Dust Bunny

As a Gen-Xer, growing up in the world of '70s and '80s films was not so sanitized as it is now. Raiders of the Lost Ark gave my childhood melting faces, impaled skeletal corpses, and a room full of snakes. Is it a kid movie though? I would argue it is, as is Star Wars. I think a lot of great kids' movies have elements of darkness and fear -  Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Goonies, Coraline, heck, even The Sound of Music is about escaping the Nazis. So if you missed Dust Bunny from last year, as I did, it's time to catch what might become a new kids' classic, albeit a dark one. What's it all about? Sophie Sloan plays Aurora, a young girl who believes that there is a dust bunny under her bed that is eating people. In fact, she won't walk on the floor. She traverses her apartment on a metal hippopotamus on wheels like she's navigating a swamp in a flat-bottomed boat. She discovers secrets about the man (played by Mads Mikkelsen - the other Hannibal Lecter from TV)  living down the hall of her apartment building; namely that he is a hit man. Aurora hires him to kill the monster, money she acquires in a dubious way, one that made me laugh out loud. Writer and director Bryan Fuller marks this as his first feature film coming out of a TV career (he made Hannibal the TV series). He comes out with monster, litterally. This film is simply gorgeous. Aurora and her hit man live in a New York Art Nouveau building and the colours of it are bright - Mads wears something of a track suit that looks like he borrowed from The Royal Tenenbaums. In fact, the whole film has a Wes Anderson look to it. A kind of cartoonish Amelie sensibility. With small roles by Sigourney Weaver and David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), this movie is a delight. It's got teeth. Jaws of the parquet tile floor. Is it for kids? Well if you think Ghostbusters is a good kids' movie, then so is this! You will want to sweep this up on streaming when it's available or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.  

Late Night with the Devil

It's far too early to say but "Late Night with the Devil" might just be my favourite horror movie of 2024. It has a lot going for it. It's a faux documentary about a fictional late-night talk show host, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian). Jack's show, Night Owls, is competing against Johnny Carson for ratings in the year, 1977. Jack's show isn't doing well, so to boost his audience score, he hosts a Halloween special and invites psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), psychic debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) along with her devil possessed patient, Lilly (Ingrid Torelli). Let the fun begin! A lot of the enjoyment is merely the 70s clothing and the set of UBC TV's Night Owls; like a repurposed set of The Price is Right, the brown, yellow, and orange paint stripes flow Yellow Submarine style about the walls, wrapping around in the background. In the foreground is a hipster's wet dream - vintage retro second hand furniture. The movie itself is "Quiz Show" meets "The Exorcist" - the escalating late-night episode building slowly and dramatically - and not without lots of laughs along the way: STAY TUNED, WILL WE RIGHT BACK AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL BREAK. Catch the devil by tail, playing at night, in theatres now.