Naked Fear is a 2007 live-action thriller, written by Christine Vasquez and directed by Thom Eberhardt.
Diana Kelper (Danielle De Luca) is a young dancer who thinks she's hit it big when she wins a contest to perform at a nightclub in New Mexico. Unbeknownst to her, it's actually a trap to send its workers further into debt, until they are forced into prostitution. With no other choice, Diana solicits her first client... who happens to be none other than Colin Mandel (J.D. Garfield). Colin may look like a model citizen at first glance, but he has a sinister pastime — to kidnap women, strip them naked, set them out in the wilderness, and hunt them like animals.
Sure enough, Diana tries to back out at the last moment, but is knocked out by Colin, and eventually finds herself in the same predicament. With nothing but her wits on her, she must try to evade Colin and make it back to civilization alive.
Naked Fear contains examples of:
- Action Survivor: Diana has to very quickly learn about surviving in the wilderness in order to stand a chance against Colin.
- And Starring: Joe Mantegna gets a rather prominent credit at the end of the sequence.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Despite being fully exposed in the wilderness for a day and a half, the worst Diana has to do is wrap her feet in cloth to protect them from the ground.
- Bittersweet Ending: Diana manages to kill Colin and return to town, but her ordeal has left her distrustful of everyone, and she escapes into the night. Ten months later, she's back on the prowl killing sex offenders and becomes known as the "Southwest Slayer".
- Creepy Souvenir: Colin keeps a collection of jewelry from the women he kills. In the opener, he takes a bracelet from his most recent victim and later adds it to a collection of many other jewelry pieces.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being hunted down while naked, and then being unceremoniously buried with no one else knowing just what happened to you, is an extremely undignified way to go.
- Developing Doomed Characters: About the first half hour of the film is focused on Diana as she realizes the debt trap she's fallen into and the lengths she has to go to in order to climb out of it. Subverted in that she survives the events of the film.
- Fanservice: Even when Diana does find a shirt to cover herself with, after tearing out some cloth for her feet, the shirt is torn in a way that you can still see her body from the side.
- Faux Affably Evil: Colin Mandel. A polite, model citizen who is also a vile Serial Killer.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Inverted. Colin kidnaps women and then hunts them through the New Mexico wilderness. He strips them naked to increase their feelings of vulnerability and terror.
- Gory Discretion Shot: There is only one time a shooting occurs on-screen, and even then it's far away, so you're spared the grisly details.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Colin's MO is to hunt women in the countryside like animals.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Diana uses her arms to cover her breasts and groin when she initially wakes up naked and a little while after when she's walking around looking for someone, despite being in the middle of the wilderness and having no one around for miles.
- Made of Iron: Diana and Colin both take hits that should logically leave them injured; in Diana's case, she takes a hit from a reasonably fast van, and Colin is smashed over the head with a large rock. Both times, they shrug it off with no visible effects.
- Male Gaze: A lot of focus is given to Diana as she's au naturel in the wilderness, but the most flagrant example of this is during a chase scene where she pauses for a brief moment to look back, giving the audience a view of her bare chest.
- Mood Whiplash: The film opens with some scenic shots of the New Mexico wilderness... and then a naked woman stumbles into the scene, obviously distressed.
- Karma Houdini: Jack never receives any comeuppance for his nefarious nightclub scheme.
- Older Than They Look: Diana and the club owner Jack are stopped by the cops, who believe Diana is a minor. However, she's actually 23.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The opening scene of the film shows another unnamed victim who is eventually hunted down by Colin, to show the audience how utterly depraved he is.
- Time Skip: The very last scene of the film takes place ten months later.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: There is a B plot involving recently reassigned sheriff Dwight Terry and Diana's roommate Rita, who go about town investigating Diana's disappearance.
- Undressing the Unconscious: Diana has a rather rude awakening once she realizes that she's been dumped in the wilderness with only her necklace.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The film's plot is inspired by the real-life serial killer Robert Hansen, who used a similar methodology to hunt his victims.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of the two stoners whose van Diana steals is unknown.
- Would Hurt a Child: For Colin, he would even kill children if they found out too much about his schemes.
