Kid reviews for Cape Fear (2025)

Cape Fear is a 1991 psychological horror drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Juliette Lewis, Jessica Lange, and Joe Don Baker.Language(4/5): The film contains 17 uses of “b**ch”, 16 uses of “hell”, 14 uses of “f**k”, 13 uses of “G**”, 11 uses of “damn”, 10 uses of “s**t”, 6 uses of “g****mn” and “J*s*s”, 5 uses of “a**”, 4 uses of “white trash” and “Chr**t”, 2 uses of “bastard”, and 1 use of “c**t”(said in an argument and hard to hear but used offensively toward a woman), “cr**ple”, “sl*t”, “pr**k”, “ar*e”, “cr*cker”, and “balls”. Max Cady makes perverted comments about women, including underage women. The film has 115 total curses.Sex, Romance and Nudity(5/5): Near the beginning of the film, we see Sam and Leigh Bowden have sex in bed together, no nudity is shown, but slow thrusting is implied. Danielle Bowden lies on her bed with a bra and underwear on in a non-sexual context. Sam rants that marijuana usage is deemed as evil as “‘incest, necrophilia and b**stiality.’” Sam and Leigh argue because Leigh accuses Sam of cheating on her, and the word “f***ing” is used in a sexual context several times. Characters are often seen in their underwear. Infidelity is discussed. Cady flirts with a drunk woman and takes her up to his room, getting on top of the woman and handcuffing her to the bed. Cady is shirtless and the woman has a bra on, but Cady takes the bra off, with her breasts briefly exposed. Leigh’s bare breasts are briefly shown near the end of the film. Cady inappropriately flirts with Danielle, who is only 15, and he describes a portion of the book “Tropic of Cancer” where an erection is described as “‘a piece of lead with wings on it.’” He eventually puts his thumb into her mouth and makes out with her. R*pe is discussed throughout. Cady’s 16-year-old victim is revealed to have been promiscuous, and Cady says that she had “‘at least three lovers in one month.’”Drinking, Drugs, And Smoking(4/5): Danielle gets caught with marijuana while at school, and Sam says, ‘“Why’d they have to make such a stink, like she was on heroin or something? I mean, what’s marijuana? You and I smoked dope in our time.’” Danielle and Cady smoke a marijuana joint while at school. Characters refer to “smoking grass” throughout. Cady smokes cigars throughout the entire film. Multiple characters smoke cigarettes frequently. A woman gets extremely drunk at a bar. Claude Kersek drinks whiskey twice in the film.Violence(5/5): Fistfights often occur, with headlocks, beatings, punches, and rock throwing, and characters are bruised by chains and pistol-whippings. The film is very tense and has dark subject matter. Cady is a prisoner who was convicted of r*ping a 16-year-old girl, and r*pe and the threat of it are discussed frequently. Cady stalks the Bowden family for a long time. The Bowden’s family dog is poisoned by Cady. Sam and Leigh get into an aggressive argument, and Leigh starts hitting Sam. Leigh grabs Danielle’s face aggressively. After handcuffing a drunken woman to a bed, Cady brutally assualts her, dislocating her shoulder, breaking her arm, frequently punches her, and eats part of her cheek off, with blood seen. It’s revealed that she was beaten nearly to death and r*ped. Cady kills a man offscreen, and he kills Kersek onscreen by strangling him with a piano wire, with tons of blood coming from Kersek’s mutilated throat, and when Kersek tries to fight back, Cady shoots him in the head with a revolver; the impact is offscreen but blood and brain matter splatter all over the walls, the ceiling and Cady’s face. The Bowden family discover the bloodied bodies, and Sam accidentally slips and falls in the pool of blood from Kersek’s corpse, getting it all over his body, and Sam breaks down and starts raving outside. Cady follows the Bowdens by slipping underneath of their car and holding on. The Bowdens start living on a houseboat, but Cady enters the boat, starts the engines and holds them hostage. He ties Danielle and Leigh down with a rope and forces Sam to watch as he plans to r*pe them, and he threatens them graphically. Leigh manages to escape while Cady monologues and she douses him in lighter fluid, which engulfs Cady in flames when he lights a cigar. Sam kicks Cady off of the boat, but Cady pulls himself back on with a rope. A storm violently tosses the boat through the river, and Cady returns on the boat with bad scars and burns. He confronts Sam and asks him questions about his conviction 14 years ago, punching him in the face each time Sam refuses to answer or answers. Sam states that Cady “‘brutally r*ped and beat [the 16-year-old girl]’”, and that “‘Just because she was promiscuous didn’t give you the right to r*pe her!’” Sam states that Cady “‘bragged to me that you beat two prior aggravated r*pes!’” Cady then beats Sam intensely, kicking and punching him. Cady and Sam have a fight after Cady falls down due to the storm, and Cady is handcuffed to the boat. The boat crashes into some rocks and starts to sink, and before the boat sinks completely, everyone escapes except for Cady, who drowns to death in the tide while speaking in tongues and staring down Sam as he dies. People suffer throughout.Positive Messages: The film is about the evils of revenge and no positive outcome occurs, besides the fact that the family survives.Positive Role Models and Representations(1/5): The family are sympathetic in their peril, however, they’re also deeply flawed. Sam is a lawyer who uses manipulation and aggression when pushed to his limits. Leigh is a strong woman who protects her family along with Sam, but she lets her emotions control her sometimes. Danielle is a rebellious teen who learns to listen to her parents.Watching Experience: Quality(opinionated): (My rating)Rated RFor intense violence including bloody/disturbing images and brief violent sexual content, language, brief drug use, and some sexual content including brief nudity.