Review of Cape Fear (1991) by Horvath S — 15 May 2011

Cape Fear is a remake to believe in. Starring Oscar nominated performances and directed by the best in the business, Cape Fear increases the chilling atmosphere like the original, and is quite possibly better.

Hardened by 14 years in prison and out for revenge, psychopath, Max Cady looks to torment his former state lawyer and his family in many different and terrifying ways. Though the original already had a great and terrifying story, with an incredibly cast, this Cape Fear fine tunes the concept. Most notably, the Bowden family which Cady terrorizes is a lot less perfect than the original, with their own struggling problems. Sam Bowden is now Cady's attorney which even gives Cady a little justification for his actions. Robert De Niro gives one hell of a performance in this movie. Playing a southern psychopath who is cool and ultimately determined fits right up his ally. There is movie characterization of Max Cady in this movie, now not only a man out for revenge, but he's completely out of his mind! Spending years reading books, this Cady has a sick sence of philosophy which we see unfold. Cape Fear builds suspence and terror by being more personal, having good character developement, and or coarse some completely brutal and bloody scenes.

Martin Scorsese style is put to great use as it fits wonderfully in the serial killer/thriller genre. But Scorsese, being all too familiar to the genre, uses his talent to give this movie a good, classic, neo-noir feel to it. The shots are fast paced and constantly moving. This movie uses a lot of closing in shots that shrinks the World as fear and suspence raises. There are also nice little looks with reflective objects that looks really cool, from mostly Cady's or other character's sunglasses. The cinematography looks wonderful, sometimes looking regular, sometimes looking totally stylish. The choice of having the sky turn red sometimes is questionable, but very cool and bizzar looking. This movie's pacing is also very thrilling and well put together, especially when the movie gets to its chilling climax. There are so many scenes and little details in this movie that have been referenced time over, even more times than the original. Scorsese really did push to make this movie creative and memorable, and gets even better when it uses a re-orchestrated version of Bernard Herrmann's original and scary music score.

Cape Fear is fun and creepy all over. Robert De Niro's performance is just as cool as Robert Mitchum's, and Nick Nolte plays his character very well in its new direction. And at a young age, Juliette Lewis earns an Oscar nomination for her role. Seeing cameos from the original cast adds a little fun to the movie as well. Cape Fear is overall not just a great thriller but a very well done remake and a classic, even when compared to the already classic and thrilling original.