Robert De Niro left us all deeply unsettled with his portrayal of Max Cady in 1991’s Cape Fear — which we at CinemaBlend not only think is one of the best movies of the ‘90s but one of the best horror flicks of all time — and now 25 years later, the proverbial torch has been passed to Javier Bardem for an upcoming Apple TV series. Critics were given 8 of the series’ 10 episodes, and reviews are in ahead of its June 5 premiere.
In addition to Javier Bardem, the Cape Fear TV series stars Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson as Tom and Anna Bowden, the husband-and-wife attorneys who Max seeks revenge against. CinemaBlend’s Riley Utley watched Robert De Niro’s version for the first time recently, and still, she said she never could have predicted the show’s wild twists. She said:
While keeping all the fear and creepiness intact, Apple TV’s adaptation of Cape Fear is a modern and twisty take on this classic tale. Anchored by incredible performances from Javier Bardem (who plays Max Cady), Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson, this slick and scary show presents a new version of Cape Fear that twists and turns in directions I never could have predicted. I say this as a compliment, this show really scared me, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
For some fans — including our own Hugh Scott — this role appears to be precisely the manic performance we’ve been craving from Javier Bardem since No Country for Old Men, and Richard Roeper of RogerEbert confirms the Oscar-winner is a live wire of conflicting emotions on Cape Fear. In fact, Roeper says Bardem serves up “a combo platter of sexually charged charisma” as Max Cady. He rates the series 3 out of 4 stars, writing:
It’s a lurid, explicitly violent, well-acted, and preposterously plotted fever dream that had me rolling my eyes at certain twists and turns, even as I found myself eager to gobble up the next episode. This is like the first two films on NOS: Everything is heightened, exaggerated, extended, pushed to the limits. It makes for occasionally brain-numbing, cringe-inducing, but undeniably entertaining trash TV.
Daniel Fienberg of THR agrees with the other critics that the strong cast elevates the Cape Fear series — which he admits remains “generally entertaining, if not consistently gripping” throughout. However, Fienberg says he doesn’t feel like this book-to-screen adaptation with two prior movies needed to be stretched into a 10-episode series and says he thinks it’s about four hours longer than viewers will be able to sustain the sympathy and suspension of disbelief they’ll need to get through. His Cape Fear review reads:
What justifies the expansion of the story? Sure, there are added character details and nods to contemporary phenomena like true crime obsession and Innocence Project-style criminal justice reform initiatives. But mostly it’s just ‘more.’ More people doing increasingly wrong things under the self-delusion that they’re doing the right thing, more violence-tinged comeuppance, more simmering perversion, more implausible contrivance.
Hunter Ingram of The Wrap says adapting the series into 10 hourlong episodes gives director Nick Antosca the time to soak in the dread of Max Cady’s tormenting tactics and the implosion of the Bowden family unit. That’s not necessary for this story, however, the critic says, but being able to watch Javier Bardem play such “deranged perfection” is a gift. Ingram writes:
Bardem is giving a masterclass in re-interpretating a classic like Cady. The sociopathic tendencies of this man are a feast for Bardem to exploit, savor and, ultimately, weaponize, and if these 10 hours are good for anything, it’s to give him time to go nuts — literally.
Nick Schager of the Daily Beast has a wildly different take than the other Cape Fear reviews I read. calling it “TV’s worst movie remake yet.” Apple TV’s remake “unnecessarily and exasperatingly expands, remixes, and overcomplicates its source material,” Schager says, writing:
This isn’t to say that Cape Fear is entirely without merit. There are occasional sequences that thrum with paranoia and horror. Those moments, however, are drowned out by absurd twists, corny cameos, and excessive convolutions that have been introduced not as natural outgrowths of this tale—and its thematic interests in fathers and daughters, honor and unfairness—but as ways to stretch it to nearly ten hours.
The critics who enjoyed the first eight episodes of Cape Fear largely admitted to some unbelievability or other nit-picks (though I don’t count “undeniably entertaining trash TV” as an insult), and the negative reviews admitted to high points of the series. Overall, the consensus is that Cape Fear is worth checking out when it premieres on the 2026 TV schedule, as it garnered a Certified Fresh 74% from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics.
The first two episodes drop Friday, June 5, with one episode weekly thereafter. The series can be streamed with an Apple TV subscription.
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