Movies
Through the Cracks: Prozzie (1983)
As hardcore horror fans, sometimes it feels like you’ve seen it all. There are no surprises left to discover, no classic slasher film waiting around the corner to thrill you and slap a childlike grin on your face. You try to feed the fix by searching through lists of “The Scariest Films You’ve Never Seen” only to come across titles like “May”, “The Descent”, and “Suspiria”. These are, of course, films that us diehards know and love all too well. That’s where I come in, dear reader. We’ll be taking a deep dive into the bowels of obscure horror from decades past and uncovering titles that might have fallen “Through the Cracks”.
‘Prozzie’ (1983)
AKA: Olivia, Double Jeopardy, Beyond Sin (and about five other different titles)
Prozzie is a psycho-sexual romantic thriller from once promising director, Ulli Lommel. Lommel, was the director of quasi-classics (or, at least, well remembered), The Boogey Man (1980), and the feminist witch-revenge flick, The Devonsville Terror (1983). His career later devolved into a string of incoherent, bargain basement, DTV dreck. Most of which chronicled true crime tales of serial killers from various periods. It’s a shame as Lommel showed such promise with his earlier outings behind the camera. This, being one of his most obscure efforts, is quite possibly his best.
While scouting locations for 1983’s poor excuse for a clip-show, Revenge of the Boogeyman, Lommel toured Arizona where he discovered the original London Bridge, now looming over Lake Havasu, had been relocated meticulously stone by stone. This struck the director as such an odd tourist attraction for a small lakeside community and ultimately became the impetus for a tale of dual identity and “sexual revenge” (or so says one of the many taglines adorning the film’s various covers).
Starring Lommel’s then wife, Suzanna Love (The Boogey Man) in the role of Olivia. She’s quite the damaged soul, having witnessed the death of her very own mum as a child. In the film’s opening, her mother, a prostitute, is entertaining an American soldier in their small flat overlooking the Thames River in London. When the ole’ kinky stuff gets out of hand, the mother’s “John” ends up brutally murdering the woman, all while Olivia watches through a keyhole. Flash forward to a now adult Olivia living out her days in similarly cramped quarters with an overbearing and occasionally abusive louse of a husband who demands she stay confined at home with no job and no life.
While her husband is out working late nights, Olivia longingly watches the prozzies (slang for prostitute) outside her window as they work the area up and down the London Bridge. One night, fed up with her current state and egged on by the disembodied voice of her long dead mother, something snaps. Olivia dresses in her skimpiest outfit, throws on some dark shades and bright red lipstick and starts walking the streets. It isn’t long before she is picked up by a man who’s up for anything. She ties him to the bed, and before you know it she begins to reenact the tragic scene she’d witnessed so many years before. Only this time she is the aggressor. Don’t worry, this isn’t a big spoiler as it happens about ten minutes into the film. From there it would appear the story we are settling in for is in fact a tale of a repressed woman gone wild while meting out her own “sexual revenge”. It’s not…not for a while anyway.
Feeling the rush and excitement from her first kill, Olivia waits patiently for her husband to leave for work so she can escape to work the nighttime streets. Driven made by the ghostly voice of her mother, it seems clear Olivia is intent to continue killing the would be suitors who seek to pay for her body. That is until she meets Mike Grant (Robert Walker Jr.), a man working for the government trying to determine if the crumbling bridge is salvageable. He winds up courting Olivia back to his place where they begin a passionate affair. From here on out the movie is more of a tense romantic drama with sporadic bursts of violence peppered throughout. I’ll speak vaguely on the rest of the developing plot as to avoid the film’s twisted surprises.
What is so exciting about Prozzie is that it fails to follow any type of expected story structure. The direction shifts abruptly halfway through only to do so again as it all rumbles towards a climax. After a series of unfortunate events, we cut forward four years from London to Lake Havasu in Arizona and Mike becomes our “in” to the proceedings as we switch to his point of view. It became very clear to me at this point Lommel was attempting his own take on Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Several shots on the shores of Havasu are lifted directly from that film and the plot dovetails into a mix potential doppelgängers, obsession, and revenge. There’s even shades of Psycho with Olivia’s dead mommy complex slowly chipping away at her sanity.
Lommel keeps things moving at an entertaining clip (the film is right at 80 minutes) and while the budget was extremely low, there is some style on display in certain scenes. Take for example a vase being used as a murder weapon with the flowers inside scattering, the petals slowly falling across the victim’s face. While the majority of the film is more drama than fright, there are some fun gore gags. Though, they feel slightly out of place in such a serious-minded film. Death by electric toothbrush? You betcha, and it’s pretty sweet…if nonsensical. Nonetheless, these moments remind the viewer they’re watching a horror flick, and the sense of fear only grows that the outcome for our star-crossed lovers is likely bleak.
Love delivers an incredible performance relying mostly on her eyes to express all the crazy emotion flying around her character’s warped brain. Walker as the broken hearted male lead is effective as someone determined to reunite with the love of his life. Overall, the acting is far and above what one might expect from a 500k quick and dirty low budgeter from the 80’s. Lommel manages his cast and interesting script into one hell of a twisted romance. For those readers who love Hitchcockian style suspense, I highly recommend hunting down Prozzie. Just be aware that you’re getting yourself mixed up in a dramatic thriller with squishy bits of exploitation (sex, nudity, gore) thrown in to spice it all up.
Prozzie is available on all region Blu-ray from UK’s 88 Films. This is one film that’s fallen through the cracks that is surely ripe for a modern reevaluation.
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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