From folktales to body horror, and a touch of dark humor, Kaboom unearthed gems across Ukraine. A terrifying odyssey beginning in the Soviet era, when the horror genre had to sneak past censorship bans. Stay on the edge of your seat, all the way into the 80s and 90s, with a few debuts influenced by the Ukrainian independence era. We’ll follow these new voices over time to see how they mature, bringing our journey to a chilling end.

This program screened as part of Kaboom Animation Festival 2026

Showing in this program

Mars-XX

• Iryna Hurvych
• Ukraine, 1969
• 8 min.

Cut-out and drawn animation at its scariest in this Dr. Caligariesque anti-militaristic short.

Terrible Revenge

• Mykhailo Titov
• Ukraine, 1988
• 20 min.

A Mykola Hohol folktale adapted into a rotoscopic vision of horror.

Spooky Muzzles

• Alexander Bubnov / Vadym Tiuriayev / Volodymyr Honcharov / Valerij Konoplov
• Ukraine, 1991
• 9 min.

Laughs and chills combine with stop motion and hand-drawn animation in these dark-humor miniatures.

Scaries and Terrors

• Natalia Chernyshova / Natalia Marchenkova
• Ukraine, 1993
• 10 min.

A children’s folktale meeting the degeneration of an adult world in this cut-out and hand-drawn short

Love’s Secret Domain

• Vadym Tiuriayev
• Ukraine, 1994
• 9 min.

Erotic body horror blurring the lines between reality and art through hand-drawn animation and rotoscoping. 

Julia’s Birthday

• Natalia Marchenkova
• Ukraine, 1994
• 16 min.

Urban folklore explored through the female gaze using cut-out and sand animation.