Fun90mighty90
When I first saw the film "Cujo", I thought watching it was probably as traumatic for me as it was for the two characters who survive this horrific, yet realistic ordeal. A dog is bitten by a bat and catches rabies which throughout the film causes the dog's behavior to change. At the beginning of the film, the dog is tired and reacts really quickly to loud noises, however, by the end of the film the disease has turned the dog into an deadly, killing beast! The film follows a mother and son, who are trapped by circumstance and are forced to face "Cujo" who is now taken over by the rabies disease. The directing style shows us a relationship between a mother and son who are faced with a situation where death is the most likely result. Apart from being trapped by circumstance, they are also trapped in a car, causing their fear of "Cujo" to turn to tension, illness and anger. Eventually mental and physical deterioration forces the mother to go to extreme lengths to save her son and with any luck, save herself. Dee Wallace, I think, should have won a golden globe or something for her portrayal as Donna Trenton, considering her acting in this film is incredible! Her acting is what made this film even harder to watch. She is so believable that when the dog attacks her, it actually made me want it to stop. It is gruesome, but it's really well directed. This film is hard to watch, however, if you enjoy horror and appreciate incredible acting, then you should give this film a go!
Ana Silva (Anaslair)
As usual, when I read a book I like watching the movie adaptation.This one goes back to 1983 and it was very scary, even without the special effects we get these days.Several things were changed from the book, also as usual. Other characters are either omitted after a point or dramatically changed. The story is much more focused on just Donna and Tad and their horrible experience.I definitely gagged quite a few times, what they did to that dog was just gross. The suspense and terror is still all there though, even without the gore. The degradation of the characters as time passes is very well achieved.The entire cast was very good but Tad and Cujo are the definite stars here. In my opinion it is a shame the ending was changed so radically but I suppose this sells better.Cujo is a movie guaranteed to give you nightmares even these days. Don't watch it at night!
Davis P
Cujo is just a great horror film, plain and simple, it just is. Now I haven't seen all of Stephen King's work, although I have seen his classics like misery and the Shining. I actually thought that cujo was better than the shining, but not quite as good as something like misery. The story is just very well told through film, I cannot recommend the book because I have not read it, but I can recommend this movie for horror or thriller lovers. Also the acting is done really well especially by Dee Wallace! Dee really pulled off a great performance here. And she delivers one of the best lines I've ever heard in a film: f**k you dog! Cujo definitely knows what will scare and it uses that. Also I think the run time and the pacing of the movie is spot on. I believe it's about an hour and 32 minutes, which is just right for this movie because really it doesn't need to be long if this movie specifically was overly long, then you would bore and lose the audience. And I think they did a good job at making the dog look borderline demonic and just downright evil. So all in all I think this was a great book to film Stephen King adaptation that I recommend to horror and thriller movie fans. 8/10 for Cujo!
classicsoncall
As a Stephen King adaptation, this movie's horror doesn't rely on evil demons, wicked clowns or fairy dust - it's something that could actually happen, and that's what's so powerful about it. I recall reading the novel many years ago and the film managed to stay relatively close to the narrative as far as I can tell since it's been so long.With the backdrop of young Tad Trenton's (Danny Pintauro) fear of going to sleep at night because of the monster in his closet or under the bed, his nightmare is realized when the family car stalls out in a back-woods mechanic's repair yard, abandoned by the owner and his family for extracurricular activities of their own.What follows is a harrowing ordeal that tests the limits of one woman's (Dee Wallace) endurance to keep her young son and herself safe from annihilation. The terror doesn't let up after 'Cujo' makes his first Jaws-like appearance until Donna Trenton takes her broken bat swing in the top of the ninth with no survivors left on base. Even then, there's one final surprise left before Cujo finally goes down for the count.I'd have to say that the make-up folks working on the assortment of St. Bernard's used in the filming did a stand-out job. As the animal became more and more vicious, the caked on blood and gore turned Cujo into one hideous beast. When he rammed the Trenton's car with his head, it's a wonder he didn't knock himself out, one of the more brutal occurrences in this tale of a rabid dog on a rampage.
AD
