Naked Fear (2007)

Broke and down on her luck, "Diana Kelper" (Danielle De Luca) takes a job at a strip club in the small town of Santa Paula, New Mexico. It turns out that the job isn't quite what she thought it would be but since she doesn't have any money to return home she's pretty much forced to stay on. Along with that a new deputy sheriff named "Dwight Terry" (Arron Shiver) has also recently arrived in Santa Paula and one of the first things he discovers is the large number of people who have been reported as missing. Most of them are young women. Dwight wants to investigate but the Sheriff, "Tom Benike" (Joe Mantegna) doesn't think it's necessary. Anyway, what really surprised me about this film was the performance of Danielle De Luca who was absolutely sensational as the stripper who became the prey of the sadistic hunter named "Colin Mandel" (J. D. Garfield). The ending was also quite good. However, I didn't much care for the repetitive drama involving Deputy Terry with both his wife, "Karley" (Jenny Marlowe) and Sheriff Benike. Neither situation was that interesting. Additionally, I would have preferred to have seen Colin being given a more sinister personality. Again, what made this film interesting was the excellent performance by Danielle De Luca. The supporting cast did adequately but with a better script this film could have been very exceptional. All things considered then, I rate it as slightly above average.

Naked Fear is one that sat on my Netflix Instant Queue for almost two months. Which I was shocked because when I first heard of it, I wanted to see it immediately, but couldn't find time. The only thing that drew attention to me was it read "Available until September 22, 2010" in big red letters. So I knew I had to watch it sooner rather than later. The thing I was fond of was for much of the second half of the movie it turns almost to a perspective Horror film. One I mentioned when reviewing Devil is hard thing to do. Films like Open Water utilize the perspective Horror feel to the fullest of capabilities. Without imaging yourself as the victim(s) in the movie the effect is small and you won't respond well to it most likely. Put yourself in the shoes (in this case our lead wears none) of the victim in this movie. How would you feel? That is the question.While having some impressive shots of landscape and open wood areas, the crew did one huge no-no when making this movie. Why in the holy hell did they use CGI for some of the scenery shots and airplane shot? It looks incredibly fake and just ruins the overall feel. I loved watching our victim run around helplessly in the very atmospheric, radiant, and breathtaking scenery we have in this film, but why did the creators choose CGI for somethings? I've spoke many times on CGI and say the same quote; "Excessive CGI is excessive. Well done excessive CGI is fluent and adds to the film." In this case the CGI isn't excessive (Thank God), but it's extremely unnecessary and embarrassing. They were in an open area. Where was the extreme full shot of the scenery? Why couldn't we get a unique aerial view of the landscape? Maybe because the plane was too CGI? The plot of the movie involves a stripper in a sleepy New Mexico town where various strippers are disappearing without a trace. The police department is perplexed and leads come at a molasses pace. New-coming stripper and protagonist Diana (Danielle De Luca) finally gets her turn at the deadly cat and mouse game after being kidnapped and stranded out in the middle of nowhere, naked, and desperate. She finds a man who she believes will help her, but he's the cat in this twisted game. A cat with a sniper who's goal is to kill Diana in the deserted area.It's a humble film. No big name stars or to my knowledge even had a mainstream release. So this movie is definitely an underrated gem. Plot wise it's amazing. I love the overall feel and the perspective Horror genre is utilized extremely well here. The only downside which I marked the movie off a full star rating was the God awful use of CGI. I've always hated to keep bringing up something I've said before, but it's just so unnecessary and almost docks the film halfway from four stars. While a majority of the film is made up by great acting and suspenseful scenes (which have some intense synth music by the way), some scenes can be picked out that I would call mediocre. Some scenes capture intensity better than others as well.Naked Fear combines a good plot with very well done acting and some amazing scenery when it's real. The portion of the film, unlike the film I reviewed recently Devil, takes place in an open field rather than half out of the setting, half back in town. Unlike Devil, the film takes place in most of the setting where the predator and prey are. In Devil we go in and out of the elevator frequently. All in all, Naked Fear is an interesting and very up and down movie as it is. Some parts made the movie and others just screwed the movie, but hey, I've gone into the CGI enough.Starring: Danielle De Luca and J.D. Garfield. Directed by: Thom Eberhardt.

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.

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.