Cujo is a 1983 American horror film based on Stephen King's 1981 novel of the same name and directed by Lewis Teague. It was written by Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner, and starring Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly and Danny Pintauro. The film follows a mother and her son who are trapped inside their car, while protecting themselves from a rabid St. Bernard. Despite receiving mixed reviews and being a modest success during its theatrical release, the film has gathered a cult following in the years since its release.
Plot
Cujo, a friendly and easygoing St. Bernard, chases a wild rabbit and inserts his head into a cave, where a rabid bat bites his nose. Meanwhile, the Trenton family — advertising executive Vic, housewife Donna and their sensitive young son Tad — take their car to the rural home of abusive mechanic Joe Camber for some repairs, where they meet Cujo, who is the Camber family's pet. Donna notices Cujo's bitten nose but thinks little of it. Later, Vic and Donna's marriage is tested when Vic learns that Donna is having an affair with her ex-boyfriend from high school, Steve Kemp, while Vic's advertising for a cereal commercial is failing. Charity and Brett, Joe's wife and son leave the house for a week to visit Charity's sister Holly. When the bite infection begins to set in, Cujo is able to refrain from threatening Brett, but is soon driven mad. He kills their alcoholic neighbor, Gary Pervier, and his owner Joe. Vic goes out of town on a business trip, as Donna and Tad return to the Camber's house for more car repairs. Cujo attacks them, and are forced to take shelter in their Ford Pinto. Donna tries to drive home, but the car's alternator dies and the two are trapped inside. The hot sun makes conditions nearly unbearable, and Donna realizes that she must do something before they both die from heatstroke or dehydration. However, attempts at escape are foiled by Cujo repeatedly attacking the car and breaking a window in the process. Vic returns home to rekindle his marriage, only to find Donna and Tad missing and his house vandalized by Kemp. He suspects the possessive Kemp of kidnapping, but the police realize his wife and son might be at the Camber's house. The local sheriff, George Bannerman, arrives at the mechanics house and has a brief standoff; before he can draw his gun, Cujo kills him, knocking him off the catwalk in the barn and mauling him to death. Later, Donna takes advantage of a momentary distraction and hits Cujo with a baseball bat until it breaks, leaving only a jagged handle. Cujo jumps at her and is impaled in the stomach by the broken bat. Donna takes the sheriff's gun and retrieves Tad, who is dehydrated and overheated. As Donna revives Tad inside the kitchen, Cujo, now recovered, breaks through the kitchen window and tries to attack Donna. However, Donna shoots Cujo dead, before Vic arrives and reunites with his family.
The original director was Peter Medak, who left the project two days into filming, along with DOPAnthony B. Richmond. They were replaced by Lewis Teague and Jan de Bont respectively. Cujo was played by four St. Bernards, several mechanical dogs, and a black Labrador-Great Dane mix in a St. Bernard costume. In some shots, stuntman Gary Morgan played Cujo whilst wearing a large dog costume.
Reception
Box office
Cujo was a modest box office success for Warner Brothers. The film was released August 12, 1983, in the United States, opening in second place that weekend. It grossed a total of $21,156,152 domestically, making it the fourth-highest-grossing horror film of 1983 behind Jaws 3-D, Psycho II, and .
Critical response
Reviews from critics were mixed. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote the film was "by no means a horror classic, but it's suspenseful and scary." Variety panned it as "a dull, uneventful entry in the horror genre, a film virtually devoid of surprises or any original suspense." Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four, calling it "one of the dumbest, flimsiest excuses for a movie I have ever seen." Roger Ebert called it "dreadful," and Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "no theater is air conditioned enough to justify watching this scary, gory and beastly movie." Steve Jenkins of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "for the most part Cujo works very effectively as a near reductio ad absurdum of the woman-in-peril-mode," but disliked that the film changed the ending from the book, thinking it made "absolutely no sense in terms of the film's logic." Author and film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of a possible four stars, calling it "genuinely frightening" also writing, "Builds slowly but surely to terrifying climax." Despite the mixed reception, Stephen King called the film "terrific" and named it one of his favorite adaptations. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 61% approval rating based on 38 reviews, with the website's consensus stating: "Cujo is artless work punctuated with moments of high canine gore and one wild Dee Wallace performance." On Metacritic, the film holds a 57/100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.
Additional adaptation
In 2015, Sunn Classic Pictures announced that it would develop another adaptation titled C.U.J.O., which stands for “Canine Unit Joint Operations”.
