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53%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #12,702
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Camden, who suffers from agoraphobia takes in Randy, who suffers from claustrophobia, as a roommate. Unfortunately, Randy turns out to be a serial killer, and Camden becomes a prisoner in his own apartment.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: September 26, 2005
In this low-budget thriller, we follow the life of a shut-in known as Camden (Robert C. Sabin, who also starred in Lamberson's Slime City). Yes, Camden hasn't left his apartment in over ten years thanks to his suffering from agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces), but he's actually quite happy with his situation. Happy, that is, until he starts suffering from extreme loneliness. His first attempt to combat this feeling of isolation is to try those 1-900 "adult" phone numbers that keep flashing across his television screen, but those do little to help. His next idea, and the one that ultimately kicks off the movie, is to get a roommate to share his living quarters. This roommate comes in the form of Randy (Tommy Sweeny, star of Lamberson's Undying Love), a guy who turns out to have some mental issues of his own. Randy, you see, turns out to be highly protective of his newfound friend Camden... so protective, in fact, that he murders anyone that crosses him - be it the man who tried to burglarize his apartment, the prostitute that wouldn't put out for Camden, or the pimp that Camden unrealistically suspected of coming after him for his whore's murder. When Camden finds out about these murders, he obviously wants this man out of his life, but with his phone-line having been slashed and his agoraphobia preventing him from leaving the apartment, how will he get any type of help?
I really wasn't expecting much from this movie prior to watching it; after all, the movie has never had an official VHS or DVD release outside of this DVD (to my knowledge), and its inclusion here only serves as a bonus feature to another movie. That really doesn't say a whole lot about the quality of the film, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually an entertaining movie. It was quite slow to get started and featured more than a few scenes that led nowhere and did nothing for the overall storyline, but once things picked up, it was damned entertaining and kept you wanting to know just what was going to happen next. I also enjoyed the fact that this movie didn't really try to be a horror film, although the description and cover would lead one to believe otherwise. There's a few murders sprinkled throughout the running time, and some of these deaths are quite graphic... however, the majority of the movie is a thriller, and a pretty effective one at that. The final thing that I wanted to point out about the storyline is the ending, or rather, the first part of the ending. The final event of the film is pretty obvious once you find out some of the back-story on Randy (or if you read the spoiler disguised as a summary over at IMDb), but the director chooses to surprise the audience at this point. Instead of "yep, there it is, roll credits", the movie continues onwards for a sizable chunk of time and unravels quite a few more twists before they finally break down and roll the credits. I felt that this was the best approach that Lamberson could have taken; not doing what was obvious would have left the audience feeling cheated, but doing it and then ending the movie on that note would have been an insult to our intelligence.
In the storyline, the main character suffers from agoraphobia. This is conveyed on the screen quite nicely, as about eighty percent of the movie takes place inside his apartment and centers around the two main characters. There's a few people that come into play later on in the movie, but for the most part, these two guys carry the majority of the running time. This works out better than one would imagine, as these two characters do a good job of carrying the movie by themselves. Sure, they don't turn in flawless performances or anything, but they do manage to keep you entertained and they keep the storyline moving in an engrossing fashion. I don't look for perfection from actors or actresses, merely realism and entertainment... and this movie is a perfect example of that.
If this movie was being sold on its own, I probably wouldn't recommend you readers to track it down. However, it's included as a bonus feature on the upcoming Retro-Shock-O-Rama Slime City DVD, and with that in mind, you really can't go wrong with giving it a viewing. Purchase or rent the DVD for Slime City, but stick around for Naked Fear... it's actually quite good. 6/10.
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