‘Cape Fear’ review: Amy Adams and Javier Bardem’s revival is a brutal summer thriller

Apple’s “Cape Fear” revival is slick, stylish — and brutal. 

It’s a star-studded crime drama with standout performances from Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem. 

It’s also hard to see why this show exists when there are two famous “Cape Fear” movies — do we need a third version? But if you ignore that element, if you just want a sun-drenched, blood-soaked thriller series, it’s a compelling watch. 

“Cape Fear” follows affluent lawyer couple, Tom (Wilson) and Anna Bowden (Adams), who live in Savannah, Georgia, with their teenage son and daughter. 

Their lives get shaken up when Anna’s former client, Max Cady (Bardem), gets released from prison after 17 years. It becomes a hot news item; he’s dubbed America’s most famous exoneree.

Years ago, Cady pleaded guilty to murdering his pregnant wife. Now that he has apparently been deemed innocent — his mistress claimed that she did the grisly crime — the public sentiment is turning against Anna, who was his lawyer at the time. 

To make matters look worse for her, Tom was the prosecutor who put Max in prison, and Anna and Tom got together during the trial. 

A newly freed Cady is out for revenge on the couple. 

The series is the third iteration of this story. Every version of the plot follows Cady, an ex con out to menace Bowden, the lawyer he blames for his incarceration.

It started as a 1957 novel called “The Executioners.” 

Then, it was adapted into the first “Cape Fear,” a 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck as Bowden and Robert Mitchum as Cady. In the movie, Cady was a psycho and Bowden was a good guy.

The most famous version is the 1991 “Cape Fear” from Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro as Cady and Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis as members of the Bowden family. In this movie, Cady is a madman but Bowden is more morally gray.

Scorsese is involved in this series as an exec producer, and so is Steven Spielberg, who also produced the ’91 flick.

The new “Cape Fear” is as competent and polished as the star power would suggest.

Still, it’s baffling why there are now three versions of this story. It’s a provocative, sometimes nasty thriller about revenge, guilt and the justice system. 

But it’s not “Pride and Prejudice” or “Wuthering Heights” — the type of timeless classic where it makes sense to put out a new one every decade.

It also works best as a two-hour film. 

The series tries to pump out enough material for 10 episodes. It mostly succeeds — give or take feeling drawn out, at times — though you may question if you want to feel so tense for 10 hours rather than two. 

De Niro’s version of Cady raped a teenage girl. Bardem’s version of Cady killed his pregnant wife, and his guilt is called into question.

The show removes the rape element and ages up his victim, but Cady is hardly softened into a kitten. Bardem hasn’t been this menacing since “No Country For Old Men.” 

The “Cape Fear” series also has more adjustments for the modern era. 

The lawyer wasn’t a woman in earlier versions of the story. The show also includes more about the media’s role in all this, and it weaves in the true crime ecosystem, including podcasters who are eager to cover the saga.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2026 story if AI wasn’t involved, too. There’s a scene in which the Bowdens’ teenage son watches a creepy AI video of a teenage boy telling the camera, “My name is Adam Cady and I never got to be born. This is how I might look today if my dad didn’t butcher my mom when she was pregnant with me…”

So, the show does take pains to add new elements and pepper it with references that couldn’t have existed in the ‘60s or ‘90s. 

All the while, the music and cinematography make it feel retro and timeless. 

Viewers may question whether we needed this. We didn’t. 

Looking past that “why is it here?” factor, it’s worth a watch if you want a well-made Southern gothic suspense. 

“Cape Fear” premieres Friday, June 5, on AppleTV+.