In 2015, Christopher Nolan curated a selection of short films by the surrealist animators the Quay Brothers to be distributed as a touring 35mm presentation. The three films—"In Absentia" (2000), "The Comb" (1991) and "Street of Crocodiles" (1986)—were accompanied by this brief portrait of the brothers at work in their London studio.

A disturbing puppet short exploring the concept of creativity.

Andre Toulon, living a peaceful life as a puppeteer in pre-WWI Paris, encounters the renegade sorcerer Afzel, who has stolen the mysterious secrets of life from the dark god Sutekh.

A very free adaptation of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", Goethe's "Faust" and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.

After being contacted by their mysterious former colleague, four psychics arrive at a secluded hotel where they are stalked by a group of murderous puppets.

A figure known as "The Assassin" descends from the heavens into a nightmarish pit full of monsters, titans, and cruelty.

An inspirational speaker becomes reinvigorated after meeting a lively woman who shakes up his mundane existence.

A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured him his entire life.

Andre Toulon's diminutive assassins take up residence at The House of Marvels, a traveling doll circus run by Dr. Magrew, who has been trying to create a living doll of his own with little success.

A plastic surgeon and his nurse join a bizarre circus to escape from the police. Here he befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents.

Something is about to change drastically, and the only thing to do is to witness it.

In a deserted rich house, a couple of amphibians explore their surroundings and follow their primal instincts.

Angelino is just one of thousands of deadbeats living in Dark Meat City. But an otherwise unremarkable scooter accident caused by a beautiful, mysterious stranger is about to transform his life... into a waking nightmare! He starts seeing monstrous forms prowling around all over the city... Is Angelino losing his mind, or could an alien invasion really be happening this quietly...?

A recently divorced young man discovers a mint condition Blade doll in his deceased brother's closet and plans to sell the toy at a convention in Oregon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose during the auction when a strange force animates all of the puppets throughout the convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree.

With mesmerizing footage and time lapses of animators at work, this behind-the-scenes special captures the artistry of a unique tale years in the making.

Two penniless orphans, Black and White, struggle to survive on the mean streets of Treasure Town. When a megacorporation threatens to tear down the town to build an amusement park, Black and White engage in the fight of their life.

The two remaining puppets learn about eating healthy, but things go awry when they receive a mysterious phone call.

A boy walks down the street and as he goes along his strides increase. Eventually he leaps over towns, forests, and oceans, seeing many things and surprising many people along the way.

A human body gradually reconstructs itself as its various component parts crowd themselves into a small room and eventually, after much experimentation, sort out which part goes where.

In the anarchic town of Seaside, nowhere near the sea, puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit due to Judy's superior puppeteering but Punch's driving ambition and penchant for whisky lead to an inevitable tragedy that Judy must avenge.

A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be. A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll’s novel "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland".

The story of Prince Hal who sets out to avenge his dead father against the city's rivals, the Zeriths, little knowing it was his wicked uncle Nezo who is the real killer, with his own designs on the throne.

A new team of paranormal researchers has come to the hotel to investigate its murder-soaked past; the puppets -- led by a new member, Torch -- shed some light on the matter, as they tunnel, burn, strangle and hook to survive.

A static camera observes a room as it slowly fills with thirty-six characters from different stages of life, looping further through an absurd dance of social disconnection as each character moves in.

Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams that annoy his mother.

A group of toymakers seek to use Andre Toulon's formula, now in the hands of Toulon's great-nephew Robert, to give life to a line of killer toys that they plan to unleash on Christmas Eve.

Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother, embarks upon the creation of a film that becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her project take on a life of their own.

Several scary black-and-white animated segments in different styles appeal to our fear(s) of the dark.

Six exotic fables, each unfold in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead.

Madame Tutli-Putli boards the Night Train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure.

A humorous and thought-provoking view of what animals in zoos might be thinking about their captivity and surroundings.

Two pieces of meat fall in love.

A rogue agent named Maclain breaks into the lab of Eric Weiss, who has spent his entire life fascinated by Andre Toulon's supernatural ability to breathe life into his carefully crafted figurines.

A surrealistic anthology of horror films; four segments structured as an intense fever dream...

A trilogy of separate stories. In "Labyrinth labyrinthos", a girl and her cat enter a strange world. In "Running Man", a racer takes on the ultimate opponent. In "Construction Cancellation Order", a man must shut down worker robots.

A news team is sent to Burundi to capture and bring home a legendary 25-foot crocodile. Their difficult task turns potentially deadly when a warlord targets them for death.

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Alma, a little girl, skips through the snow covered streets of a small town. Her attention is caught by a strange doll in an antique toy shop window. Fascinated, Alma decides to enter.

Step back into the imaginative and frankly terrifying world of Becky & Joe with Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. In this episode: Some things change over Time.

Following the murder of Andre Toulon by Nazi assassins during the height of World War II, a young Danny Coogan finds his crate of mysterious puppets, and discovers their plan to attack a secret American manufacturing plant.

Sutekh, the dark pharaoh from another dimension, sends his own puppet, Totem, to continue his quest to kill Rick and steal the magic which animates the puppets.

A pawn shop proprietor buys used goods from desperate locals – as much to play perverse power games as for his own livelihood, but when the perfect rump and a backed-up toilet enter his life, he loses all control.

In the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, a starving family find hope in a charismatic hotel owner. Lured by the prospect of a free dinner, they discover that the evening's entertainment blurs the lines between performance and reality. Will they wind up the spectators or the spectacle?

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

A boy finds a strange creature on a beach, and decides to find a home for it in a world where everyone believes there are far more important things to pay attention to.

The Puppetman, a convicted killer on death row, always maintained his innocence saying that it was an evil force controlling his body as he slaughtered his victims. Now Michal, the killer's daughter, begins to suspect that there may be some truth to her father's claim when those around her begin to die in brutal ways. She must try and break the curse of The Puppetman before all her loved ones are killed.

A wooden puppet embarks on a thrilling adventure to become a real boy.

After escaping from a religious colony in Chile, Maria seeks shelter in a mansion where she’s taken in by two pigs, its only inhabitants. Like in a stop-motion dream, the universe of the house reacts to her feelings. The animals slowly morph into humans and the house into a dark, menacing world.

Under the Han River lives Crocodile, a rugged member of the lumpenproletariat who exists from schemes and stealing. His position as a scavenger of society undermines South Korea’s boasts of its newfound economic position as an Asian Tiger. One day, Crocodile finds a girl floating in his river.

Elephants Dream is the story of two strange characters exploring a capricious and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour-guide and protector, happily showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to his initially curious but increasingly skeptical protege Emo. As their journey unfolds we discover signs that the machine is not all Proog thinks it is, and his guiding takes on a more desperate aspect. Elephants Dream is a story about communication and fiction, made purposefully open-ended as the world’s first 3D animated “Open movie”. The film itself is released under the Creative Commons license, along with the entirety of the production files used to make it (roughly 7 Gigabytes of data). The software used to make the movie is the free/open source animation suite Blender along with other open source software, thus allowing the movie to be remade, remixed and re-purposed with only a computer and the data on the DVD or download.

The surreal black comedy follows Nyatta, an anthropomorphic kitten, on his travel to the land of the dead and back in an effort to save his sister's soul.

To find Ilona and unlock the secrets of her disappearance, Karas must plunge deep into the parallel worlds of corporate espionage, organized crime and genetic research - where the truth imprisons whoever finds it first and miracles can be bought but at a great price.

After foiling a plan to blow up an American arms plant, Danny and Beth quickly find that one of Toulon's puppets has been kidnapped by the Nazis, and his life-giving serum has been synthesized to create a master race of unstoppable soldiers.

Tadek, a Polish detective, becomes suspicious of a controversial author when the incidents described in his unpublished novel resemble the inner workings of an unsolved murder.

Director Michael Winnick's chilling tale stars James Marsters as Jack, one of eight captives who awaken in an abandoned asylum not knowing who they are or why they are together. They discover that they've been used in an experiment to erase disturbing memories, but instead, a murderous creature has been unleashed. Reaching out from the shadows, the monster hunts the eight strangers as they race to escape the asylum.

Salih is a mechanic and the son of a respected barber named Ali. A woman named Tina arrives at Cholera Street, where she takes up residence and works as a prostitute.

Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.

A rocket carrying nano robots crash lands shortly after takeoff into a zoo. The bots are released and find their way into a massive crocodile. The croc, now programmed to kill, will target anything and anyone for its next meal.

A man who suspects his wife is cheating on him begins having nightmarish visions of an evil presence that he believes inhabits his house.

Peter is searching for his long-lost sister when he crosses paths with a fortune teller in the market square. His only question is: is his sister still alive? The answer, that he must find a mysterious elephant and the magician who will conjure it, sets Peter off on a journey to complete three seemingly impossible tasks that will change the face of his town forever.

When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real.

Blade, Tunneler, and Pinhead go toe-to-toe with a team of terrifying, gremlin-like creatures known as "Totems" that are sent by the Egyptian demon Sutekh to recapture the magic stolen by Toulon.

Ten-year-old Hannes, growing up with his young, poor and single mother wants to join the coolest gang in the area, the Vorstadtkrokodile. When the ‘entry test’ goes wrong, Hannes’s life is saved by Kai, who is desperate to join too but is wheelchair bound and unable to even run away when things get hot. Hannes would accept Kai but the other gang members don’t seem happy to accept a handicapped member...

After a wisdom tooth operation, a man decides to let his friend pull out one of the stitches.

Six outwardly average individuals have elaborate fetishes they indulge with surreptitious care. A mousy letter carrier makes dough balls she grotesquely ingests before bed. A shop clerk fixates on a TV news reader while he builds a machine to massage and masturbate him. One of his customers makes an elaborate chicken costume for a voodoo-like scene with a doll resembling his plump neighbor. She, in turn, has a doll that resembles him, which she whips and dominates in an abandoned church. The TV news reader has her own fantasy involving carp. Her husband, who is indifferent to her, steals materials to fashion elaborate artifacts that he rubs, scrapes and rolls across his body.

A hilarious collection of animated television commercials that were rejected because of their creator's failing grip on sanity.

In the midst of societal conflict in the futuristic city of Metropolis, Kenichi and his uncle Shunsaku Ban set out to uncover the mystery behind the first human-like robot, Tima.

The magical tale of a mouse who sets foot on a woodland adventure in search of a nut. Encountering predators who all wish to eat him - Fox, Owl and Snake - the brave mouse creates a terrifying, imaginary monster to frighten them away. But what will the mouse do when he meets this frightful monster for real?

All alone, Yellow Guy tries to stop a lamp from teaching him about dreams. While Red Guy finds out the truth about the puppets' existence.

A story of a group of humanoid rabbits and their depressive, daily life. The plot includes Suzie ironing, Jane sitting on a couch, Jack walking in and out of the apartment, and the occasional solo singing number by Suzie or Jane. At one point the rabbits also make contact with their “leader”.

A group of environmentalists arrives at a faraway tropical delta where toxic waste is being dumped. However the water also hides a giant crocodile. The corrupt local officials don't help much either.

While on a joyride with the headlights turned off, two men hit and kill another man carrying a satchel full of money. The two men decide to take the money and throw the body into a pond and bury the money in a coal hill. The next morning the police discover the body of a kidnapped 12-year blind girl, Melody, in a warehouse near the site of the hit-and-run. They determine that the kidnapper saw the girl's father bringing the ransom to him and also witnessed the hit-and-run and the men stealing the ransom.

Nicky, an accomplished con artist, gets romantically involved with his disciple Jess but later ends their relationship. Years later, she returns as a femme fatale to spoil his plans.

A young and talented architect comes to his senses after a horrific accident only to find himself in the odd dystopian world. A world that is filled with the memories of all current coma patients. Just like a human memory this world is fragmental, chaotic and unstable. This is COMA: icecaps, rivers and cities can all exist in a space of a single room and laws of physics are no longer laws as they can be bent.

A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of Czechoslovakia's most ambitious animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language.

Heidi, star of the "Meet The Feebles Variety Hour" discovers her lover Bletch the Walrus is cheating on her. And with all the world waiting for the show, the assorted co-stars must contend with drug addiction, extortion, robbery, disease, drug dealing, and murder.

An old bear goes out every day to a busy street corner. Through a tin marionette theater of his own making, the bear will tell us his life story.

A blind sculptor kidnaps an artists' model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio – a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in world where sight is replaced by touch.

A delirious young woman feels trapped in a remote mansion at the mercy of a madman.

When Sarah is forced to babysit her half-brother Toby, she inadvertently summons the Goblin King who whisks Toby away to his castle at the center of a labyrinth. Sarah enters into a bargain with the Goblin King where she is given just thirteen hours to solve the labyrinth and rescue Toby, or else lose him forever.

Aspiring actor Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.

A voodoo doll must find the courage to save his friends from being pinned to death.

As her world is shrouded in darkness, a young girl must overcome her fears and travel to a mysterious city of light, save her father from a dangerous scientist and prevent the destruction of her planet.

Two young men seek the solitude of the country; their peace is disturbed when a set of random occurrences suggest to their susceptible minds a pattern with sinister meanings.

A Japanese fairy tale meets commedia dell'Arte. All in white, the naïf Pierrot lies in a wood. Doo-wop music plays as he rises, stares about, and reaches for the moon. Although music abounds and the children of the wood are there at play, Pierrot is melancholy and alone. Harlequin appears, brimming with confidence and energy. He conjures the lovely Colombina. Pierrot is dazzled. But can the course of true love run smooth?

An ex-Navy seal, his girlfriend and their friends head out on a road trip to New Orleans. The group decides to stop at a roadside convenience store owned by Chopper, who tells them the tale of Lockjaw, a fabled god-like creature who is half-man, half-alligator.

A man works for the unpleasant guru of a Scientology-like movement.

A maniacal clown named Art terrorizes three young women on Halloween night and everyone else who stands in his way.

A group of people gather in the California desert to watch a "film" set in the late 1990s featuring a sentient, homicidal car tire named Robert. The assembled crowd of onlookers watch as Robert becomes obsessed with a beautiful and mysterious woman and goes on a rampage through a desert town.

Left alone to clean up a 6-meter-deep deserted pool, Day falls asleep on an inflatable raft. When he wakes, the water level has sunk so low that he can't climb out on his own. Stuck in the pool, Day screams for help, but the only thing that hears him is a creature from a nearby crocodile farm.

There's something in his apartment. A man looking for an insect-like thing devolves into a bout of insanity as his subconscious mind begins to strangle his waking one.

Young Lucas finds out he's not really a human after he surprisingly transforms into a monster in front of the most popular kids at school. His search for Monster Island and his real roots takes him on a fabulously scary journey that puts him face to face with more tentacles, fangs and far-out situations than he can shake one of his new wings at.

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.

Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.

When his best friend and podcast co-host goes missing in the backwoods of Canada, a young guy joins forces with his friend's girlfriend to search for him.

Several people disappear from and at the sea. Their bodies are found gnawed to the skeleton, even the marrow is missing. The scientists have no idea which animal could do such things. Dr. Turner begins to suspect that the company which builds a tunnel beneath the bay might have poisoned the environment and caused an octopus to mutate to giant dimensions...

The war on terror exploded, literally, the day Sarajevo was destroyed by a homemade nuclear device. The leading democracies transformed into total surveillance states, and the developing world has drowned under a wave of genocides. The mysterious American John Paul seems to be behind the collapse of the world system, and it's up to intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd to track John Paul across the wreckage of civilizations and to find the true heart of darkness—a genocidal organ.

Zuhtu, a nosy hawker who sells meatballs, one night finds a young girl escaping from her cruel relatives. He intends to help the girl but this costs him too much.