Cape Fear, based on a 1957 novel by John D. MacDonald, already has inspired two intense films about a man who, recently released from prison, goes on to terrorize his former attorney. Now there's a new 10-part miniseries from Apple TV, which premieres its first two episodes June 5.
The first Cape Fear movie was in 1962, starring Robert Mitchum as ex-convict Max Cady, and Gregory Peck as attorney Sam Bowden. Peck's Bowden was heroic and strong, but Mitchum's ex-con was a playful, vengeful force of nature. One of the most powerful scenes in that movie was when Cady cornered Bowden's wife, played by Polly Bergen, in a kitchen, grabbed and crushed a raw egg, then smeared it across her exposed shoulders as she shuddered with fear.
Mitchum's very verbal sociopath has provided the template for dozens of movie and TV predators since. Those would include, most prominently, the eccentric killers played by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, and Billy Bob Thornton in the first season of TV's Fargo. And Robert De Niro, of course, who played Max Cady in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear, opposite Nick Nolte as the defense attorney.
The most gripping and uncomfortable scene in that version, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, may have been the moment in which DeNiro's Cady is alone with Bowden's teenage daughter, played by Juliette Lewis, and approaches her with a mix of charisma and menace. Scorsese kept Cady as evil as before, but made Bowden a much less noble protagonist. And that's why, I suspect, Scorsese has returned as an executive producer, along with Steven Spielberg, to present Apple TV's new, expanded version of Cape Fear. This time, the shades of gray are everywhere you look.
Nick Antosca, who created and oversaw this new miniseries, has made some bold choices from the start — beginning with the casting and the primary characters. In the two movies, Bowden's wife and family were targeted by Cady purely to get revenge on Bowden. In this new story, Bowden's wife, Anna, was Cady's defense attorney, and Bowden was the prosecutor. It puts her in the narrative more centrally, and pays off.
Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson are really, really good as the Bowdens, and play their parts with shifting layers of innocence and guilt. And playing Cady? It's none other than Bardem, who already has embodied one world-class villain — and here he comes again.
Apple TV provided eight of the 10 episodes for preview, so I don't know how this Cape Fear ends. But I know how cleverly it updates and expands the story. It's set in today's world, so there are cell phones, podcasters, rideshares, catfishing and public shaming — all of which figure into the plot.
There are also flashbacks, not only to Cady's prison years, but to Bowden's childhood, which is similarly fleshed out. And best of all, major new supporting characters are presented — some of whom inherit the stalking behaviors exhibited by Cady in the film versions. And those films are echoed with respect. Just as Scorsese found room for Peck and Mitchum to appear as other characters in his 1991 remake, this new Cape Fear pulls the same trick by casting someone from Scorsese's film.
Bardem is riveting here, but he's by no means the only reason to watch. The story may be familiar, but this new Cape Fear rolls out one surprise after another. Some scenes are scary, some are violent and some are creepy. And part of the suspense, in this new adaptation, is figuring out who the creeps really are — and where the evil really lies.
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