More Than Exploitation — Naked Fear

A film where a man hunts naked women? You’d think you’d know what to expect, but there’s more to this thriller than the title.

Taking the premise of The Most Dangerous Game and placing it a modern context, Naked Fear follows a woman named Diana who is manipulated into sex work and eventually kidnapped and released naked in the woods while being hunted. The idea of a naked woman being hunted would have one thinking this may fall into exploitation territory and it’s a reasonable assumption. However Naked Fear doesn’t really cross that line. It’s never really sleazy. Although the film opens with an earlier victim being hunted before Diana, despite the nudity it’s never shot or framed in a way to make light of the situation. There are no lingering shots of Diana’s body to exploit the situation nor does it portray the male characters who perpetrate the dangers to women as anything other than reprehensible.

A surprising note about Naked Fear is that it’s quite humane. It actually takes moments to talk about the missing women and how no one cares because their sex workers. One law enforcement officer is constantly told to drop the case when Diana’s roommate comes seeking her whereabouts. For this same officer, him taking up this case has jeopardized his relationships with his boss who is the town sheriff and his wife who asks is it worth throwing away a career on women people throw away? The movie isn’t actually going to answer the question in a low budget feature, but at least it does address the way people see sex workers. As Naked Fear reaches its climax we also have moments of people trying to aid Diana which again shows that there is some humanity out there and not all monsters.

Naked Fear is actually quite entertaining and if you can get past the weak acting, you’ll find there’s a bit here and it’s not the modernized exploitation flick one might think it is.