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.

In the intro we see a naked woman out in the fields while a stranger shoots at her. He's hunting her like an animal.

The lovely Diana arrives in a small New Mexico border town for a job. Little does she know it's to be a stripper. She has no money and is now indebted to the "talent agency manager". She has to share a room with a fellow stripper who's also a prostitute at night and a junkie.

Parallel to this story we meet the local law enforcement, the corrupt Sheriff and his hunting buddies, as well as the new deputy who arrived from LA. The local cops are corrupt and the new guy is not quite used to that.

Diana's salary as a stripper doesn't really amount to much. Junkie stripper tells her all the ways she can make more money- take off more clothes, interact with patrons, and offer other services. At first Diana isn't interested but she needs the money so she gives it a try. It yields her more money and the night she meets a patron and drives away with him she ends up changing her mind about offering him other services. But he won't have none of it. He ends up kidnapping her.

Next, she wakes up out in the desert nude...as prey for our hunter. He gives her a 15 minute head start. He catches up with her but he likes a challenge so he doesn't make it that easy for himself. And Diana, is also a bright girl. She tricks him and escapes from him repeatedly, bloody and bruised. Eventually she gets the upper hand and runs into a family camping, the dad and his two teenage sons, who are stunned to see a mostly naked girl who now is in shock. Dad does the right thing and leaves to get help. But the hunter isn't done yet. Nor is Diana.

Naked Fear is an excellent movie for what it is- a well-done B movie with a great story and good acting. Of course seeing the lovely Danielle De Luca run around naked for a good while doesn't hurt a bit. Her performance overall is remarkable, downright award-worthy, given what she has to go through. It obviously suffers from B-movie weaknesses- low budget, not so good acting by secondary characters, an unpolished look indoors, etc. It's a tad bit too long, certain things could have been cut out or shortened. At the same time another victim should have been added, just to make our villain more despicable.

The movie succeeds at presenting the hardships of small town life and the risks of trying to make it elsewhere pretty well. And it does so without being condescending and offensive. You do end up empathizing with the main character. The movie is never exploitative but manages to humanize our characters and give the story a lot of meaning. Naked Fear is admirable for the risks the filmmakers took and how they managed to deliver their vision perhaps without compromise.

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.

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 .