Lunatic's Favorite Horror Movies Of All Time

9. Cape Fear (1991)

I know, I know, I’ve gone off on blasting horror remakes on here often, but with good reason, it’s most of the current horror movie remakes that really really suck.  Besides, this is a remake from Martin Scorsese who is one of the few directors out there that I would honestly say hasn’t made a movie NOT worth watching.  It has a great cast feature Robert De Niro pre-career suicide, Nick Nolte Pre-famous mug shot, and Jessica Lange.  Plus, and I know that I will probably lose some movie buff cred here... but the original Cape Fear wasn’t as good as everyone wants to say it is.  It’s a classic!  Don’t misread what I’m saying here, but I feel that there are a lot of things in the 60’s movie that the remake did better.
Those that don’t know the plot, Cape Fear is the story of a lawyer, Samuel Bowden (Gergory Peck in the original, Nolte in the remake.)  that is living a pretty nice life with his wife and teenage daughter when a man named Max Cady (Robert Mitchum/Robert De Niro) shows up.  Cady had been a client of Bowden’s while he was a public defender, and Bowden buried evidence that might have saved him from jail time.  Well, naturally the reason that Cady is new in town is that he’s figured this out and is looking for revenge.
The major difference that causes me to prefer the remake to the original is how Cady’s revenge plays out.  In the original it’s implied, but most of the action and terror happens when they get themselves isolated on the river in the house boat.  Now in the remake, most of what he does is about how he can terrorize this family without being caught up to being able to weasel in and out of their house completely unseen.  Cady comes off as more cunning and scary because of it, despite the fact that De Niro’s over the top performance IS still blown out of the water but the chilling one given by Mitchum.
Another thing that I prefer is that Scorsese’s style of directing makes for a more interesting movie.  The original may have cribbed more than a few notes from Hitchcock, but the remake just had this mood and creepy energy going through it.  It felt more creepy to me.
BUt I’m not going to lie, the main reason I like this movie so much is because it’s clearly using a mesh of contemporary and old school film techniques, but it actually kept the original score from the first, something I think is unique to this movie.  I may someday put together a list of film composers that are the greatest in my opinion, and I know for a fact Bernard Herrman will be on that list.  This score is intense and in a weird way works perfectly in the new movie.
Basically if you want a movie that will just weird you out about how easily a guy can wreck someone’s life, you should see both but I give my preference to this one.  It just works better for me.

5 out of 5