‘Scorsese’s movie scared the hell out of me’: Amy Adams previews Apple TV’s Cape Fear remake — but the original movies aren’t streaming anywhere

With Apple TV setting a premiere date of June 5, 2026, for its Cape Fear remake, a rewatch of the films that inspired the upcoming 10-part psychological thriller series feels like a given. There’s just one problem, neither is streaming at the time of writing.

John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners about an attorney stalked by a criminal they helped convict was the original inspiration for J. Lee Thompson’s breakout Hollywood movie Cape Fear. Released in 1962, the southern gothic spine-chiller was widely praised for its suffocating sense of dread, with many critics highlighting Robert Mitchum’s performance as ex-con Max Cady and Bernard Herrmann’s sinister score.

Given that Universal Pictures owns the rights, you’d expect the original Cape Fear to show up on Peacock in the US, where much of the studio’s back catalog lives, but it’s nowhere to be found. In ...