{"id":297348,"date":"2025-12-03T20:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297348\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:29:08","slug":"bryan-fuller-explains-why-gateway-horror-movie-dust-bunny-is-rated-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297348\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryan Fuller Explains Why Gateway Horror Movie \u2018Dust Bunny\u2019 is Rated “R”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHannibal<\/a>\u201d creator\u00a0Bryan Fuller\u2019s utterly charming feature directorial debut, Dust Bunny<\/a>, earned an \u201cR\u201d rating from the MPAA last month<\/a>, a surprising move considering its youthful lead and wholesome gateway horror leanings.<\/p>\n

The sweet, whimsical tale of a girl who hires a hitman to solve her pesky monster-under-the-bed problem is fairly bloodless, though it\u2019s not without violence.<\/p>\n

Yet, Fuller\u2019s debut was rated \u201cR\u201c for \u201csome violence\u201c ahead of its release on December 12.<\/p>\n

The filmmaker, whose debut film was just nominated for an\u00a0Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature,<\/a> explained why Dust Bunny\u2019s style of violence provoked the MPAA when speaking with\u00a0The Horror Queers<\/a> podcast ahead of the film\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an R-rated film. We were stunned, too. The MPAA is notorious about being really hard on independent movies and a little more lax on studio films,\u201c Fuller says.\u201d There are lawsuits against the MPAA from independent studios over how much stricter they are with independents than they are over studio fare. I mean, M3GAN<\/a> murdered children and ripped their ears off and slaughtered somebody with a paper cutter, and that was PG-13.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bryan<\/p>\n

Sophie Sloan as Aurora in Roadside Attractions\u2019 Dust Bunny<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t something as severe as an ear-ripping that landed the \u201cR\u201c rating, but another non-lethal bodily injury. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Dust Bunny has] no nudity. There\u2019s no foul language. You know, it\u2019s a conversation with the MPAA. We got an R rating. They said what put us over the edge was the non-lethal toothbrush injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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, \u2018Yes, give me more.\u2018 That was certainly my experience seeing\u00a0The Wizard of Oz and having my appetite whetted. And then, seeing\u00a0Alien when I was 9 years old and seeing\u00a0Black Christmas\u00a0when I was seven, and those types\u00a0of things that I loved. I wasn\u2019t traumatized by them. I was just excited to see people survive\u00a0their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s something about the strangeness of the MPAA with independent movies, and I thought this was a family film, and so many people who have seen it feel like it\u2019s a family film. I hope it\u2019s a lot of kids\u2019 first R-rated movie that they get to see and experience. I would tell adults, \u2018 Look, if you\u2019re on the fence, see it first, and you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s 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 in the story.\u2018\u201d<\/p>\n

I can attest that it does deliver on a wonderful, heartwarming gateway horror experience. I wrote in my review<\/a> out of TIFF, \u201cDust Bunny, guided by Fuller\u2019s strong and distinct vision, easily stacks up against many of the formative gateway horror films of yesteryear. So much so that it feels all but destined for cult classic status.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can hear the full chat with Fuller on the upcoming Dust Bunny episode of\u00a0The Horror Queers\u2019<\/a> podcast, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHannibal\u201d creator\u00a0Bryan Fuller\u2019s utterly charming feature directorial debut, Dust Bunny, earned an \u201cR\u201d rating from the MPAA last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[62556,14156,96,39285,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-297348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-bryan-fuller","tag-dust-bunny","tag-entertainment","tag-horror-queers-podcast","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}