Why Was Robert De Niro’s Max Cady Such a Terrifying Villain?

Think back to the original Cape Fear from 1962, with silver screen greats Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum as the leads. The movie was the pinnacle of suspense in the early 60s’ (except Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho) with Mitchum’s Max Cady being the epitome of creepy. His sole intent was to terrorize the family of his former lawyer Sam Bowden, and succeeding, until Bowden pulls a gun and ends the reign of terror without further conflict. Bowden lives happily ever after, Cady goes back to prison, the end.

Territory like that was only beginning to be approached in the early 60s’, and viewers were legitimately disturbed by the film’s content; in the era of creature-features and sock hops, the scariest monster was the human one. However, come 1991, the true definition of the human monster was returned to the big screen when Martin Scorcese brought back Cape Fear with Nick Nolte as Bowden and Robert De Niro as Cady. The remake took the extra steps that the original couldn’t, and as a result, the film was much grittier and darker as De Niro’s Cady stole the show with a very terrifying interpretation.

“Granddaddy used to handle snakes in church, Granny drank strychnine. I guess you could say I had a leg up, genetically speaking.” – Cady

De Niro’s Cady was the perfect villainous specimen. He was lean and muscled from his time in prison, heavily tattooed, eloquently spoken, and (go figure) his heavy Southern accent was both charming and unsettling. But the most unsettling aspect was his intensity. Cady came out of prison a hardened convict bent on revenge. He wanted recompense for the lost years that he received courtesy of Bowden and he wasn’t afraid to cross that line.

That’s what defines De Niro’s Cady as a villain. He wasn’t above invading the Bowdens. He invaded them personally, emotionally, mentally, and literally. He invaded their sense of peace, their security, their privacy, and even went as far as seducing Sam’s teenage daughter. He raped their sense of normalcy and forever changed their lives. He was a plague who made your skin crawl just by looking at him.

The above clip is from the film’s climactic battle on board the Bowden family’s houseboat. As made obvious, De Niro’s Cady is nothing short of delightfully deranged. Of course, as made obvious in the film, Cady is also an idealist, and when an individual is on a warpath in the name of those ideals others would be hard pressed convincing them that what they are doing isn’t right.

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Of course, that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy De Niro’s Cady. His performance made the film. Only De Niro could properly perform a character as psychotic as Cady. His performance was so in depth that he even playfully tormented Scorcese while in character. De Niro was committed to the role, going as far as having a dentist alter his teeth for the role as well as study the “Southern dialect” by recording a bunch of Southern people talking into a mic. Somehow, someway, everything in the South only adds an element of terror in films.

With that being said, smart, ripped, tatted, Southern, and just outright psychotic, De Niro’s Cady is the epitome of a horror villain. He was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Cady, and that’s wasn’t for nothing.

Weigh in below on your take of De Niro’s performance as Cady in Cape Fear.