Cape Fear Series Review:

Does the devil see the world differently because he is full of hatred? Or does he influence us to see the world as he does, because he wants us to propagate hate? In Cape Fear, we see the fear of shame, the fear of exposure, and the fear of reparations constantly plaguing a lawyer-couple in the form of a bullish and manipulative psychopath named Max Cady (Javier Bardem).

Creator: Nick Antosca

Cast: Javier Bardem, Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, Joe Anders, and Lily Collias

Streamer: Apple TV

Max Cady, played by a supremely charismatic Javier Bardem, plagues the Bowdens, mainly the attorney couple Anna (Amy Adams) - Tom (Patrick Wilson) and their kids Natalie (Lily Collias) and Zack (Joe Anders). His physical presence is not needed for the family to feel the fear as the adults hold a grave secret which resulted in Max's 16-year prison sentence, and the kids' chaotic emotional centre results in them being easy targets. But Cape Fear, moves away from the previous adaptations with a risky take on Cady's character. By showing his backstory, the writers ran the risk of having viewers rooting for Cady. But at every major point of his backstory the writers make sure that the choices he makes are a representation of the evolution of evil within him. This not only maintains the edginess of the horror, but it propagates the thrill further.

Bardem, as Max Cady, smashes any comparison to Robert De Niro and Robert Mitchum, by embracing every single element that makes the character. While stylistically, this version of the character and the story is similar to De Niro and Scorsese's film, Bardem and Antosca uses the familiarity as a jumping point to tell a unique story. Bardem's Cady does not have a god-complex, but thinks of himself as a vessel for his god. He is driven by revenge and belief, rather than facts. Bardem uses this semantically vague nature of Cady's motivations to hit the mark in portraying the charisma, sinister, and his manipulative nature to maintain the edgy horror. The game that Cady plays in ripping the Bowden family apart is not enough for him, he wants them to be publicly shamed, and hence he needs to redeem himself in front of the world. This is a game which he enjoys playing, as he enjoys pushing people's limits. At every point when Cady relishes the game, Bardem fully transforms into the character, resulting in the audience completely forgetting the actor on screen and indulging in the horror that the character unleashes upon everyone.

But Bardem is surrounded by a supremely talented group of actors, no matter the amount of screentime. Whether it is Adams or Collias, who are given the multiple task of representing the woes of being unassuming women victims, or Wilson and Anders, who portray individuals moving through their lives with trauma, Cape Fear is bolstered by good performances. Despite a screentime of just a few minutes, Ron Perlman, who is menacing, or Anna Baryshnikov, who gets on the viewers nerves, become memorable. While with some negligible misses like an underwritten Neveah Valentine (Malia Pyles), the series values the audience's involvement until the very last shot.

Cinematographers Eben Bolter and Celiana Cárdenas take on the humongous task of capturing the series with the Southern Gothic finish on every shot. Every shot is interesting no matter how negligible it is for the story. Something as simple as a woman sitting beside a pool, could have been shot directly, but by showing her with a point-of-view shot through the corner of a window, an eerie and sinister nature is maintained to prevent the audience from slumping back into their seats. Even the use of extreme close-ups, crash zooms, and dutch angles aptly portrays of the Southern Gothic horror's claustrophobic element.

Cape Fear is a great retelling of a twice done story, which does not shoulder itself with unnecessary time-relevant messaging. In a world of countless remakes, Cape Fear is one with great character.