Naked Fear

Its been a long time that there has been an effort to re create the genre of Exploitation. The main stream is busy at making films from cartoons, comics and books.

real creativity of art is lacking these days. This movie could be have much better, but at least some one dared to make it, so my hats off to director. But more than that, it is the actress who has done a worth-looking role. Running around naked for around 30 minutes of the movie length is not an easy job.

So, salute to bravery.

The good part is that there is sex or profanity in the movie and can be watched any where and any time. The nudity is tasteful and at one time, you are more interested in what is happening next and not what is in front of you.

I just wish that other actors could have done a better job.

Now, question is. Will there be more movies like this or not?

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.

Let's do the negatives first. The repeated shots of the animal heads is trite and repetitious. And the ending is trite. And some of the supporting cast is awful. The Indian, for example, is truly wooden. I thought Joe Mantegna was miscast. He did a decent job, but the strain showed. Miss De Luca is very skilled, and shines in the non-horror scenes. I would like to see more of her. The movie is genuinely suspenseful and well paced. And, yes, Miss De Luca looks lovely in her stripper scene. The chase scenes in the wilderness are effectively planned: the tension is high enough that we hatdly notice the nudity. Sum: not at all a waste of time.

Going into this film I thought two things: 1. Another new take on "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell(Which is one of my favorite short fictions) 2.It would be an attempt at successful "exploitation" films of the 60's, with all the titillation, terrible acting, and fake blood that were synonymous with those films...How wrong I was.

I was unaware that this was actually based on the killings of serial killer Robert Hansen, which this was very accurately based, except he was in Alaska and the film takes place in New Mexico.

As far as cast and acting goes, it was rather well done. Strong plot(which isn't hard being based on actual events). The title, cover art, and synopsis would lead one to believe that this IS an attempt at an exploitation film and yes it does have the nudity to concur, though as another reviewer had added, the plot and solid acting of the lead got to a point that I didn't care she was nude and was actually yelling at the character in an already made film to "MOVE NOW" or "look behind you"(come on most of us have done it).

All in all, not Oscar worthy, but a very enthralling and well rounded film. A definite 7 out of 10.

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.