Like many millennials, American screenwriter Nick Antosca admits he probably first learned about Cape Fear from The Simpsons.
The 1993 episode brought some of the 1991 film’s most memorable moments to animation: Sideshow’s Bob pursues Bart Simpson in the same way that Robert De Niro’s Max Cady, a recently released prisoner, tried to get revenge on his former lawyer in Scorsese’s version.
The psychological thriller was then the latest version of John D. Macdonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners, first screened in 1962 by director J. Lee Thompson.
Antosca — creator of the horror anthology Channel Zero and the horror drama series Brand New Cherry Flavor — remembers his parents watching the ’60s film when he was a child.
“I watched a creepy guy chase a kid down empty hallways into the basement,” he says. “I asked my parents what it was and they explained the concept of stalking to me, which alarmed me.”
Before he was even 10 years old, he saw Scorsese’s version – this time without the help of his parents.
“I was very worried,” he says. “My relationship with Cape Fear is mildly traumatized because of this.”
Now Antosca has created his own “Cape Fear”: a television series that muddles the moral certainties of its predecessors and shows his Max Cady using decidedly modern methods of menace.
Antosca’s Cape Fear, starring Javier Bardem as Cady and Amy Adams (Arrival) and Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) as the couple whose actions lead to his imprisonment, expands on the violence and sense of paranoia of Antosca’s book over 10 episodes, introducing the story to a new hyper-online generation.
Adams described Cady’s intentions as an attempt to “make them (the Bowders) destroy themselves.” (Included: Apple TV)
“We live in a time where there is a lot of uncertainty about the truth,” Antosca says. “There is a lot of misinformation, conflicting information, sometimes it feels like villains are masquerading as victims and victims are turning into villains.
“There’s a lot of moral ambiguity in the culture right now, a sense of paranoia, a feeling that we’re being watched and that our privacy is being penetrated.”
His “Cape Fear” reflects how these twin feelings of insecurity and paranoia “seep through the cracks into our families and private lives.”
“Each version of Cape Fear is a really interesting reflection of the time in which it was created,” says Antosca.
“It’s a very simple, fable-like story about a family, an all-American family, an archetypal family that is terrorized by a monster, a monster.
“But each version has different ideas about the justice system, about the American family, about the ‘other,’ and I thought it would be really interesting to see what Cape Fear looked like in the present day.”
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That question led Antosca to Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, the 1991 film’s producer and distributor Universal Pictures.
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He pitched them the idea that Cady, accused of murdering his pregnant wife, was pursuing two people—husband Tom Bowden and wife Anna—who, before they got together, were the prosecutor and defense attorney on his case.
“Their ideal life is built on the beliefs of Max Cady, on his suffering,” Antosca says.
When Cady is released—after new evidence suggests he was not the killer—Adams’ Anna becomes a lawyer who works to free the wrongly convicted.
“The idea that he got out of prison because he was exonerated is very different from previous versions and raises interesting questions about the justice system, guilt and innocence,” Antosca says. “It looks very modern.”
This puts the audience of the new Cape Fear in an unequal situation: they are constantly questioning their beliefs not only about Cady’s guilt or innocence, but also about whether the Bowdens’ paranoia and fear are justified.
“The audience is taken on a real journey in terms of empathy and in terms of whose rage is justified, what actions are justified?” – says Antosca.
Bardem remembers being “absolutely terrified” when he was going to see Cape Fear in theaters with his mother and brother in 1991. (Included: Apple TV)
That sense of empathy ties into the idea of Cady as a “true crime celebrity,” an element Antoski says also brings Cape Fear into the 21st century.
“It’s come to the forefront of culture in a way that wasn’t there in 1991,” he says. “I thought it was like a modern-day nightmare, too.”
The idea of ”celebrity associated with true crime” is something Antosca has been interested in over the years as the creator of numerous crime dramas, including “Family Friend,” about the Jan Broberg kidnappings in the ’70s; Candy, about a woman accused of killing her neighbor with an ax in the 1980s; and “The Act,” about Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who encouraged her boyfriend to kill her mother in 2015.
He describes his interest not only in true crime, but also in “the atmosphere around it.”
“I understand it very well now, just because I’m a person in 2020s culture,” he says.
This participation in the spectacle of true crime was not the only way Antosca brought Cape Fear into the present. At the same time, he wanted to “honor the sensibilities” of earlier versions, for example by retaining composer Bernard Herrmann’s 1962 score.
“To me, this assessment is the sound of fear,” Antosca says. “It’s really elementary, it’s so simple, so menacing and intuitive.”
What Antosca has updated is the kinds of technologies that someone can use today to “terrorize, harass, or harass someone.”
That means drones, text messages and even online games, which were apparently used by Cady to get to the Bowdens’ two teenage children.
Cady targeted the Bowden children, Natalie and Zach, in the Cape Fear series, while De Niro’s Cady pursued Juliette Lewis as daughter Danielle in the 1991 film. (Included: Apple TV)
“We didn’t sit in the writers’ room and think, ‘Let’s make him more millennial’ or anything like that,” Antosca says. “Just naturally, what would you use these days?
“In my neighborhood, I was walking down the street and a drone was following me. I had people come onto my property and just sit in the backyard.
“The series brings out the latest sources of paranoia.”
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Episodes of Cape Fear are being released weekly, while interest in horror and thrillers seems to be at its peak.
One of the show’s regular partners on Apple TV is Katie Dippold’s horror-comedy series Widow’s Bay, starring Matthew Rhys (The Americans), which is an Emmy Award leader with 19 nominations and already dominating “Best TV Shows of the Year” lists. It even has Guillermo del Toro’s seal of approval.
Meanwhile, in theaters, Whiplash, directed by debutant director Curry Barker, who is just 26 years old, earned $404 million worldwide, including $25 million in Australia, behind 21-year-old director Kane Parsons’ Back Rooms, which earned more than $333 million worldwide.
Antosca says audiences have always been drawn to horror.
“For me, horror is evergreen,” he says. “To me, horror seems to be the most psychologically authentic genre.
“I like it because I think you can go deep into the human psyche and explore the inner fears of a character.
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“In horror you have to think about the audience in a way that you don’t think about to the same degree in some other genres. It’s like a comedy: either you laugh or you don’t. (With horror) you’re either scared or you’re not.”
He suggests that young filmmakers, creators and directors may be drawn to horror because they are “more in touch with the fears and horrors of childhood.”
“They’re more about what you have access to when you go to bed and have a nightmare.”
Cape Fear is streaming on Apple TV.