DIFF has grown more prominent in hosting preview screenings for upcoming theatrical releases, as this coordinated marketing strategy assists studios in spreading positive word-of-mouth. Summer might generally be thought of as the season of superheroes and spectacle, but the organization has turned its eye to horror with a trio of exciting new films.
Recently, DIFF showcased films as massive as Jurassic World Rebirth and the independent dramedy Sorry, Baby. July, however, has proven to be an early window into the Halloween season.
DIFF has offered first-come, first-served preview tickets to dedicated film fans interested in getting an early sneak peek at the A24 psychological thriller Eddington, the legacy sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer and the body horror flick Together.
Horror is often thought of as the backbone of the theatrical market, as the genre provides opportunities for low-budget films to reap profits and target a reliable audience. Despite the lower floor needed to be financially successful in the theatrical window, 2025 has been a tough year. Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum recently spoke out about his failures to market films like Wolf Man, The Woman in the Yard and M3GAN 2.0. Aside from complexities related to the more limited period of theatrical exclusivity, Blum’s greatest insight was that audiences need a reason to trek out to the theater.
Especially in a digital age, Rotten Tomatoes certifications, strong trailers, Letterboxd virality and established movie stars are important parts of a studio’s marketing strategy. The films that succeed tend to be those with organic enthusiasm. DIFF’s series holds screenings in the week before release and takes advantage of the brief window in which selective audience reactions still feel like a novelty.
Although each of the three films below was strongly anticipated, horror is often a far more diverse genre than it is credited as being. Eddington, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Together are all graphic, R-rated films made on modest budgets, but they represent three distinct pillars within the horror community.
Eddington
Writer/director Ari Aster may have terrified audiences with his supernatural horror films Hereditary and Midsommar, but his latest bone-chilling story offers a much different type of terror. Set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eddington explores the gradual breakdown of an isolated New Mexico town as the feud between Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) reaches its apex. While the memories of social distancing, Black Lives Matter protests and COVID conspiracies may have faded, Eddington is (ironically enough) an unmasked exploration of the events that stoked violent divisions earlier this decade.As was the case with Aster’s last collaboration with Phoenix, 2023’s Beau is Afraid, Eddington is an intentionally provocative film that is bound to split audiences down the middle. While there’s certainly morbid humor to be found in the way that Aster points out the hypocrisy of specific ideologies, Eddington is also trekking into traumatic events that are fairly recent. This is also why it’s a perfect film for DIFF to screen; whether it's positive or negative, the reaction to Eddington will certainly not be ambiguous.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
It was only one year after the success of 1996’s Scream that its screenwriter, Kevin Williamson, penned the script for I Know What You Did Last Summer, another teen slasher flick with a whodunit quality. Given that Scream was recently rebooted with sequels that combined the original stars with a generation of younger talent, it only makes sense that the I Know What You Did Last Summer series would follow the same trend. It may have the same title as the 1997 original, but 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer adds Outer Banks’ Madelyn Cline, Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Chase Sui Wonders and The Little Mermaid’s Jonah Hauer-King into the mix alongside returning cast members Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt.Horror film sequels can be either brilliant (Evil Dead II, Aliens, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) or downright terrible (Halloween Kills, The Ring 2, Sinister 2). The premise of I Know What You Did Last Summer is universal enough that it should connect with those who weren’t alive when the original was released. And even if slasher films are easy to predict, this one retains a cheeky sense of humor that serves as a reminder that the genre can be fun, too.
Together
Independent cinema is often quite inviting to horror filmmakers, and Together proved to be one of the biggest acquisitions of this year’s Sundance Film Festival when NEON picked up the film for a summer release. The directorial debut of Michael Shanks stars the real-life married actors Dave Franco and Alison Brie, who play a couple that becomes fused together due to supernatural circumstances. While this may seem like a mirrored premise of the infamous Matt Damon/Greg Kinnear comedy Stuck On You, Together goes to some fairly graphic places with its impressive makeup effects.The recent success of films like The Substance and Nosferatu has shown that body horror is breaking through to the mainstream more than some may expect. It's often a fun experience to watch something incredibly gross with an engaged audience. Brie and Franco have appeared together in comedies like The Little Hours and The Disaster Artist, but Together is an opportunity for both to step outside of their comfort zones.
