Naked Fear (2007) Online

"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.

'Naked Fear' opens with a terrified naked woman being stalked and killed by a faceless hunter. The premise of hunters stalking and killing humans is of course nothing new, from 'The Most Dangerous Game' to the 'Predator' movies, but rarely has the idea been done as well with a low budget. Danielle De Luca stars as Diana, a naive young woman who ends up working in a seedy strip joint in a town where game hunting is an obsession and women seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate. However as they are all drifters, strippers or prostitutes, nobody cares except a newly posted cop Dwight (Arron Shiver). After a night at work, Diana wakes up naked in the wilderness with an armed killer on her trail. 'Naked Fear' could have at this point simply turned into a boring exploitationer with the main purpose for the camera to linger on De Lucas' nude body as she runs from her nemesis, but instead director Thom Eberhardt crafts a suspenseful and enthralling movie. De Luca is naked for a long section of the movie, but the director shoots the movie in a way that it's clear the fate of Diana is what is important, not her nudity. Eberhardt also underplays the gore as he never shows any of the torture the hunter inflicts on Diana before letting her loose in the wild. I found this refreshing after watching Eli Roth delighting in the torture of women in the risible 'Hostel II' & Danielle De Luca is very good in a demanding physical role which must have taken a lot of bravery to do. As the story unfolds 'Naked Fear' stays believable,as Diana does not suddenly develop kick boxing skills or make elaborate traps like Rambo. Also, the actions of the local townspeople from Dwight to Diana's flatmate Rita (Lisa Hill) never seem unrealistic (though the ending did seem a little out of place after everything which had gone before it).

The underlying message of the movie is that Diana, Rita and the other strippers and prostitutes to many of the townspeople are as worthless as the deer the locals kill for fun. Don't be put off by the nudity as the worst thing about 'Naked Fear' is its rather lurid title.

If you find the idea of a killer hunting naked women as game preposterous, this movie is amazingly based on real life killer Robert Hansen. In the late 1970's Hansen kidnapped female dancers and prostitutes before stripping them naked and hunting them down in Alaska. He killed 15 women before he was caught.

Unique variation on The Most Dangerous Game has quite the interesting twist..the prey is an attractive and NAKED stripper(..who becomes stuck in the position of dancing in front of bar slobs due to a run of bad luck). Reluctantly, she responds to the advice of a roommate, for a little extra cash, by getting in the car with a stranger she meets in her club, attempting to back out, but her choice of a pick-up was lousy..an expert hunter, who has graced the cover of magazines devoted to the sport, who likes to hunt down prostitutes on the side! When she attempts to escape from his jeep, he cold-cocks her, not long after, she finds herself in the middle of a wilderness buck naked. He, of course, is equipped with proper clothing attire, cross bow, and rifle. While, he has been successful as a predatory hunter(..he does have considerable advantages), this choice could be his undoing, for she's quite resourceful and strong.

From the director of Sole Survivor and Night of the Comet, Thom Eberhart tackles to survivalist adventure genre and Naked Fear adds a certain spin never to be topped. Kudos should be heaped on Danielle De Luca who goes far beyond the call of duty, her character naked and bruised in the middle of New Mexico wilderness..certainly a breathtaking setting to have this naked girl running about.

Not only does she deserve credit for baring everything for a large portion of the middle of the movie, but for her credible performance as a frightened victim who pushes herself to continue moving, despite her difficult circumstances. The role is incredibly demanding, and De Luca wasn't just some actress hired for how she looked in the buff. While spending a great deal of time, once her character awakens to find herself a quarry for the psychopath, running and hiding, trying to catch her breath at times, De Luca maintains our sympathy for her character's plight started from the very beginning and is established as a common occurrence in New Mexico..young, pretty girls snatched away from what they've known as a civilized world, flung into stripping and prostitution thanks to a series of events, call it fate if you wish, that landed them there.

JD Garfield is Colin Mandel, the psychotic predator who is so hellbent on catching and killing Diana(De Luca), he even assassinates a father and his two boys whose presence he wouldn't allow to thwart his mission. Arron Shiver is Dwight Terry, a newly hired deputy, fleeing from a past that haunts him, who suspects Colin when he discovers that Diana is the latest girl missing, and evidence builds against him. Joe Mantegna adds some respectability to the movie as a cop, Tom Benike, who attempts to warn Dwight against going down the road of investigating his friend(..Tom and Colin are hunting buddies).

Colin houses his victims' keepsakes in a tacklebox and we get a chance to witness his despicable antics as he pursues Diana, often bragging and grinning about his handiwork. He's such a loathsome scumbag, it doesn't take much to root for Diana to get the upper hand.

The plot might ask a leap of faith from the viewer concerning the idea that Diana could actually overcome her dire / grim situation, gaining an eventual advantage, using cunning and whatever weapons she could get her hands on in order to fight back against her stalker, but that's all part of the fun. If you can make it through the opening act, which sets up the characters involved in the movie, it'll be worth the wait...I felt that the movie could've been trimmed a bit and still would've been effective. Admittedly, sometimes you become side-tracked ogling De Luca's body(..or, at least, I did) despite her harrowing ordeal, the action sequences and exhilarating location are assets that accompany the eye candy.

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.

This one was a lot better than it had any right to be, given the fairly lurid storyline. I give the producers credit for delivering a credible and compelling story, as well as a believable performance from Danielle DeLuca. Not sure if this will qualify as a spoiler, but not going to take any chances: Story takes a little while to get going, but once the hunt is on, things really take off. Yes, Ms DeLuca is naked for a good part of the second half but, unless you're a twelve year old boy, you become engrossed enough in her predicament that you aren't focusing on that fact. While I appreciated the choice of the camera not lingering on her naked body, I did find it somewhat annoying that it did linger on other unnecessary shots. Sunsets, a car backing out of a driveway and several shots of trophies mounted on the wall. Seemed to be trying to make a point continuously that was gotten the first time around, but it's a small quibble. What points they may have lost from me were gained back by the unexpected ending. Not earth-shaking, but not something I saw coming, either. Bravo.

While this obviously isn't going to win any awards, it's a more than passable way to spend an hour and a half. An hour and a half, to paraphrase so many "original" reviewers on this site, that I happily don't want to give back!

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 .

This is a strange movie. The title, the DVD cover, the 18 rating (in Germany) all suggest it's at least soft porn. But it comes out as very much else.

If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this - for to give justice to "Naked Fear", one must discuss the ending ten minutes as much as the rest.

One might summarize it in a headline: "Crime statistics reversed - last year: 5 women disappeared, this year: 5 woman molesters killed". The first part takes up most of the film, in gripping intensity (and yes, no porn at all) it builds an incredible tension - and then we get a maybe oversimplified, but ultimately satisfying solution.

Is this a feminist movie? I can't really tell - but the solution appears to be much more on the female side than, say, Thelma & Louise. Those were in less thrilling troubles, and ultimately went down in bliss - Diane here takes her summary revenge, becoming a terminatress, and seems to live on quite happily (ever after?)

Even though I'm male and got attracted by the promise of frontal nudity, I now find this film strong for totally different reasons. The concept of being hunted in a wilderness (wasn't New Mexico where Steve Fossett went missing for half a year without trace?) does not depend on gender. And the woman's point of view comes over very convincingly. Very strong piece.

Nearly every review of a movie contains a so called spoiler, because otherwise it will be very hard to write about a movie beside the fact you have seen a movie. But anyway: this movie spoils itself in the very first minutes and show a hunter killing a deer, oops, a naked woman. Exactly this is the message of the movie: hunting humans like animals. Nasty premise. After this we follow a really nice girl on her way to become a prostitute to become at least the victim of the deranged hunter from the beginning. What will sound like a terrible exploitation movie is in fact a very clever handled mixture of drama and thriller, sometimes creepy, sometimes entertaining in the way of a self-parody. To make a personal commentary: the only reason for me as a film critic person since 30 years to write here for no money is the fact I want to push movies I like. End of Spoilers - have an entertaining and haunting evening with this not "important", but (in all departments from acting, writing to directing) very well executed chiller.

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.

NAKED FEAR is actually a better action/suspense movie than it would initially appear. The movie theme of sociopathic hunter hunting an innocent, kidnapped person is not new. The twist this time around is that the intended victim is female. However I now recall a 1987 direct to video movie filmed in Australia where a bunch of outback lowlifes terrorize a woman then decide to hunt her like prey. She turns the tables on them by, yes, getting really angry and then going after them with hand-made weapons. Another similar movie was a movie-of-the week back in 1977 where a hunter played by Andy Griffith accidentally shoots a homeless old guy in the desert. When his hired guide refuses to remain silent, Andy Griffith hunts him down but in the end is thwarted by a slingshot found by the intended victim.

SPOILERS****SPOILERS****SPOILERS

Like the other intended victims of the other movies, Diane (Danielle DeLuca) decides not to be a victim and fights back, which makes all the difference. When you watch the movie, you get a sense of that a remake was done of the NAKED PREY, a classic back in 1966 starring the late Cornel Wilde, who depicted a captured guide hunter in late 1800s Africa, set free to be hunted by the African tribesmen hunters. The plot development is similar. The hunted victim falls back up an incredible will to live and survive and resolves not to be the victim. Also it helps in all the movies of this plot them that the intended victim was in good physical shape to begin with.

I won't be a hypocrite who enjoyed watching attractive Danielle DeLuca run for her life in the nude and then criticize her later for doing a nude role in a B thriller movie. Danielle obviously saw this role as an edgy action thriller which was correct because the nudity was not pornographic. She was willing to go the extra step in depicting total helplessness at the start. It would have been too easy for the psycho killer to have kept her clothes on. My only astonishment is how she could have run barefooted in the New Mexico outback. From what I believe I know about New Mexico there's a lot of thorny mesquite trees in the countryside. I recommend this movie as worthwhile watching for a decent action/thriller. I always see the moral and ethical lesson in such movies. You can choose NOT to be the victim and fight back if you want to, no matter what the odds against you. Like Cornel Wilde in NAKED PREY, Danielle De Luca (Diane) started out her struggle for survival with literally NOTHING.

I saw NAKED FEAR on Showtime last night; and, think that it owes a lot to its predecessors; both on film and in print.

My first introduction to anything of this ilk, is the exceptionally well-written "Open Season" a paperback released in the 1970s upon which a film starring Peter Fonda was made. Unfortunately, that film is out of print; and, I've never seen it; but, the book was excellent.

I did see 1932's "The Most Dangerous Game," which may be the original telling of this tale of human as prey and predator. I also rated that film 9 out of 10 stars, here on IMDb; and, feel that NAKED FEAR is a very modern adaptation of the story.

Sub-par variations on this theme include 2000's "Hunting Season," which I rated only 3 stars; and, 1961's "Bloodlust," starring the Brady Bunch's Robert Reed as the handsome protagonist. I rated that one three stars as well; but, I think I may bump that up to four.

NAKED FEAR exceeded my expectations in almost every element of the film. The characters were believable, sympathetic, multi-faceted. The action was fast paced. The dialog was fine. The score kept things moving along. The cinematography was gorgeous. The plot was plausible; and, gripping -- I was enthralled right from the opening scene.

My only objection is the ending. Why did Christine Vasquez turn this into a wannabe "I Spit on your grave?!?" Couldn't she have just left it with Diana Kelper recovering in the hospital? Why did she have to go on a killing spree. It just doesn't make sense.

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?

I have to ashamedly admit that I actually enjoyed this movie up until the very end. The main characters i.e. the girl, Diane, and the hunter, Colin, were fairly well constructed from the beginning. The plot was not well concealed, however, as I guessed early on that the "heroine" would survive all of this.

The evasion and striking back parts were even marginally believable though I question the girl's stamina after having been tortured all night.

What was most gimmicky were the "lucky breaks" that the girl got during the chase. The hiding in plain sight, the missed shots by the hunter, the accidentally (on purpose) knife left by the boy in the tent, the failure of the hunter to kill her once he had her on the ground, the breaking of the leather restraints in the hospital room and, finally, her re-emergence 10 months later fully healed and beautiful after escaping from the hospital with serious wounds and in a hospital gown.

All of these events just seemed to be plot devices to allow this supposedly defenseless girl to defeat an experienced hunter and miraculously heal herself and become a one woman vigilante squad.

Kudos to the heroine, Danielle De Luca. She really put herself out there by being nude outdoors for almost a third of this film. She delivered an outstanding performance, her fear and other emotions were palpable. The rest of the cast seemed to just be there to support her.

This was not a great film, but a wonderful vehicle for a very brave and skilled young actress to show what she can do.

When visiting Germany I came across the Naked Fear box, it was ultra cheap so I picked it up and only seen part 1 I wasn't disappointed. Being a horror buff I wouldn't really classify it under horror but more under a thriller. The reason is simple, it's all about being hunted by a killer.

This flick is really a slow starter, it takes around 40 minutes before it turns into what the title says. The first 40 minutes you start to know Diana (Danielle De Luca), a girl going to a town without any money. So she needs money and only can do it by stripping in a bar. But that doesn't bring in real cash so she also do men after stripping until she come across a nice guy. It's from that point that this flick turns into a horror. But not that much blood is shown, it's all about running away from the hunter. Diana is being hunted in full nudity. It's weird that in the strip club she doesn't reveal anything but once in the woods she shows it all.

the whole story reminded me of two real cases, serial killer Robert Hansen who also kidnapped prostitutes and let them run in the forest to be hunted down, the second case is that of Aileen Wuornos.

A rather good flick, you just want to know how it going to end. It never bored me although that some acting was bad and a few editing mistakes like then she has bruises on her leg and the next shot they are gone or the first victim when buried you can see her breath while she's supposed to be death.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 4/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

I avidly support all the positive comments posted here and add my admiration for how incredibly well both Danielle De Luca and director Eberhart manage the nearly impossible task of threading a needle -- deftly avoiding all the pitfalls inherent in this notoriously salacious genre. The way this movie begins by promising to be "just like all the rest" turns out to be either an intentional setup to later catch us off guard by its uniqueness, or a testament to an unanticipated epiphany that suddenly swept this project off its feet part-way through and caused a quantum leap to "A" Movie quality that even manages to transcend the gratuitous non sequiturs required to keep it going for the expected feature-movie length.

To my mind, "Naked Fear" succeeds by actually committing a consummate taboo: rendering the plot almost irrelevant by causing the viewer to become more intrigued by its direction, cinematography, and most of all, the riveting performance and physiognomy of its star performer. Assuming that Danielle De Luca is no "Meryl Streep" (and I'd love for her to prove me wrong), the only other explanation for this performance is that she has played "herself" -- as if she were in the same situation as her character; and that Eberhart has either cast her for that very reason or at least realized early on what she was delivering and went with it full bore.

If anyone were to tell me that I was going to watch a movie in which a beautiful dame was going to display full-frontal nudity for most of it, the last thing I'd assume would be that my "little head" would hardly ever be provoked by it; and yet, this is precisely what De Luca's nudity accomplished. Being a highly sexual, straight male, my limbic brain was constantly scanning her lovely anatomy throughout, but to my surprise her nakedness demanded a strict emphasis on "loveliness" instead of "sexiness," as if in homage to the instinctual understanding that this was "a good girl" and not one of those I'd like to tear up with monkey love.

As added emphasis of this, every time I've since come across this flick when surfing through the movie channels, I've always found myself hanging on a while to re-appreciate her flawlessly-packaged performance anew; and I suspect that females will also be attracted to it, as well, and for the same reasons.

"Naked Fear" is no "Gone with the Wind" to be sure; but it sure as hell deserved a cult following, of which I count myself a proud member.

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.

Despite some drawbacks - being exploitative, sleazy, cheap and sexually sadistic - this isn't a terminally bad B-movie. In fact, there are quite a few good things which recommend it.

Basic plot line: a border town in New Mexico has two main male leisure pursuits – hunting and hookers. Young chick gets tricked into taking a job as an exotic dancer at a strip joint. She's trapped and trying to make enough money to buy herself a ticket out of there and back home. Meanwhile, a crazed hunter is picking up prostitutes, torturing them, stripping them naked, flying them out into the middle of nowhere and hunting them down as human prey. In effect, combining the twin male leisure pursuits of hunting and hookers – only in a more disturbing and deranged way.

Our main girl gets picked up by the unhinged hunter and so begins a protracted cat and mouse game of chase and evade across a rather beautifully photographed natural wilderness. And it really draws you in. You start to care about and root for the naked and defenceless victim whilst hoping like hell her tormentor gets his just desserts. For this type of low-budget hack job it is rare for genuine suspense and thrills to be skilfully delivered in equal measure, but here the film succeeds. The hunting and fleeing scenario manages to be tense and involving, at times even gripping.

The rest of the film framing the main action is mostly junk – poorly scripted, badly acted domestic and police scenes, cardboard characters spouting horribly inane dialogue, ultra-sleazy super-clichéd depictions of stripping, drug abuse and crude behaviour...and, and just what the hell is Joe Mantegna doing popping up in a very minor role as a dodgy sheriff? Was he drunk or something? He shouldn't have simply fired his agent for this one, he should have shot him. You got Joe Mantegna in your film. He can actually act – unlike most of the rest of the cast. And he's half the way down the cast list. Like, what gives?

Female lead, Danielle De Luca, is really quite good, convincingly vulnerable with a nice line in weary, resigned sarcasm. The times when she snaps out of it and becomes an aggressor in order to save her own life raise a pleasing internal cheer. She gives a good enough performance to get the audience fully on her side and handles a variety of emotions with some dexterity. She suffers with a certain human intensity which adds significant gravitas to her portrayal.

The DEATH WISH-styled vigilante ending adds to the cheap ambiance of the film and feels entirely tacked-on for exploitation's sake alone. A better supporting cast with better dialogue along with a less contrived pay off and this could have been something special. What we have is a quality core set-piece that is well filmed and choreographed but unfortunately book-ended and punctuated by hulking slabs of wasteful B-movie tack.

I believe the story was based loosely on real-life events in Alaska and has recently been filmed again as THE FROZEN GROUND with John Cusack and Nicolas Cage, so there was certainly mileage in it.

All in all, I'd recommend a viewing on the basis of the thrilling and dynamic events at the centre of the film and advise not paying too much attention to the peripheral stuff.

Admittedly, this low budget, regional (it was filmed entirely in New Mexico) variation on "The Most Dangerous Game" is rough going for its first 40 something minutes, as it takes too much time to play out and establish all of its details. The story sees a naive young woman, Diana (Danielle De Luca) arrive in NM from Texas; she's just gotten work as an exotic dancer. Meanwhile, a young man named Dwight (Arron Shiver) has recently become a deputy in town, and he's a guy who has his own (cliched) history. As one might expect from a film of this nature, the acting isn't particularly great (the film's one big name, Joe Mantegna, is basically phoning this one in), and the characters are pretty stereotypical. Things pick up after the dragging first act, when the story proper kicks into gear. Inspired by the real-life exploits of serial killer Robert Hansen, it shows how Diana is victimized after accepting a ride from seemingly genial local Colin (J.D. Garfield). Colin, you see, is a creep who likes to abduct women who supposedly "won't be missed" - prostitutes and the like - and set them loose in the wilderness after he's stripped them naked. After this the story becomes quite compelling as the unfortunate Diana struggles to survive and stay one step ahead of Colin. The appealing De Luca is a very brave young woman to tackle this role, as indeed she is obliged to run around in little more than her birthday suit and be at the mercy of not just the psycho but the environment. The nakedness, however, never comes off as exploitative but merely stresses this girl's vulnerability. The story is also developed in interesting and not entirely predictable ways, as Diana finds help - or so it seems at first - sooner than one would think. And when Colin decides to eliminate something in his way, one will applaud the filmmakers' brevity in going to that place. An offbeat credit for director Thom Eberhardt, best known for "Night of the Comet", this features some gorgeous scenery and a very good music score by Jeremy Scott Reinbolt, and is at its best when it's just Diana and Colin on their own in the country. It gets pretty visceral without ever getting very gory. It does lead to a resolution that is unexpected, ending this thing on a rather interesting final note. B movie lovers should find all of this to be agreeable enough. Seven out of 10.

The opening scene shows a woman naked in a field. She is very afraid, hence the name Naked Fear. She is being hunted a la Jean-Claude Van Damme's Hard target, except instead of military vets, the targets are strippers and whores.

Diana (Danielle De Luca) is the latest girl to be recruited as a stripper, and you know she is going to end up a target. She seems to feel that she is in danger.

Joe Mantegna is the sheriff, and the way he handles a new scope makes you tend to believe he is involved. But, then again, he is a hunter, and maybe he just gets off on handling scopes.

Diana eventually is taken to the field, and we watch her prance naked through the brush trying to escape, while avoiding tarantulas and rattlers. It's not the Sheriff, I'm glad to say.

There are a couple of good side stories, as a father (Kevin Wiggins) hunting with his sons finds Diana; and Deputy Dwight (Arron Shiver) is trying to find her despite his wife's worry that he will lose another job.

Things get bloody as the killer shows up at the camp, where the father left his boys to watch Diana as he goes for help. Meanwhile, Dwight has caused the Sheriff to finally start questioning things.

What a surprise ending!

I seldom watch horror movies - natural disasters such as volcanoes, tisuni, hurricanes or earthquakes, together with violent crimes, serial killers and terrorist suicide bombers, provide enough real horror to make any fictional additions redundant. This leaves me no time for films about aliens, imaginary new diseases, and monsters from the deep or the swamp. Once I would have included many films featuring man's inhumanity to man in this no-no category, and some friends felt I was squeamish in my movie selections. This changed when Cecil DeMille's "The Sign of the Cross" was again released after many years on the forbidden list. Although the scenes from the Roman Arena may be tame by the standards of modern horror films with their digital sequences of human bodies exploding into pieces, this film involved the viewer in the lives of the characters in a way that only a few Directors still can today and I reacted with abhorrence. Later I realized DeMille was reminding us how little human nature had changed over the past millennium. Historically speaking most people today live in a very stable society and only by remaining continually cognisant of the depths to which the human ego can drive our behaviour can we hope for this to continue. Roman civilization was a long lasting stable society in which citizens lived in relative security under the rule of law. Romans came to appreciate that in order to maintain this it was necessary for every citizen to be aware of the sheer horror of the alternative, and this need was met by gradual evolution of public entertainment in the Arena from poetry readings to barbaric exhibitions of violence. For us today horror films in movie theatres serve the same purpose as the gladiatorial contests of the Roman Arena.

So much for psychology, discussed here only to help differentiate between horror and sleaze in our entertainment. If you enjoy good sleaze it is irrelevant and unhelpful - this was written for the many reviewers who have condemned Naked Fear for being downright sleazy, which it is not. It is the story of a girl who is raped by a madman and then set loose naked in a forest knowing that she has a 15min head start after which he hunts her down for "sport", and shoots her before she can tell the police. Films about people being hunted in this way go back a very long time but "The Most Dangerous Game", filmed concurrently with the original King Kong over 70 years ago, is still far the best (see my review in this database). I well remember the sense of shock and horror I felt when I first saw it. It had very well controlled changes in pace, well rounded characters - not just cardboard cutouts - and many carefully planned details, even down to the knocker on the door of the villain's home. By comparison, the many remakes have all been relatively crude. Of them, Naked Fear, released in 2007, is probably the best. It is based on the story of Robert Hansen, an Alaskan who raped and hunted 15 girl strippers in this way before he was caught. There are always a few men who use the services of prostitutes, but still feel they are so disgusting that the girls should be killed. Making us aware of how far a hypocritical attitude towards violence to prostitutes has permeated into our society was one of the objectives of this film, and there is no reason for calling it a sleazy remake of TMDG just because the victim was a girl who was stripped before she was hunted. This not only provides a link to real events, greatly increasing its sense of reality, but also adds to the horror viewers feel when they see the totally unprotected victim being released into a forest replete with sharp twigs, thorny shrubs, and dangerous wildlife. I doubt if any viewer can watch it without sensing how impossible it would be to flee effectively under such a handicap. No doubt Danielle de Luca was provided with some sort of stick on soles for her feet during the filming, but she was still very brave to accept such a role and I greatly admire her for doing so.

Although a few badly lit night sequences leave the viewer guessing, the quality of this film comes closer to that of TMDG than most (if not all) of the other remakes released over the years, with its powerful final sequence effectively showing the deranging impact such encounters have on any victims who survive. The introductory sequences are long enough to give depth to the characters, and the actual hunt sequences are not overextended lasting about 20min with Diana clothed again and, perhaps more important, something round her feet for the last five of them. But at 108min overall this film remains too long, and does not maintain the tension achieved by TMDG which had the tautness of a 63min film. Its ending was overlong, overdark and overdrawn - the main climax was the scene on the rocks, the remainder was probably designed to fend off sexploitation charges. Overall I rate it at a solid six.and recommend it to everyone who enjoys horror films - particularly anyone believing these films require mythical monsters and or supernatural events to create real horror.

One may hope films dragging such subject matter out from under the curtain of obscurity may make it much less likely that characters such as Robert Picton (believed to have fed the bodies of more than 20 girls he killed to the pigs on his farm) can operate for so long before their atrocities are revealed.

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.

I'm giving this film a three, since I have seen "A Night to Dismember" and know how bad a film can really get. This one at least has custom score and actors who talk when their mouths move. Beyond that, this is all kinds of godawful. Apparently realizing that the first 45 minutes of the film are unbelievably boring, someone decided to try to compensate for it with excessive female nudity in the latter 45 minutes. In fact, I've heard that this film was partially funded by the State of New Mexico, and that they were very upset to see the final product because they considered it to be a porno.

The story is like a string of poorly executed stereotypes. An innocent young girl is tricked into becoming a stripper, and forced to remain in the job via methods that are obviously illegal -- no particular reason is given for why she doesn't go to the police. Meanwhile, lots of strippers and prostitutes have been mysteriously disappearing. Surprise, she ends up being taken by the same killer, who seems to like to hunt naked women out in the brush by Rio Rancho. We get to watch her variously run and stand idly around in the nude, until they presumably couldn't convince the actress to tolerate anymore of this so SHE DIGS FOR A SHIRT. Yessiree, it's common knowledge that if you just dig enough random holes you'll eventually turn up an entire wardrobe! She then gets to run around in a shirt that's been slit up the sides so that you still frequently catch views of her crotch and buttocks. Meanwhile, a police officer in town seems to have a lead as to the killer's identity, but he is discouraged from pursuing it because it would be scandalous to damage the reputation of a guy who manages a café, or something. Yes, it sounds just as stupid on the screen.

While I don't think this could reasonably have ever been a great film, I could even see how to improve the story as I watched it. For example, were this Diana character a prostitute from the start, it would not only explain why she doesn't complain to the police about her obviously illegal treatment at the strip club, but also would make her transformation at the end at lot more profound. (I won't give a spoiler -- if you're like me you'll have guessed the ending 10 minutes prior based on the question "How would a third rate Lifetime Original Movie end?") In fact, I have a suspicion this was originally written to be something in the style of a made for TV LMN film, but when it was decided to produce the film independently it was decided to capitalize on all potential for nude scenes, in order to appeal to a broader audience (id est, one that does not consist exclusively of alcoholic housewives.) The film also claims at the start to have been based on a true story. No one has yet been able to identify which story that is, indicating the film either was going the Blair Witch route in trying to lend itself credibility, or else was conceived after hearing something about some man who tried to kill some naked girl somewhere.

Congrats to my friend Matt Sanford, though! Your two-minutes of screen time were the most enjoyable part of the movie.

Hunted like an animal. Naked prey. Let me assure you, that is the good part of the movie, which was initially off to a precarious start, but Danielle De Luca came in and instantly turned it around whenever she was on the screen. Cute and with spark. The rest of the cast, well, early on I liked the Sheriff, but, okay, the lot couldn't carry a ten minute commercial.

What a total letdown. At one stage, Our Heroine was doing applause-worthy well fighting back. Then, as she flees through the woods, she bumped into a hunter, and from that point onward, the movie became total total total junk. There was no point in having this victim rescued by an outside group. Perceived as just like the dumb, hapless animals as "worthless", she, naïve and vulnerable, had to conquer her foe alone, she had to overcome her fear and stand up for herself. THIS WAS DONE, but then, it really looks AS IF THE PROJECT WAS TAKEN OVER BY A SECOND TEAM and movie becomes a dumb gore-fest (badly done, I mean, gore fans wouldn't sit up - from their coffins - and notice).

The stretch of the movie that is the NAKED FEAR is quite well filmed. It is exactly as the other reviewers here say it is, I would just add that the juxtapositioning of the beauty of New Mexico makes it hell in paradise.

This particular movie, that last two reels of film really needs to be thrown away, and remade from there. Danielle gave a stellar performance, but it's really all for naught with this shambles of a letdown.

That knife. The older boy goes into the pup tent with the knife. Why? And why would he leave it lying next to Diana? Besides facilitating the corny set-up, I mean.

A near success, snatched from the jaws of victory.

For how it should be done (albeit with less explicit nudity): Australian movie FAIR GAME, with Cassandra Delaney, one of The Raven's favorites.

My score for the movie takes into account that Danielle De Luca is a must-see. Wow. All natural, long limbs, no tattoos, and suntan-free. Double wow.

Wayward young lass Diana Kelper (a strong and sympathetic performance by gorgeous brunette knockout Danielle De Luca) goes to a small town in New Mexico to start a new life for herself. Alas, Diana gets forced by the sleazy Fred (a nicely slimy turn by Mel MacKaron) to work as an exotic dancer at a strip club. Things go from bad to worse for poor Diana after she's abducted by ruthless psychotic predator Colin Mandel (a perfectly creepy portrayal by J.D. Garfield), who dumps Diana in the wilderness completely nude so he can hunt her down like a wild animal. Can Diana muster up the necessary strength and cunning to survive this harrowing ordeal?

While this film suffers from an overly drawn opening third and the padded 108 minute running time could benefit from some trimming and tightening, director Thom Eberhardt nevertheless offers a flavorsome evocation of New Mexico, makes fine use of the desolate sylvan locations, and generates a substantial amount of suspense once the hunt gets underway. Moreover, this movie certainly delivers on the tasty female nudity, with the luscious Mrs. De Luca spending a considerable amount of time running (and bouncing) along in her birthday suit. The acceptable acting by the competent cast holds this picture together: Joe Mantegna as the easygoing Sheriff Tom Benike, Arron Shiver as eager deputy Dwight Terry, and Lisa Hill as jaded junkie hooker Rita. While Christine D. Vasquez's script gets bogged down in needless subplots, said screenplay still manages to come through with a pleasingly chilling surprise ending. John Grace's sharp cinematography provides an impressive polished look. Jeremy Scott Reinbolt's shivery and spirited score does the stirring trick. A rather flawed, but still effective and satisfying little thriller.

My title for this review pretty much summarizes the plot of "Naked Fear" (hereafter NF). In case you are not familiar, "Naked and Afraid" is the Discovery Channel program that places men/women pairs in inhospitable environments without food, water, and clothes and observes their efforts to survive for 21 days. As for "The Most Dangerous Game", I think no explanation is necessary, since it has been such a constantly used premise. To be candid, I watched NF for free on Xfinity on Demand primarily because of its voyeuristic promise of extensive female nudity. I thought NF would be chintzy and stingy with the nudity, but it sure wasn't (including full-frontals). Despite its cinematic '70s atmosphere, TV-level production levels, and exploitative plot, NF also doesn't skimp on the tension, violence, and terror, which were unnervingly effective.

NF's effectiveness comes mainly from Danielle De Luca's intense turn as Diana, a lovely, red- headed Texas woman who moves to a sleepy (make that comatose) New Mexico town to take an alluring job as a dancer. Gradually, she realizes that the dancing involves poles, G-strings, twerking and being in financial thrall to the scum who lured her there. Desperate to raise money to pay him off and to go back home, Diana most reluctantly agrees to "entertain" one of the habitual strip-club customers. Unfortunately, that turns out to be hunter Colin Mandel (J.D. Garfield).

You see, Colin not only likes to hunt big game like elk and deer (whose stuffed heads get ample screen time). He likes to hunt humans. Naked female humans. He picks up prostitutes in town, takes them to his remote home, abuse and drug them, strip them, then dump them in the desolate New Mexico wilderness with a 15-minute head start to escape him. The beginning of the film shows one of Colin's victims failing "Naked Survival 101".

Diana finds herself in the same predicament. Despite her fear, shame, and confusion, Diana proves to be quite a challenging, elusive quarry for the deranged Colin. Meanwhile, the new deputy in town, intrigued by the town's growing list of missing female persons (all strippers or prostitutes), tries to investigate Diana's appearance, but is thwarted by the apathetic town Sheriff (Joe Mantegna) who basically thinks it's a waste of police power looking for worthless hookers. Out here in the vast New Mexico territory, it's pretty easy for criminals like Colin to practice their twisted hobby and literally bury the bodies without anybody complaining. This seems to lower Diana's survival odds.

Nevertheless, Diana has a stubborn will to survive, facing rapid rivers, a rattlesnake, rough terrain, scorching heat, and the dogged Colin. Can she make it out alive? Will she get her revenge? What effect does this ordeal have upon her?

NF does a pretty good job in exploring one of the most terrifying situations a human could face (being defenseless in the wild) and showing Diana's realistic reaction to her situation. She is both fragile and tough, afraid and persistent, despairing and determined to beat the odds. She's a real trooper - both the character and the actress! The other characters in NF - including a camper and his two sons who offer temporary shelter to Diana- are basically forgettable window dressing. Your attention is focused upon Diana, and not only because she has a beautiful body.

P.S.: Regarding Diana's fate, here's a small clue. In NF, Diana literally collides with a VW bus. One of the two panicked guys in the bus remarks, "She looks like Carrie after the prom."