Every generation, it seems, gets their own Max Cady: the ex-convict with an obsessive grudge against the attorney who helped send him to prison. Played by Robert Mitchum in 1962 and Robert De Niro in 1991, Javier Bardem has picked up the batshit baton for the new Apple TV adaptation—a miniseries, for the first time. We keep coming back to Cape Fear (based, itself, on a bestselling novel by John D. MacDonald) not so much for the the tormented family (they're fine, I guess), but for the vengeful predator with a preternatural ability to show up where he's least expected. On that note, you might enjoy a few other shows featuring TV's nastiest, but most compelling, villains.

You (2018 – 2025)

Sometimes we love to hate serial killers, and sometimes we just kinda love 'em—a charming, sexy killer seems to be a contrast that's too juicy and entertaining for us to pass up. Late-stage capitalism, the climate crisis, and the insurance industry are far more likely to kill us, which is probably why we'd rather face the statistically less-likely threat of a charismatic murderer like Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg in You, which came to a conclusion after five seasons in 2025. In the first season, he develops an extreme romantic obsession with Elizabeth Lail's struggling MFA student Guinevere Beck. He'll do whatever it takes to clear a path to lasting love—like, literally anything. Stream You on Netflix.

The Watcher (2022 – )

This is loosely based on the true story of "The Watcher" of Westfield, New Jersey, who sent a series of obsessive, very specific, and increasingly disturbing letters to the family who'd recently bought a home in the town. Creator and writer Ryan Murphy gives the story his distinctively batshit touch by crafting a neighborhood full of weirdos, each of whom is a suspect. It's like Cape Fear if you didn't know who the stalker was. Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale play the freaked-out couple, joined by a supporting cast of neighbors that includes Jennifer Coolidge, Richard Kind, Mia Farrow, and Christopher McDonald. A second season is coming, apparently. Stream The Watcher on Netflix.

The Fall (2013 – 2016)

Jamie Dornan's sexy young serial killer Paul Spector isn't the protagonist of The Fall, strictly speaking, but he co-leads with Gillian Anderson's police Superintendent DSU Stella Gibson across all three seasons of this crime drama. Much like Joe, Paul is, outwardly, a normal guy, and a family man, whom you might not suspect of being a stalker and a serial killer of professional women in Belfast. DSU Gibson is sent from London to help with a stalled investigation that leads her on a hunt for the clever Spector through physical dangers, mind-fuckery, and bureaucratic complications. Stream The Fall on Peacock and Prime Video.

Hannibal (2013 – 2015)

By 2013, it felt as though we'd seen more than enough of Hannibal Lecter, a series of Silence of the Lambs spin-offs and sequels having become increasingly tiresome. Still, producer Bryan Fuller went back to the source material here, once again adapting Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television—the operatic bigness of Cape Fear and themes of obsession resonate all the same. The deeper, sexier relationship between the Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but the three seasons still make for a satisfying meal. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video.

The Creep Tapes (2024 – )

The Creep Tapes picks up from the two Patrick Brice-directed Creep found-footage films, with writer/star Mark Duplass returning to the role of Josef, or Peachfuzz, or whatever the hell he's calling himself at any given time. Nearly an anthology, this one's for viewers who might get bored with a single, season-long hunt, and who'd much prefer a number of individual stalkings. The show finds the charming, funny, forlorn-looking lead giving generally well-meaning people reasons to come and interview him on film, such that they tend to wind up documenting their own deaths. The show maintains the movies' sense of humor, as well as the constant conviction that we'd very likely be taken in by this compellingly manipulative sad-sack. Stream The Creep Tapes on Shudder.

The Following (2013 – 2015)

An impressively brutal crime thriller from Scream's Kevin Williamson, The Following takes the notion of a charismatic villain one step further, as reflected by the double-meaning of its title. Kevin Bacon is Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent recalled when serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), with whom he has history, gets out of prison. There's a bit more to it than that, though: Carroll has assembled a cult around himself (a following, if you will): people who are more than happy to kill for him, and also to help him turn the tables and take revenge on Hardy. Stream The Following on Netflix.

The Glory (2022)

There are at least a couple of different levels to The Glory, a justifiably well-received South Korean import, rather remarkably holding together despite some wild shifts in tone. Most relevant here, it's a revenge drama, with a relatively simple set-up: Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, an elementary school homeroom teacher who's playing a very, very long game: Her school bullies are grown up now, and their kids (some of them, anyway) are now in Dong-eun's care. Right where she wants them. Smartly, the show makes clear the extent of the past violence faced by Dong-eun (much of it hard to watch), and the resulting post-traumatic stress that's consumed her life. The parents of her tormentors were all far too wealthy for the girls to face any consequences for their actions, so Dong-eun feels like she has no choice. It could have been a revenge fantasy, or a straight horror show about a woman carrying out a questionable revenge, but, while it's hard to get behind Dong-eun, it's also hard to condemn her completely. Stream The Glory on Netflix.

Happy Valley (2014 – 2023)

Do not, under any circumstances, let the title fool you: This British crime drama is as dark as they come. Sarah Lancashire is Sgt. Catherine Cawood, a police officer whose daughter died by suicide eight years earlier (as the series starts) following her rape by Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton); she's also raising the grandchild who's also Tommy's son. Royce is the villain, no question, but the narrative is complicated here by Catherine's long-game quest for vengeance, complicated by her target's criminal connections and his relationship to her grandson. The series, and particularly lead Sarah Lancashire, won a number of BAFTA awards and nominations over its three seasons. Stream Happy Valley on Prime Video and Britbox.

The Outsider (2020)

The premise here is brutal, and, to the everyone in the narrative, impossible: A kid is horrifically murdered, and the evidence decisively points to Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). It’s an open-and-shut case—except that he was out of town at a conference while the murder was occurring, and even appeared on the news in another town. The tragedies pile up, and the threat isn’t entirely natural. Without giving too much away, it’s among the most disturbing of King adaptations (it’s also incredibly engaging). There are great performances here from Bateman, as well as from Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney, one of King’s recurring characters. HBO declined to renew the show, but it adapts the entire book and ends fairly decisively. Stream The Outsider on HBO Max.

The Killing (2011 – 2014)

There are tonal similarities throughout, but The Killing feels most like Cape Fear in its final two (of four total) seasons. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman play homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, initially investigating the murder of a teenager complicated by familial grief and an ongoing political campaign. Later, though, the show becomes a cat-and-mouse game involving Linden and a killer with more personal motives and ties to her past, and one who winds up being much closer than either she, or we as viewers, would suspect. Stream The Killing on Hulu.