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.
