Cujo (1983)

Terror In A Yellow Pinto

Most people know the basic plot of Stephen King's CUJO. The title character, a gentle but huge St. Bernard is bitten by a rabid bat, contracts rabies and becomes a frothing maniacal monster that terrorizes some people most famously a mother and her young son stuck in a stalled yellow Pinto at a remote farm house. The mother, Donna, played by Dee Wallace is not particularly sympathetic. She's got a nice good looking husband who is apparently a good provider, a lovely waterfront house, a cute son and apparently nothing to do but run errands and have an affair with a not particularly attractive handyman. Maybe her gripe with her husband is he runs around in a cute red convertible while she's stuck with this lemon of a Pinto? Anyway the first half of the movie sets up Donna and her husband's family life and more briefly we get a look at Cujo's family - a mean car mechanic, his downtrodden wife and their son who seems like a nice enough kid. Oh and we get to see poor Cujo bitten on the nose by the bat while he is chasing a rabbit.

Events conspire so that Donna is caught by her husband with her boyfriend just as she is breaking the affair off. Her husband is called away on business to Boston and goes off in a bit of a huff things being as they are. The wife and cute son are left with the always breaking down Pinto and she with the little boy in tow drive it out to the remote farm where Cujo's owner, the mechanic, lives and the terror begins.

I read King's novel years ago and I thought I remembered quite a different ending from the one the movie depicts. After reading some of the reviews on Amazon I see I remembered correctly. One annoyance I had with the film it is supposed to be set in Maine but it is rather obviously filmed in Northern California. And of course though I realize rabid animals are very dangerous would a dying dog really become a single minded killing machine like Cujo? This is a decent movie that does have some really gripping scenes though I'd call it more of a thriller or suspense film than real horror and there really isn't anything overtly supernatural. And if nothing else it might make you realize why they had to shoot Old Yeller. May 25, 2008

Please, Don't get mad, this is worse than "The Shining"

Oh man do people get mad at me when I say that, but it's true. At no time was I ever scared or even creeped out, just bored and ready for it to end. Once again Mr. King eludes the big screen's grasp! August 7, 2007

Dog Lover Having Second Thoughts

I am a huge dog lover, but this movie had me looking at canines in a different light for quite some time while I was little. For some reason, I always relate this movie to "Sandlot," but this dog really was ridiculously mean. The scene in the junkyard made my eyes widen a couple times, and I'd give this movie four stars for being entertaining. Scary? Not at all. The book was even more grotesque, and I enjoyed every minute of it. All I kept thinking through the book and the movie was "What is taking so long for someone to shoot this dog?!" July 23, 2007

Dog obviously happy during acting...

This movie looses it's scary factor when you have a dog yourself and read their bodylanguage. The dog is not mean, evil or dangerous, like in the scene where Cujo jumps onto the car, the dog is obviously searching for a ball inside and tries to "dig inside" to get it. But by adding roars and growlings this scene is supposed to look like a rabid dog trying to kill a mother and her son. The dog also wags it tail when it sees the actors = happy dog.
However, I do like the story, so I wish someday they'll remake it and make Cujo computer-animated, making him scary. June 1, 2007

good movie

the movie was good and all bu their were a couple let downs,

1. the ending was WAY different then the book (not going to spoil it)
2. wasn't as scary as you would think
3. boring at times



i would recomend the book over the movie any day February 23, 2007

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