Cape Fear review: Javier Bardem brings a controlled intensity to his very modern-day villain

With an air of complacency, Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson) assures his wife Anna (Amy Adams) that “Max Cady is not coming”. History tells us otherwise. Cady is always coming.

The notoriously vengeful antagonist first appeared in John D MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners before reaching the screen twice – initially embodied by Robert Mitchum’s predatory calm in 1962, then in 1991, reimagined through Robert De Niro’s almost operatic menace.

Cady’s story is, at heart, one of invasion: a figure who stalks and seeps into every corner of the family he believes has wronged him. This time, Javier Bardem brings his trademarked controlled intensity to a Cady with twice the incentive.

Newly released after his conviction for murder is overturned by fresh evidence, he sets his sights on both Tom, the prosecutor who put him away, and Anna, the defence attorney who failed to keep him free. Their subsequent marriage only deepens his sense of grievance: in Cady’s eyes, they are collaborators united in guilt.

The campaign of retribution that follows draws on the lifeblood of its predecessors while reframing events through a distinctly 21st-century lens. Cady teeters on the brink of true-crime celebrity, aided by a persistent documentary maker. While we, as viewers, sense manipulation, Cady’s public sees only an honourable victim of wrongful conviction.

Away from the spotlight, however, his methods feel more insidious. Suggestions of catfishing the Bowdens’ son Zack (Joe Anders) are already in play, with drone surveillance of daughter Natalie (Lily Collias) set to follow. It’s a smart update, with showrunner Nick Antosca folding digital-era anxieties into a story long rooted in physical proximity and threat.

Anna, meanwhile, is granted greater agency. Having turned her back on defence work in the years since Cady’s incarceration, she’s now employed by a non-profit advocating for death-row prisoners whose cases are being re-examined. That focus on miscarriages of justice places her in a provocative position – arguing for Cady to receive a financial settlement, keeping her enemy closer than she’d like. Whether he believes she is genuinely on his side is another matter.

That same ambiguity extends to husband Tom. Hints of substance abuse and possible infidelity begin to surface, muddying his status as the wronged party. A telling line comes early on when he reflects on his and Anna’s respective careers: “I’m just a good lawyer. She’s a good person.” It’s fertile ground for Cady, who will surely find ways to exploit these fractures and turn them back on the family.

As a 10-part series, this version can’t sustain its villain as the mere tattooed avatar of sadism he was under Martin Scorsese in 1991. Scorsese, along with Steven Spielberg, may have an executive producer credit here in 2026, but this Cady is a more complex, stealthier presence.

There’s charm to Bardem, a tightrope walk of cunning cloaked in an undeniable charisma. Flashbacks from a troubled childhood are also bubbling up, adding texture to the threat. But any suggestion of softening is undercut by the return of Bernard Herrmann’s thunderous score – its pulsing brass a reminder of the violence lying in wait beneath the surface. As Cady himself puts it, he’s only just getting started.

Cape Fear starts on Friday 5 June 2026 on Apple TV.

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