Am I crazy, or has the rest of the world lost it? This is one of those innate terrors, the sinking self-doubt that consumes everything you know to be true, moral and obvious. We are bewildered when others don’t see what we perceive, frustrated when we are misunderstood, and terrified when no one listens as the undeniable danger closes in. Brace yourself—the new Cape Fear series from Apple TV takes this reality distortion to a nightmarish new level.
In a new ten-episode take on the classic stalker thriller, debuting June 5, gaslighting becomes a scorched-Earth tale of revenge that consumes a seemingly ordinary family, led by Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson. The Cape Fear series may take its inspiration from a nearly 70-year-old novel, but all the modern-day sources of anxiety are present in this update: AI fakes, social media catfishing, false accusation, public shaming, and all-around psychological overload are just the start of the trouble. The real trauma is the never-ending uncertainty about what outrage is coming next.
Showrunner and executive producer Nick Antosca, a novelist and screenwriter who specializes in mind-warping tales of dread, says that’s the whole reason to remake Cape Fear, which has stood for decades as an example of bad things happening to good (or seemingly good) people.
“For a while in this story, there is uncertainty about the nature of the threat, and we kind of go back and forth. That reflects the atmosphere in which we live,” Antosca tells Esquire for this exclusive look behind the scenes. “It's sort of like, what is true? What can I believe? I may feel threatened, but am I justified in feeling that way? In various forms, we find ourselves asking questions like that a lot now.”
It all centers around Javier Bardem’s charismatic antagonist. (You can read more about his take here.)
Why do people like this man? He’s obviously sleazy in the extreme, a malignant narcissist, a selfish grandstander, a self-pitying victim. Even his jokes are meanspirited. Yet, people laugh. They seem to adore him. This Max Cady has a lot of admirers, and people can’t seem to get enough.
The series shares this DNA with all the previous iterations of Cape Fear: Cady’s charm offensive is part of the villain’s twisted plan for revenge. This time, he’s focused his rage on Anna and Tom Bowden because they were the attorneys he blames for nearly two decades of incarceration. Now freed by new evidence in the violent murder that put him behind bars, Cady is determined to destroy the Bowdens, who were dead-certain he was guilty as sin. Despite the turn in the case that liberated him, the ex-con is bad news. They know it. The audience knows it. But alarmingly, everyone else in their orbit seems enchanted by Cady’s claim of wrongful accusation and noble vindication.
Outwardly, Bardem’s charismatic Cady expresses only goodwill to his former defense attorney and former prosecutor. But Adams and Wilson’s characters—oh so curiously—began a romantic relationship right after his trial, leading Cady to believe they collaborated to undermine him. He smiles as he drops hints of this, and even publicly offers them forgiveness, but it’s more of a Trojan horse than an olive branch. Everything is designed to weave him deeper into their lives, exploiting fissures and stoking doubt and mistrust between them and their teenage children—played by Lilly Collias (Roofman) and Joe Anders (Lee.)
“What Max is trying to do is get them to destroy themselves,” Adams tells Esquire. “He's just a catalyst, but they're the ones that are actually going to do the work for him. Part of what's so scary is getting people to turn on each other.”
And while this particular story is extreme, it’s not that far off from shocking true-crime incidents that happen all the time. "Anytime you have some sort of tormenting tale, whether it's revenge or in this case, a family with secrets, I mean, that's every Dateline episode every week," says Wilson. "Sadly, I don't think that ever goes away. The idea of what's going on in the house next door is always fascinating."
By Anthony Breznican
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