Nesting, or Matryoshka dolls have existed since the late 1800s in Russia. Traditionally the sets of dolls, which fit inside each other, form a theme – often including peasant families, fairy tale characters and politicians. You might think of these dolls as the weird collectables at the back of your Grandmother’s shelf, but here’s some horror fans who have crafted or re-purposed the traditional dolls to create unique pieces of scary art.

Matryoshka dolls have surely evolved through time. Nowadays, we have modern nesting dolls like these from nestingdolls.co which are hand painted into animals, cartoon characters, and even some mythological creatures like dwarfs.

Werewolf nesting dolls, by missmonster

Matryoshka Russian doll demon by missmonster

Anatomical Nesting Dolls by StuntKid

Zombie Nesting Dolls by mitchrobot4

Nesting Dolls of Horror by Larry Higbee

Dia de los Muertos Matryoshkas by Cyanidenight

Five Nights at Freddy’s Nesting Dolls by Just A Little Bit Artsy

Cthulhu Mythos Nesting Dolls by licoricewits

B – Movie Monsters from 1950s Sci-fi Nesting Dolls by TNThielen

Movie Monster Nesting Dolls by Kevin Howell

Monsters by Doug Buddy

Nesting Dolls by Irene Garcia

Horror Movie characters by licoricewits