‘Every Heavy Thing’ and ‘Don’t Leave the Kids Alone’ Win Big at the 10th Brooklyn Horror Film Festival

Are rats cute, creepy, or a matter of genre? That’s the sort of debate you have at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival — a warm-and-whacky annual event in New York City that expanded rapidly for its 10th edition.

Co-founded by creative director Justin Timms, this gonzo celebration started a decade ago as a quaint movie club in the backroom of a bar. Now, it’s a ten-day affair held at several different venues with an estimated 5,000 guests in attendance for 2025. That’s a 20 percent increase since last year and proof that buzz for Brooklyn Horror is building scary well.

“Rats, much like horror, are deeply misunderstood,” said Timms, who champions plenty of weird art you could describe that way. This year, Brooklyn Horror gave top accolades to Mickey Reece’s “Every Heavy Thing,” Emilio Portes’ “Don’t Leave the Kids Alone,” and “Last Call,” a short film directed by Winnie Cheung.