The Ukrainian horror compilation film Spooky Loops, which was recently screened in Annecy’s Midnight Specials program, explores themes of cruelty, injustice, and all sorts of dark matter.
Beginning as a series of GIFs created between 2020 and 2024, Stas Santimov’s film is a freewheeling collection of 13 loosely connected mini-short films (all made in Photoshop) that take on addiction, the occult, mass media, technology, education, propaganda, and the dangerous and deadly effects they have on humanity. There are vr goggles-wearing cannibals, zombie parents watching tv, a grandfather’s birthday attended by glitchy family members, and people being gagged on a subway. You know, fairly standard stuff.
Dominated by eerie, nightmarish macabre scenes, it’s as though Santimov is unearthing the laden horrors lurking within him — and maybe us. His visual style fuses Priit Pärn, Igor Kovalyov (and the influential Moscow animation studio he co-founded, Pilot), within a David Lynch-inspired setting.
If you’re looking for hope or to feel a pinch of optimism, you won’t find it here. And sure, it’s understandable given the horrors happening in Ukraine because of the Russian full-scale invasion, but this darkness extends far beyond that realm. This is a no-holds-barred, blistering diaristic vision of a world gone to, not hell, but to an Earth far scarier than anything the levels of hell can conjure up.
Stas Santimov is from Dnipro, Ukraine. Before animation, he started as a graphic designer and illustrator in advertising agencies. Santimov has worked in the animation industry since 2011. He creates gifs, independent shorts (The Surrogate, 2020), commercials, music videos, and other animated projects. Santimov’s films have participated in many international film festivals and digital art exhibitions.
Spooky Loops was self-produced.
