There is some efficient terror-business in the film, but the suspicion that a meal is being made of your cringing stomach and your glazed eyeballs isn't very endearing. Nor is the brutal retributive climax.

| Mar 9, 2024

A sturdy, frightening thriller, with Robert Mitchum in a powerhouse turn.

| Original Score: A | Nov 29, 2022

[Mitchum] makes the nice folks look weak and unconvincing. But then the story as a whole isn't realistic -- though it goes into unnecessary and distasteful detail.

| Dec 15, 2020

The film gets all the beats right; the situations alternate between nerve-wracking and infuriating and horrifying, all while the pacing stays precise.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 24, 2020

It's clear virtually from the get-go that Cape Fear's success is due almost entirely to Mitchum's absolutely spellbinding turn as the vile antagonist...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 3, 2020

Its politics are abhorrent to me, but my god, it's such a slick, well-crafted thriller ... that I can't hate it

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 18, 2008

Unpleasant but suspenseful film noir.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 23, 2007

A tense thriller that holds your attention to the very end. The film is aided by one of Bernard Hermann's better scores.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 24, 2005

A cold-blooded, calculated build-up of sadistic menace and shivering dread is accomplished with frightening adroitness in J. Lee Thompson's melodrama Cape Fear.

| May 9, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 8, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 21, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 6, 2003

Keep-you-up-all-night terrifying!

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 7, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 9, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 26, 2002