Naked Fear (2007)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fresh and Exciting

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's a difficult film to judge because it's a cheaply made story of a pretty young woman kidnapped by a lunatic and set free, naked, in the wilds of New Mexico to be hunted down like any other prey. It's a familiar enough story. "Run of the Arrow," "The Naked Prey," "Run For the Sun," and "The Most Dangerous Game" come to mind, though the published versions reach back farther than that. Come to think of it, it's almost time for another crack at it, isn't it? But, despite its meager budget, its use of non-actors in all the important roles, and the general sloppiness of its construction, it has odd moments in which someone -- the writer or the director -- managed to transcend the mundane foundations of the narrative.I'll give two examples of their NOT doing anything new with the story and one example of at least some slight evidence of imagination.In all dumb horror movies, there is an axiom. The dead body must come back to life. To be truly effective it must come LEAPING back to life. Okay. Danielle De Luca, naked and exhausted, climbs the scaly face of a bluff and disappears over the corniche. The maniac, J. D. Garfield, slings his rifle and climbs after her. Just as he is about to reach the top, she rises above him, holding a boulder over her head, shouts something like, "Eff YOU, you effing effer!", and smashes the rock on his head. He tumbles to the road below in a shower of stones and lies there, his rifle at some distance. Is he dead? Is he even out of the picture? Are you kidding? Of course the sensible thing for De Luca to have done was to slide down the face of the cliff, grab the rifle, and pump a few rounds into his head but, given the dead-body-lives prerequisite, I don't know for sure that that would have stopped him. It hardly slows him down later when she bites off his ear and stabs him. And when she runs him over, she had to do it twice to get the job done. (These lunatics are hard to snuff.) Example number two of thoughtlessness in the narrative. At the very end, ten months after she's escaped from the hospital (with at least one compound fracture and untold hollow organ injuries), we see a De Luca more attractive than ever as a prostitute picked up by an agreeable trick. He stops the car in a dark lot and turns to her with a big grin. But she pulls a pistol and puts it to his forehead. "S****," he says in a resigned tone before she blows his brains out the window. She walks off with a satisfied smile into the night. The scene provides a bloody but implausible ending, unless you hate men. What an improvement it would have been, while retaining the same message, if the scene had shown us De Luca moping over a drink in a bar, being approached by a man, then moving away with a horribly pained expression on her face. The wounds she's suffered will never heal.Now I've gone on for so long with the two lousy examples that I've almost forgotten the good one I'd intended to describe. Yes. It comes gliding back to mind. After De Luca's pursuit through the wilderness, she steals a Volkswagen bus from a couple of drunken, wisecracking teen-aged boys. She manages to drive into the city before finally collapsing behind the wheel. But instead of the speeding van smashing through a fence or a supermarket window, it slows down and rolls to a stop, gently bumping against a sign post. Maybe, as a bonus point, I should add that De Luca's nudity is never really exploited either. There's nothing erotic about a naked and bruised woman stumbling awkwardly through thickets on bloody feet. The effect is that of viewing a corpse before the mortician has had a chance to pretty it up.There is one conclusive, profoundly moral message that can be drawn from this catchpenny effort. Danielle De Luca looks good naked. As Scaramouche says, "You may have lost Diana on the highway, but look, there is Aphrodite in a ditch." She's attractive enough, though she can't act any better than some kid starring in a high school play in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Nothing to be ashamed of. But why -- in the middle of this vast wilderness, not even within shouting distance of the nearest human being -- does she keep holding her hands and arms over her forbidden parts? Modesty is a virtue, true, but even virtue can be carried too far.

A psycho lets naked women loose in the wilderness so he can hunt them down like animals. This thriller, inspired by the actions of Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen, is nothing to write home about, but it's not as bad as one would expect. It draws elements from such films as "The Most Dangerous Game," "The Naked Prey," and "I Spit on Your Grave." The only familiar face here is Mantegna as the sheriff. De Luca, spending much of the film completely disrobed, is not bad in the lead role. There is a lot of nudity, but it's presented rather tastefully. The film doesn't know when to roll the final credits; there are too many climaxes.

Well, let me begin by saying that sex sells. In this case, nudity of the main cast. She is the reason most of the men (and ladies, presumably) to watch this. Forget about the plot, I'll just ogle her throughout the film.Not that this is a bad thing, though. Not unless you are a religious freaks who thinks that nudity will bring you straight to Hell.This film is loosely based from a film of a similar title, called Naked Prey. I am not too sure whether this is based on true accounts, though, but the Trivia seems to suggest that.All is Okay about the film, except for the ending. It seems like it is not thought carefully before production, thus the rather poor ending.Well, I would not recommend this film, but I am not suggesting you not too watch it either, especially if you are into films that contain nudity sans the sleazy acts.

The plot was expected and until the actual center piece abduction takes place its normal horror movie fair. Then from the title(and cover)you would expect a naked or half naked cutie running around doing stupid stuff until she is finally caught an snuffed out, but despite the long interlude of nudity while running. you actually focus on the story and get behind the protagonist and want her to win. As a normal red blooded male, I really enjoy in a film that has the obvious eye candy of a pretty girl nude, when it makes sense, and doesn't stand in the way of the plot, and is not pornographic. I for one haven't seen that type of appeal sense the emerald forest. I thought the very end like the beginning was a bit contrived and hooky, but neither end stopped this from being a very watchable and enjoyable film. My Hat is off to the cast and crew of this very good budget sleeper.