Dir/Wri: Natalka Vorozhbyt | Fantasy horror 2026
Natalka Vorozhbyt‘s latest film is one of the most unsettling entries in this year’s Locarno line-up. Scratches at the edges of horror this fantasy drama is less interested in cheap shocks than in the slow, corrosive way fear seeps into everyday life.
The Ukrainian filmmaker’s Polish folk-infused drama Demony premieres at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. Set in the 1990s, the film features the final leading screen role of the late Ukrainian actress Ruslana Pysank. It’s an eerily restrained surreal psychological drama in which the real demons are history, trauma and the invisible scars of conflict.
Rather than relying on splashy horror conventions, the film adopts a quirky beguiling style and a tinkly soundscape and builds its tension through measured pacing, stark imagery and an atmosphere of quiet dread that lingers long after the credits roll. Vorozhbyt’s eye for intimate human detail gives the story emotional heft, while the performances remain disarmingly natural amid the gathering darkness.
Haunting, intelligent and quietly devastating, Demoni confirms Vorozhbyt as one of the most distinctive voices working in contemporary Eastern European cinema. It may not be the festival’s easiest watch, but it is among its most rewarding—an unsettling meditation on the demons we inherit as much as those we create.
CINEASTES OF THE PRESENT | LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2026