Naked Fear

This was better than an empty dessert. By that I mean, I went into this thinking it would just be an average, silly, exploitive film with gratuitous nudity and not much of an original plot. I got the nudity and a lot more substance. Yes this theme has been done before but there were many surprising twists and shocks that usually are taboo in films like this. This was a psychological thriller for sure . There was the cliché. The usual suspect, the well to do pillar of the community , and of course negative traits of hookers and strippers. The usual fare ,setting the plate , for an all familiar film. The tension was there, check. The twists were there, check. Fine acting, check. The ingredients were there and then some. The movie, I felt, did a fine job of establishing most of the characters and showing their true selves ... Negative and positive. The realness was there. I will not give away the ending, only to say you will not be disappointed. Enjoy .

I suspect some might question my reasons for liking this movie, but I actually liked it a lot. While movies on terror nowadays seem to involve gore and torture, this one is more mental. Oh yes, the title does say naked fear and it does involve nudity, but for me the real horror here is where it should be - a mental thing. I do think for many of us perhaps the most frightening thing is for us to be vulnerable and scared - even more so than the events themselves that scare us. And what could make one more vulnerable than to be naked, alone, and fearing someone out to kill you? If you can identify at all with this actress, you might come away with something of real horror and true fear - and yet have that fear without the chainsaws and other items of gore so frequent nowadays. It would be wrong to say what happens, but I do think the plot developed well and led to a story that I felt perhaps was more believable than some who rated this movie. And maybe since this is situational mental horror, the movie just might stay in our minds more than the simplistic slasher movies.

If your idea of fun is watching a naked woman running through the wilderness while being hunted down by a redneck with crossbows and rifles, then maybe this film is for you.

A stripper names Diana is lured to New Mexico by a night club owner promising big money to her for her great dancing ability. Her license and all identification are taken and she is forced into prostitution. The first client knocks her out and she wakes up in a field, nude.

The great white hunter gives Diana a fifteen minute head start and then the games begin; first with the crossbow, then with the rifle. The chase is silly, with the only redeeming feature being Danielle De Luca's sexy body without clothes, running like a deer caught in the headlights, and her's are on. Did the great Joe Mantegna read the script before joining the cast, or did he need the pay check? The supposed twist ending is just not believable, and the plot is an old one, dating back to The Most Dangerous Game.

Along with the mindset of the Dangerous Game it also reminded me of an old movie called Naked Prey.

The naked runner scenes didn't hurt to keep attention-span while the plot developed, they were done well and didn't make it a back room movie. There are a few spots of twist and it wasn't totally predictable.

Aside from just her looks, Danielle De Luca did a really good job and the landscape scenery was nice. Don't know why they put Joe Mantegna in a bit part though.

The ending seemed a bit out of place but I guess they wanted to try to change her role as not defenseless.

All in all, worth a watch.

"Rated R for terror and violence, nudity throughout" - perfect line for your average snuff movie.

Yet, this movie has a bit more quality. The nudity is non-pornographic. The sexuality shown is sometimes erotic, but not perverse.

The plot: Sadistic killer versus innocent, naive, girl. Seen often before.

After the first 10 minutes I thought of giving this a 4 out of 10 or less, for its stereotypes, standard patterns of story development and rather bad acting and camera work. But as the story developed, it actually became an entertaining movie. I thought the naive girl was believable in her actions, and somehow the camera and sound work seemed to improve as well. Even the nudity was fitting in without being exploiting.

I try to avoid spoilers in the first comment for this movie, so I just try give you an idea of what you might like about it: You don't have to turn away every other scene thinking: wow, this is stupid, why in world would he/she do that? Meaning it's mostly believable. And it's not explicit - meaning that even thought this movie contains cruelty, it does not show it off with lots of gore. It's quite subtle at it.

It's still your basic thriller with some mild horror elements mixed in. No greatness in the dialogues or in the action scenes (well, the ending line it great). I found it enjoyable, only the acting of the supporting cast and the sound sometimes irritated me. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to see a not-too-violent thriller with some depth and a few surprises.