I happened to stumble into my parents' room when they were watching this movie, at the very end, when I was 4. I saw the camera close up on Juliette Lewis' eyes, heard her whisper "The End", and saw her eyes turn black and white, with strikingly small pupils staring at me, and the blaring music. I was up all night crying, with that image stuck in my head.
the tragic and terrible thing about the situation is that Sam Bowden does not see Max Cady die, but rather that he vanishes (sinks) in the water, Sam is not completely certain of Cady's death, he does not see his corpse. In fact, Scorsese prolongs the film shot of the river as a metaphor for "life that goes on" continued with another symbolic gesture such as "washing your hands", Sam ignores this terrible matter as he did in the past, although as Daniel asserts nothing will ever be like before he showed up in their lives, since they can't even name Cady. Max Cady has somehow achieved his mission: to become something like an unearthly being, an indelible being in the minds of this family, especially Sam Bowden.
Yes, one of the few, but the original is great too. Another example is the remake of "the fly" (amazing movie, 1986) better than the original (very good but not amazing)
Agreed. Miles better than the original. Think Hitchcock would have actually been proud of this one, especially some of the directing choices/cinematography.
António Casaca they need to remake The Fly so goddamn bad. With today’s CGI effects and practical effects it would be really good. All the players are still alive too, could tie in Geena Davis and have Cronenberg supervise.
This movie came out the year I was born (1991) so it is just as old as I am. I watched it for the first time on VHS as a kid in the 90s. Seriously, this is the scariest part of the movie for me to watch. Even as an adult it still scares me a bit. When Juliette Lewis's character said "the end" the close up shot on her eyes turn to black and white with the Cape Fear theme played along with it then suffuses with red. Makes my heart race. Literally looks like tiny horrific pupils glaring. I was horrified of this when I saw this for the first time in the 90s. This is the most suspenseful movie ending I have ever seen.
I think Robert De Niro creates here in this film one of the most intricately scary characters in movie history. And it's not a horror movie. There are several scenes from the movie in which "Max Cady" seems authentically to personify the devil himself.
3:07 I think Scorsese made this shot as a way to say to the audience that Danielle eventually would become a murderer psycho, we see a few things in the movie that make us to think she isn't in her five senses and even felt an atraction to Cady.
Interesting hypothesis, but she was a typical, gullible impressionable teen who was manipulated by the "father figure" in Cady. Yet, she threw hot water in his face, lit him on fire, and that went against her nature of never killing a thing like her mother said earlier in the film. If anything, she fought not only Cady, but Evil. Closing out the film with white eyes and red eyes symbolize fear and life. Red in ancient Egypt symbolized health and victory. Or in modern times we could say from youth to adulthood.
As Sam washed the blood off of his hands I guess he wasn't quite sure whether or not Cady would reach up & grab his wrists. I don't know what it is that startled Sam. Why he reacted so quick in removing his hands from the water.
I thought Sam was freaking out 'cause of how close Max Cady came to turning him into a monster, so by washing his hands clean of the blood, he was finally letting go of the hate and fear that Cady instilled in him.
![Cape fear - ending scene [HD]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
