Cujo

Film: Cujo

Year: 1983

Director: Lewis Teague

Writer: Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner

Starring: Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly and Danny Pintauro

Review:

I first watched this movie, likely with my mother, sister, and possibly my dad, after renting it from a local video store. It was early in my branching out in horror fandom. I was watching Stephen King adaptations as I read his books chronologically. The film's realism deeply affected me. I previously revisited it with my wife, Jaime, and again for a discussion on Mr. Parka’s show, curious how it would hold up.

Synopsis: Cujo, a friendly St. Bernard, contracts rabies and conducts a reign of terror on a small American town.

We start this off seeing a dog chase after a rabbit. This is of course Cujo. He chases it until it goes into a small opening of a cave. Inside, his barks wake up bats with one of them biting it on its nose. This forces him to retreat back home.

We are introduced to the Trenton family: Donna (Dee Wallace), her son Tad (Danny Pintauro), and her marketing executive husband, Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly), whose main client is a cereal company. Handyman Steve Kemp (Christopher Stone) shows up during breakfast, returning a stripped wooden horse and discussing a table he's working on. It's clear Donna is ignoring him. The reason is that they’re having an affair. An affair made worse by the fact that Vic is semi-friendly with Steve from playing tennis.

That night we see Tad is afraid of a monster in his closet. His father tries to convince him there’s nothing there, but he won’t hear it. Vic then has to come up with words to recite before bed to put him at ease.

Vic is having trouble with his car and tries to take it to the local mechanic. The man is busy and the local mailman advises him there’s someone else named Joe Camber (Ed Lauter) who can help him. It also seems like he will do better work and won’t rob him blind to do it. Vic takes the family out there and meets Joe. He agrees to help while Donna briefly meets his wife Charity (Kaiulani Lee) and son Brett (Billy Jayne). Tad and Donna are terrified when Cujo walks up, but Brett shows him that he’s friendly.

There’s an issue here. The bite on Cujo’s nose is infected and is getting worse. Loud sounds start to bother him and he tries to get away. Charity ends up winning the lottery and buys something for Joe. He isn’t appreciative until he learns why she did it. In return, she asks to take Brett to visit her sister. There’s something uneasy about this interaction, but he agrees. Joe and his friend Gary Pervier (Mills Watson) plan something while Joe’s family is gone. The problem though is that Cujo has gone full rabid and attacks.

Donna’s car then starts to act up. Vic must leave town with a crisis on his account at work. He tells her to take it out to Joe’s. There’s another issue here. Vic discovers the truth about her affair. Things are uneasy when he leaves. She and Tad are in for something even more terrifying. It becomes a nightmare when the car dies and there’s this large dog stalking them.

That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I’m almost positive I saw this before reading this book. It was intriguing as this movie does a good job at incorporating most of its elements from the source. It has been a long time since I read it. Really the only thing I remember are the endings being different. I believe I heard that King has gone on to say that he prefers what the film does and I agree.

The fear stems from a perfect storm trapping Donna and Tad. Her and Vic are stressed and arguing, compounded by him leaving town for work. There’s then Donna's issues with Steve. She ended things, but he’s lashing out. Joe's family is gone, and he's also supposed to be away, with the Camber's mail being held. Terrifyingly, no one knows Donna and Tad are stranded in the non-starting, hot car. A massive, rabid dog patrolling the area adds to the unnerving situation with no help available.

With this set up, the only issue I have with the story is something that they have Tad do. Jaime and I watched this when he started to have seizures. Since she works in the medical field, I inquired if this was possible. She didn’t think so unless he has a history of them which isn’t established. He’s experiencing dehydration due to having very little water and being trapped in a hot car. This isn’t necessarily an issue. They show that this hot car amplifying the heat is making their situation worse.

I’ll then say that the pacing of this is good. We see Cujo get bit in the opening. It is then setting up the characters and their situations. Cujo continues to get sick from there. He is a tragic figure of sorts. He is a good dog that is friendly until this infection changes him. With how grounded in reality this is, that raises the horror. Even though I don’t like Donna for cheating on Vic, she isn’t a bad person. It is interesting as the film paints her in a bad light and she has to earn the audience back. This ordeal definitely does that.

Then other themes to include here starts early with Tad being afraid of the monster in his closet. Vic does everything to ease this. When Cujo attacks, who is experiencing his own loss of innocence, makes Tad believe this is a real monster. In theory it is, but not in the traditional sense. You can also draw a parallel between Cujo’s physical deterioration by the rabies virus to Donna’s affair destroying her family. She is forced into penance during this situation. We also get a malicious cosmic coincidence with a series of events.

Moving over to the acting which is strong. Wallace, a veteran actor, excels as the protective mother, though her character's cheating is balanced by her ordeal. Pinatauro was fine as the annoying yet realistic young boy in his debut. Kelly portrays a man whose life is breaking down around him well. Stone fits in his minor role as does Lauter. The rest of the cast was adequate. The dog actors brought a realism that made the descent into madness impactful and elicited sympathy.

Lastly, I’ll focus on the filmmaking. The practical effects, fitting the era, were notable. Jaime observed the dog's tail wagging during an attack, showing the dog enjoyed working with the stunt person—a detail they tried to conceal, even using dog suits. The cinematography was effective in framing the scenes and heartbreakingly depicting Cujo's physical deterioration from the infection. The music was appropriate. This is well done in bringing this all to life.

Then just one last thing to bring up that now watching this as a parent hit me harder. I was tearing up listening to Tad cry in terror. That acting was effective there. It made me think of what I’d do if I was in this situation. That is an added element that helps make this work better for me.

In conclusion, this remains a powerful and realistic horror film, effectively translating the core elements of King's novel to the screen. The movie excels by creating a claustrophobic and terrifying scenario rooted in common fears—a broken-down car, a remote location, and a familiar animal turned monstrous by disease. Bolstered by strong performances, particularly from Wallace, the film skillfully navigates themes of marital breakdown, loss of innocence, and cosmic misfortune. The tragedy of Cujo's transformation and the raw terror experienced by Donna and Tad make for a gripping ordeal that resonates deeply, especially for viewers who are now parents, solidifying its place as a classic of the horror genre and a standout King adaptation.

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10