10 Horror Movie Reboots That Actually Lived Up To The Original

4. Cape Fear (1991)

It's not often that a remake lives up to the standard set by its predecessor, and rarer still that it actually surpasses it.

The original 1962 Cape Fear is an excellent film, and stellar performances from Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum alone make it worth the watch. However, the 1991 reboot delivers a masterclass in cultivating a tense, anxiety-inducing atmosphere that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Martin Scorsese packs so much suspense into two hours and showcases why he is one of the finest filmmakers in the business.

Scorsese's version of events depicts each character with their own flaws, and Sam Bowden's dysfunctional family is troubled long before the arrival of Max Cady. Cady is on a mission fuelled by vengeance, and continually taunts Bowden, who is unable to escape his ominous presence. Cady toys with him like a cat pawing at a mouse, constantly getting close to him but just staying at arms length from breaking the law.

The brilliance in the 1991 film is that, at face value, Cady is of course the bad guy and Bowden is who we should be rooting for, but digging a little deeper reveals that the villain of the story has actually been wronged to some degree, and the supposed hero of the story is far from squeaky clean.