Creepy Animation Night: Animated Nightmares and Spine-Tingling Shivers at Animest.21

On Friday, October 9, at 11 PM, the Peasant Museum Cinema will host the year’s most eagerly awaited late-night marathon exploration of the darkest shores of fear and the bizarre. Horror fans, rejoice: we have carefully curated a raw journey through the grotesque, modern anxieties, and dark folklore.

This year's selection brings together 20 short films from around the world, exploring psychological terror through radical visual aesthetics and stories that do not bend to classic conventions.

Visions of the Apocalypse and Tech Parables

Current concerns and great collective collapses take on mythical proportions on the silver screen:

• Danse Macabre (directed by Hisko Hulsing): the renowned Dutch director’s latest apocalyptic nightmare features an army reborn from the darkness as it marches to the hypnotic strains of Shostakovich, threatening to drag unwary viewers into a maelstrom of terror and suffering.

• Frankenstein's Dream (directed by Simon Pummell): a disturbing parable about technological and linguistic parasites in the age of AI, this short film asks how much control we still have over the tools we create.

• In the Teeth of Time (directed by Patrick Raats): on a stormy night, everyday reality violently crashes into another dimension of time – the perfect precursor to a fatal outcome.

Dark Folklore and Gothic Horror

Ancient legends, cursed relics, and creatures of the night – or what we call a terrific trio to haunt both characters' and viewers’ mindscapes:

• The Last Bell (directed by Alberto Cano): the year is 1817. In an isolated village, a cruel creature out of folklore snatches children in the dark. A family is overcome by gothic terror as it faces cruel, impossible choices.

• The Hound (directed by Mihajlo Dragaš): two grave robbers steal an amulet from an ancient crypt and soon find themselves hunted by an unseen beast’s distant howl.

• Kenopsia (directed by Camille Redon, Sélène Le, Alice Hegymegi-Kiss, Gregoire Pezzulo, Fanny Belougne, Quentin Szczygiel, Adel Tebib): a young Native American warrior wakes after death in a deserted village and is stalked by a giant raven that forces him to face his guilt.

Psychological Tension and Buried Secrets

Fear is often born from within, feeding on memory, trauma, and toxic family ties:

• Calm, The Last Tale of Horacio Quiroga (directed by Maria Ruisánchez, Álvaro León): on his last night in a Buenos Aires hospital, the Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga confronts his obsessions and characters as reality fractures.

• The Nest (directed by Aurélien Coquery, Léa Kermanach, Soline Mauguin, Abel Tixador, Jean Baounon, Romane Selter-Fiette): a young potter returns to her family’s workshop only to uncover a terrifying secret behind her mother's affection.

• The Host (directed by Xing Chen): on her wedding day, a bride sees a parasitized caterpillar, which sets off a series of grim visions in which her fear of marriage and motherhood entwines with family trauma.

Where: Peasant Museum Cinema

When: Friday, October 9, 2026, 11 PM

Teaser: Watch the teaser on YouTube

Tickets: Buy your ticket on Eventbook

Recommended for adult viewers (18+).