self-defense?
Because nobody was supposed to kill you.
I may have thrown the first… what have you.
Mmm. [inhales] Well, I really was just trying to help.
I saw the gesture as a professional courtesy. Mm.
I thought I was being magnanimous.
Sending someone to kill a little girl?
Sending someone to kill a witness who knows your face and knows what you do.
If you wanna judge me on the ease with which I can kill a child, have at it.
I am eating a suckling pig tea sandwich.
I was navigating that little girl.
You seem triggered.
That little girl clearly triggered you with the cheetahs and the baboons.
At least this way, the deed would be done and you could suppress or wallow however you chose, but it would be one less thing for you to worry about.
You’re welcome.
Thank you.
You’re welcome.
Genuinely, this time.
That first one was mostly sarcasm.
[inhales sharply]
What happened to the second package I sent?
[Intriguing Neighbor sips]
Did you kill her too?
What am I gonna tell these people’s families?
I never saw the second package.
Monster under the bed get her?
Yeah, well… [chuckles] Yeah. Yeah.
No one has heard of the parents.
No one knows anything about them beyond the most tedious of details.
Wasn’t even their daughter.
Fostering to adopt.
What happened to her birth parents?
They abandoned her.
Packed up and left her behind.
Do you see a pattern?
I see a pattern.
I think we know who the real monster was.
I kill monsters.
No one followed you home.
No one knows where you live.
Although, I would move anyway.
And I found out who’s trying to kill you.
Who?
Everybody.
[grunts softly] Everybody’s trying to kill you.
It’s remarkable.
And in your line of work, inevitable.
So, congratulations.
And condolences.
[door opens, creaks]
[footsteps tapping]
[jubilant music playing]
Is that the baby baboon?
Who’s in the little suitcase?
We couldn’t get him all in in one bag.
“We”?
[footsteps approach]
I told you to wait for me at home.
You weren’t coming home.
You were gonna leave me.
That does seem to happen to her a lot.
Aurora, come over here.
[taps chair]
Sit next to me.
I don’t know you.
You were gonna leave me.
I never told you I’d stay.
I hired you. You took my money.
Aurora, do you know that there are cultures who won’t even acknowledge someone your age is a person?
Delayed personhood, they call it.
You’re just a little body with a soul slowly growing inside of it, eventually becoming a person, but not a person yet.
So you should let the real persons talk.
I am
Nope. Shut your mouth.
You want a sandwich?
She doesn’t eat pork.
You, you are obviously going through something here.
[chuckles] I can see that.
Some childhood trauma.
Stop that!
This little girl is not little you, and helping her will not fix you.
I know they say that you can’t truly work through childhood trauma without having a child of your own.
Implying childless people are broken, a point of view I don’t subscribe to.
I’m gonna stop you there.
There is no stopping this train. It’s going all the way to the station.
Hired you to do what?
[exhales]
To kill the monster under her bed.
The monster that ate her foster parents?
And her birth parents.
And, well, all her parents.
And the lady with a gun who crawled through my bedroom window.
I never saw her.
I saw her.
I saw her get eaten.
I don’t know what to do with this.
You see?
Who killed the lady with a gun who crawled through your bedroom window?
I never saw her.
The monster under my bed.
You’re not the only one with a monster under her bed, Aurora.
Everybody, the everybody that’s trying to kill you, they’re never going to stop trying to kill you until they’ve killed you or you’ve been killed.
You can never sleep in the same bed twice.
[Aurora] He can sleep in my bed.
Let the monster eat them.
[sighs]
Leave now.
Get out of town.
Don’t go home.
Don’t get dim sum.
Just get out.
Get out of all of it.
[playful music plays]
[soft traditional music playing]
[indistinct background chatter]
[waiter] Hello. Welcome back.
The usual?
Yes, please.
That lady said you got problems.
[clears throat, clicks tongue]
At the moment, I have two problems.
So we’re clear, you’re one of them.
[tense musical sting]
You could just be my dad.
You’d be a good dad.
I don’t wanna be one of your dads, Erora.
All your dads died.
Aurora.
[breathes deeply]
I remember thinking my mother was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Then one day I took a good look and realized, she’s not, really.
But my brain wanted me to think so.
Isn’t that silly?
[inhales deeply]
So, whatever you think you want or need from me isn’t really what you think, it’s what your brain wants you to think.
And whatever I think I want or need from you…
It’s just what your brain wants you to think?
Exactly.
We don’t really know each other.
[sighs]
I wished for you.
Yes, you did that.
But you didn’t actually control any of that happening.
Yes, I did.
No. No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn’t.
I did.
Nope.
[sighs]
I did.
Well, you didn’t, though.
I–
[clears throat]
[tense traditional music plays]
May I sit down?
I wouldn’t if I were you.
[tense musical note]
Is she your daughter?
Yes.
No.
[exhales]
I hate to question your parenting–
Then don’t.
[breathes deeply]
[waiter] Shrimp shumai. Mushroom dumpling.
Black sesame dragon cookie.
Purse dumpling. Soup dumpling.
Rabbit-shape dumpling with shrimp.
[cart rolling]
I assume you know why I’m here.
I assume I’m why you’re here.
You are.
She is not.
[gulps] You can just ignore her.
Maybe we could talk outside.
We just got our food.
Her being here won’t stop them.
They will go right through her.
No one knows I’ve seen you yet.
[whispers]
Shouldn’t you tell them?
Tell you what. [clears throat] While she’s having dessert, I’ll join you outside.
We’ll discuss what we need to discuss.
How we need to discuss it.
How about that?
[Inconspicuous Man inhales deeply]
[upbeat music playing]
Can we get togo boxes, please?
[indistinct chatter]
[upbeat music continues]
You’re gonna let the monster get him?
A monster.
[music ends]
[doorbell rings]
[doorknob turns]
[door creaks]
Hi, Aurora. Can I come in?
My dad’s in the living room.
[intense music begins]
[footsteps tapping loudly]
Thanks for coming back so soon.
I apologize for this morning.
I hope it all makes sense once I explain.
You weren’t under the weather.
No.
Don’t touch the floor.
[gasps]
Is it lava?
No, it’s not lava.
A monster will eat you if you touch the floor.
[Brenda] Oh!
[footsteps tap] I’ll consider myself warned.
You’d be the first.
[Intriguing Neighbor] Erora.
Aurora.
[Intriguing Neighbor] Aurora.
Aurora.
Exactly what I said.
Probably shouldn’t indulge her.
She thinks a monster ate her entire family.
A monster did eat my entire family.
Go and tuck yourself in.
Just like I showed you.
[floorboard rumbling, creaking]
[monster growling]
[rumbling continues]
[growling continues]
[breathing heavily]
[sighing]
I have so many thoughts.
Just grab one thought out of the air.
Grab it as it passes over your head and say it out loud.
Grab it and say it.
[inhales] We’re all gonna die.
That’s a big thought.
I don’t believe that little girl’s family abandoned her.
Not her first family.
Not her second.
Certainly not those last people.
[inhales deeply]
I-I don’t think they all just left.
I think…
I think they’re all dead.
Two families?
Three.
I’m not this girl’s father.
I live across the hall, 5B.
Why did you lie?
Well, I didn’t lie.
That little girl lied.
She’s very good at lying.
I just met her, and she told me a monster ate her parents and then you rang the bell.
I believe she believes there is a monster.
I don’t think she’s lying about that.
She’s just delusional.
[breathes deeply]
[inhales] But there is something doing something and you need to do something about that.
If there is someone you can call…
[switch clicks]
…you should tell them that circumstances are desperate and immediate.
You should tell them that presently, like, now.
Because we are in danger right now.
You, me, and that sweet little girl.
[switch clicks]
Why do you think
we’re in danger?
[switch clicking] Why did you turn off the lights?
[pants] Come here.
They followed her home.
They are watching the building.
Her foster parents are missing.
It all stinks like fish.
Hey, it’s Bautista.
Anything going on out there?
[man] Yeah. Something’s going on out here.
[tense music playing]
You should get up here.
[man] Copy that. I think she saw her parents getting got and now it has her seeing monsters.
And those, those are the monsters.
She could probably explain this better in her own words because it happened to her and it’s got nothing to do with me. [inhales deeply] And I’m guessing… meanwhile, also completely unrelated to me…
[doorbell rings] You gonna get that?
I’m debating.
You want me to get it?
No.
I’ll get it.
Get off the floor!
[whispers] Get back under your special blanket.
[effort grunts]
[sighs]
Why are you here?
Why are you here?
[door thuds]
There are at least a half-dozen people downstairs whose purpose this evening is to turn you into a carcass.
Yeah, well…
And you led them here, like the Pied Piper.
Did you have a flute?
Not a literal flute.
This is an ambush.
I know. I’m doing the ambushing.
I’m the bushwhacker.
And, uh, what they’re doing is less ambushy and more of a siege.
Yeah, that kid ain’t gonna survive a siege.
She’s fine.
I’ve got the FBI inside and they’re calling in reinforcements.
I’m just the concerned neighbor, 5B.
It’s perfect.
[both laughing]
Mmm. Mmhmm.
[continues laughing] Oh, my God. [laughs] I’ve put a lot of thought into this.
Really? “A lot of thought”?
How are you quantifying a lot of thought?
By number or quality?
Because I’ve heard very few thoughts
and none of them good.
[breathes deeply] I’m on the verge if not over the verge, of convincing them that disappeared families are the work of professionals.
So this could tie up very nicely for me. [inhales] I’m getting Peter to kill Paul.
I don’t know how to be any clearer than I’ve already been.
You can’t save this little girl.
She’s seen your face.
She’s seen my face.
She has to die.
[chuckling] All you can do is save yourself.
[button buzzes]
[elevator doorbell dings]
I’ve done my part.
[button buzzes]
[elevator whirs]
[door thuds]
[breathes deeply]
Fellow concerned neighbor.
[soft music plays]
[breathes deeply]
I’m not with Child and Family Services.
[clinks]
Hmm.
I’m with the FBI.
We’ve been investigating the disappearance of Aurora’s family.
Families.
[sighing] What is happening in this poor girl’s life that the FBI is investigating?
Normally, I wouldn’t divulge what we know but being that we don’t know anything, I might as well share.
We have one clue.
Something strange at the first house.
How strange?
An open bottle of thumb-sucking deterrent on Aurora’s nightstand.
Someone was applying it to her finger and they vanished along with the applicator brush, which was found under the floorboards under her bed.
How it got there, no one knows.
Maybe a monster spit it out.
It is a deterrent.
[loud thud]
[object clatters]
[door clacks, creaks]
[floorboard rumbling]
I accidentally touched the floor.
Don’t touch the floor.
It’ll eat you.
[rumbling continues]
Get off the floor!
Get off the floor!
Get off the floor!
Get off the floor!
[grunts]
Get off the floor!
[grunts]
Okay, okay.
Get off the floor!
[monster growls]
[screams]
Jesus!
[panting] She really believes in it.
Yeah.
I can see that.
[Aurora breathing heavily]
[window thuds, creaks]
Get under your special covers.
Don’t come out again until I tell you so.
[floorboard rumbles]
[monster growls]
Get off the floor!
[exhales]
That’s not funny.
[breathing heavily]
[rumbling]
[monster growling]
[Aurora] It’s coming to get you!
Shut up!
[rumbling continues]
[Brenda] Where are you?
[agent] We’re inside. Almost there.
[switch clicks]
[knock on door]
Is that you?
[tense music playing]
[shotgun clicks]
[impact grunts]
[monster roars]
[impact grunts]
[guns clack]
[body thuds]
[intense music playing]
[gunshots continue]
[bullet whooshes, hits]
[huffs air, grunts]
[huffing air] Who… shot me?
[gunshots resume]
[gunfire continues]
[gun clacks]
Give me that. [panting] How many outside?
I counted two.
And how many inside?
I counted two.
[grunts]
[magazines thud]
Give me my gun back.
[tense music playing]
Ow. [grunting]
[Inconspicuous Man grunts]
[rumbling]
[rumbling continues]
[muffled growling]
[growling swells]
[growling continues]
Maybe get off the floor.
[tense music continues]
[monster growling]
There’s an animal in here.
[growling continues] There’s a what?
Something big.
[grunts]
[monster growling]
[muffled growling]
[roaring]
[gunshots]
[growls]
[roars]
[hitter 1 groans]
[all screaming]
[roaring]
[screaming continues]
[gunfire continues]
[screaming continues]
[loud thudding]
[screaming continues]
[screaming continues]
[monster roaring]
[roars]
[yelps in pain]
[gunshot]
[thuds]
[screaming continues]
[gunfire continues]
[monster growling]
[muffled screaming]
[screaming continues]
[monster roaring]
[screaming stops]
[floorboard creaking]
[lights flickering]
[breathing heavily]
[gun clinks]
[breathing heavily]
[tense music rising]
[effort grunts]
[Aurora] Don’t…
[grunts] …do it.
[roaring]
[munching]
[screaming]
[hitter 2] What is that?
[female hitter screaming]
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Oh, my God! What is happening?
What’s happening?
[yelling] What’s happening?
[music ends]
[dings]
[thuds]
[indistinct chatter]
[soft music playing]
[rabbit dumpling thuds]
[Intriguing Neighbor breathes heavily]
[tense music playing]
[both effort grunt]
[gunshots]
[electric toothbrush whirs]
[monster growling]
[breathing heavily]
[growling continues]
[bones crack]
[roaring]
[thuds]
[roaring continues]
[breathing heavily]
[door creaks, thuds]
[exhales]
I think that’s the monster that lives under Aurora’s bed.
[shuddering breaths]
Uh-huh.
[upbeat jazz music plays]
FBI!
Get on the ground now!
[male agent] Drop your weapon!
[female agent]
Get on the floor now!
Down on the floor!
Uh, no. No.
No. I-I can’t do that.
I’m sorry. No, it’s not gonna happen. No.
Down on the floor!
[both] There is something in the floor!
[door thuds]
[gun thuds]
Concerned neighbor, 5B.
[footsteps receding]
You got the girl?
I got the girl.
[breathes deeply]
I-I would like to sincerely apologize for my tone earlier.
It wasn’t professional.
Please, can we leave?
Time to go. We gotta go.
We gotta go. I gotta go.
Let’s go. Take me off the floor.
Why aren’t we going to the car?
[Inconspicuous Man]
When we get to the car…
Get them up and get them out of here.
There’s something in the floor.
Oh, my God.
Oh, no.
Oh, my God!
There’s something in the floor.
Something in the floor.
[together] There’s something in the floor.
Something in the floor.
Something in the floor.
There’s something…
[monster growls]
[door creaks, thuds]
[monster growls]
[rumbles]
[muffled gunshots]
[gunshots continue]
[loud screaming]
[muted gunshots]
[female hitter screams]
[monster munches, growls]
[panting]
[softly] Erora.
[loudly] Erora!
Aurora.
[sighs]
Did it eat everybody?
Not everybody. [breathes deeply] Just everybody else.
No, stay. Stay where you are.
[effort grunts]
[ottoman thuds]
[grunts]
[Intriguing Neighbor panting]
You believe me now?
Yes.
[ottoman rolling] Are you the happiest you’ve ever been?
Happy is not the word I’ll use.
[effort grunts]
We go through the window, down the fire escape.
[Intriguing Neighbor breathes heavily]
[breathes deeply]
Ready?
[monster roars]
[Intriguing Neighbor grunting]
[roaring continues]
[intense music rises]
[exhales sharply]
[sneezes, grunts]
[objects clatter]
[rumbles]
[breathing heavily]
I told you so.
[soft music plays]
[birds chirping]
[soft music playing]
[monster growls]
[distant thudding]
[monster growling]
[gasps]
[thudding continues]
[thudding continues]
[growling continues]
[monster growling, hurling]
[monster belches]
[loud thud]
[Intriguing Neighbor grunts, gasps for air]
[both breathing heavily]
I didn’t taste too good.
[breathing heavily]
[doorknob turns]
[door creaks]
[upbeat music plays]
[door creaks, thuds]
Hello, Aurora.
[inhales deeply]
Don’t come in here.
[breathes heavily]
[Laverne]
I’ve come to rescue Aurora.
Aurora, you can’t stay here.
It’s not safe.
[tense upbeat music playing]
Come with me.
I’ll take care of you.
[thuds] Get off the floor.
You don’t have to do what you think you have to do.
But you do have to get off the floor.
Aurora… be easier for you than it is for him.
Mom, get off the floor.
Don’t call me that.
It’s hurtful.
It’s going to eat you.
What’s going to eat me, Aurora?
[monster growls]
[floorboard creaks]
[gasps]
[floorboard rumbling]
[monster growling]
[gasping]
[shoes clacking]
[roars]
[grunting]
[gunshots continue]
[grunts]
[gunshots continue]
[monster growls]
[growling continues]
[grunts]
[tense music rises]
[growling]
[gun clicks]
[roars]
[Laverne screams]
[monster growls]
Mom…
[Laverne yelps]
[monster growls, munches]
[bed creaks]
[floorboard rumbles]
[monster roars]
[grunts]
[growling]
[grunting]
[roars loudly]
[shuddering breaths]
[monster roars]
[grunting]
[monster roaring loudly]
[breathing heavily]
[monster growls]
[monster snorts]
[monster growls]
[breathing heavily]
[floorboard thudding]
[growls]
It doesn’t wanna eat you, Aurora.
[monster growls]
It’s your monster.
[monster growls] It’s my monster.
You wished for it.
[breathing heavily]
You have to live with it.
[monster growling] I wished for you too.
[breathes deeply]
We’re going away now, Aurora.
You can’t even say my name.
And I don’t even know your name.
You’ll think of something to call me.
And I’ll just call you “little girl.”
[monster growls softly]
Stop it.
[growls softly]
[huffs air, roars]
[growling]
[creaks, clanks]
[growling continues]
[roaring loudly]
[growling]
[creaks, thuds]
[“Tiger” by ABBA playing]
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ People who fear me
never come near me ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ The city is a nightmare,
a horrible dream ♪
♪ Some of us
will dream it forever ♪
♪ Look around the corner,
and try not to scream ♪
♪ It’s me ♪
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ People who fear me
never come near me ♪
♪ I am the tiger… ♪
[monster growls]
♪ Yellow eyes are glowing
like the neon lights ♪
♪ Yellow eyes, the spotlights
of the city nights ♪
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ People who fear me
never come near me ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ The city is a prison,
you’ll never escape ♪
♪ You’re forever trapped
in the alleys ♪
♪ Look into the shadows,
and you’ll see the shape ♪
♪ Of me ♪
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ People who fear me
never come near me ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ Yellow eyes are glowing
like the neon lights ♪
♪ Yellow eyes, the spotlights
of the city nights ♪
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ People who fear me
never come near me ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ And if I meet you,
what if I eat you? ♪
♪ I am the tiger ♪
♪ I am behind you,
I always find you ♪
♪ I am the tiger,
tiger, tiger ♪
♪ Tiger ♪
[song ends]
[door thuds]
[creaks, thuds]
[playful music playing]
[shudders]
[bullet clinks]
[breathes heavily]
[soft dramatic music playing]
[music ends]
[playful music playing]
[music ends]
