Recensioni de* critic*

It's a joy to watch--an intricately constructed and satisfying genre exercise--and features some of the most exciting performances and moments that the director ever created. Some of these happen in the blink of an eye, like Robert De Niro's psychotic Max Cady sucking on a cigar and breathing out "You're gonna learn about suffering" as the camera rapidly tracks backwards from Nick Nolte's car window.

The ensuing blaze of technique—fast zooms, vivid color dissolves, whip pans, shock sound effects, high diagonal angles, filters, upside-down camera shots, sequences in negative format—gives to Cape Fear a retro, carnivalesque quality that feels more like the Amicus/Hammer horror films Freddie Francis himself once directed (Paranoiac, Torture Garden) than a contemporary American thriller.