Film Response - Cape Fear (Directed by Martin Scorsese)

2.6

Personally I feel as though psychological thrillers (or even any kind of thriller for that matter) should be subtle, but Cape Fear just does not bother with this. Many parts are very exaggerated, extreme and kind of unrealistic: for example when Cady is beaten quite severely with chains he just gets back up and beats them beat up as if what happened to him was nothing. Unfortunately this makes the film come off as rather corny; it seems to use every trick in the book to try and scare the viewer, but in trying too hard, it fails. The cinematography and editing are very unimaginative: for example the use of inverting the colours in certain moments to somehow create suspense, to me its not scary it's  just uncomfortable to look at.

One of the key things about this film that seriously gets on my nerves is the acting of Juliette Lewis as her character Danielle. The have been other films in which I found her acting a little sterile, non more so than this particular film. Essentially the acting is just bad but to be more specific she seems like she doesn't quite know what shes doing, her body language is confusing and forced.

But what I will merit the film on is Cady's brand of evil is quite disturbing and he brutally takes it out on the clerk, Lori who has a crush on Sam. The scene with him seducing the young Danielle who's just started to explore her sexuality and is mainly attracted to the bad guys and anyone who makes her father angry, was chilling to say the least.