Oh My Horror 2025 | 47/52 | Book Adaptations
Fuck you, dog.
An innocent bunny, minding his own business, traverses the forest into an open field. Cujo, a St. Bernard and therefore bred to kill all creatures small and smaller, chases the rabbit beyond a gate and into a hole where only Cujo’s head can fit through. His barks annoy the shit out of the bats, who are just trying to get some sleep. With no sense of self-preservation, Cujo lets one of the bats land on his head and bite his nose.
That night, little Tad Trenton gets ready for bed. He cuts off the lights and makes a beeline to the bed, scared of what may be in his closet. The door opens on its own, and Tad believes he sees a monster. He screams for his parents, Vic and Donna, who assure him that monsters only exist in stories. Not in real life. Yadda yadda Donna’s having an affair. Vic’s cereal brand is making kids poop funny.
One day, the family drives dad’s nice convertible out of town to Joe’s, an auto mechanic, who Vic heard would give him a fair deal. While Vic deals with the car, the family’s dog, Cujo, emerges, all friendly and docile. He’s got a gaping wound on his nose from the bat, but no one seems to notice. Over time, Cujo develops sores all over his body and a bloody nose. Again, no one notices.
The movie slowly develops these threads. Vic goes out of town. Donna’s Pinto is having issues, so she takes it to Joe’s, the car nearly breaking down by the time she gets there. But Cujo has started acting aggressively. And Joe doesn’t seem to be around.
Dee Wallace is THE actor in the movie. She has a quiet, naturalistic style that turns explosive when the inciting incident occurs. Vic is a good father but a neglectful husband, leaving Donna with all the unpaid domestic labor while he whines about his cereal business. Still, she decides to try to make things work. She’s the Cujo of her family — in pain but totally ignored. Her actions could metaphorically tear her family apart. Cujo is doing it quite literally.
That said, the movie doesn’t handle the domestic stuff all that well — it gets the idea across, but it feels rote and artless. A better movie could make us care about both.
Jan de Bont has a field day with the cinematography, looking for every opportunity to go big or pull off a trick. It’s flashy, but it mainly serves the movie, especially during the action sequences. The movie sells the idea that Cujo is violent in some scenes, but it’s hard to read the slobbering dog actor as malicious in many of them. White Dog, from the previous year, does a much better job at this.
I wanted to like this movie more, but it underserves its themes and avoids exploring territory that might have created genuine horror.
Stray Thoughts / Spoilers
- The title card with the swirling liquid draining to reveal Cujo is pretty cool.
- I don’t care at all about this cereal business subplot. It’s just a way to get Vic out of town.
- Tad has a sick Pac-Man lunchbox. Aladdin lunchboxes ruled the industry for so long! I listened to a podcast about them—long story.
- Joe’s wife, Charity, breaks my heart.
- Frank Welker, who voiced Fred in the OG Scooby-Doo, did the Cujo vocal effects. He took over as Scooby in 2002 — I’m assuming this movie was his audition reel for the part.
- This movie is a scathing indictment of the Ford Pinto, an otherwise uncontroversial vehicle.
- The single clumsiest “Chekov’s knife rack” I’ve ever seen.
- I imagine Stephen King started from the Old Yeller ending and worked backwards from there. But it’s hard to know since he was so coked out writing this book that he doesn’t remember writing it.