Reality television gets even more extreme with “Public Enemy,” a phony (but spookily possible somewhere in the near future) TV show featured in this film where hot, up and coming serial killers and mass murderers air video footage of their heinous acts, duking it out for the honor of being crowned top killer of the year. “Public Enemy” plays a big part in the movie as our “hero,” Pelle, receives a strange phone call one day that orders him to begin watching the gruesome show.
While many of us would be thankful for the tip, for Pelle, this phone call comes one month after the mysterious disappearance of his brother. During a particularly nasty episode, Pelle recognizes his brother’s apartment being used as the setting for a chainsaw murder, so he moves into his residence and begins trying to solve the mystery of his disappearance…and the brutal chainsaw scene…and the reason why all of the people living in this apartment complex are total f*****g freaks.
There’s a lot of figuring out here to do, for Pelle and for the audience. The film tosses everyone around in this spastic cinematic stew that resembles “Natural Born Killers” on fire. Mix that with this kind of Argento-like giallo feel and there’s a lot to handle here. So it’s paramount that you give the film your undivided attention. This isn’t a casual viewing with your buddies on a Friday night, drinking beer and making “yo mama” jokes.
“Naked Beneath the Water” desires your full attention, and if you’re generous enough, you’ll find it giving you in return quite a nasty little thrill ride, perverse and untamed. So untamed, in fact, that the film seems to be falling apart at the seams at times. You can almost sense a filmmaker’s nervous breakdown happening behind the camera and that makes this movie all the more unsettling to digest – as concerned you are about Pelle’s plight, you’re also wondering about the mental state of the filmmaker and you become frightened of them. I love that kind of filmmaking and “Naked Beneath the Water” is a sight to behold.
