Stephen King Month: Cujo

3 Stars - Mediocre

So after the rock bottom boredom of Firestarter it's onto something with at least some merit to it, Cujo. A story about guilt over adultery... oh and that rabid dog too.

Cujo is Stephen King's second romp into the town of Castle Rock; it tells the story of Donna Trenton, who has been cheating on her husband, Vic, with whom she has a young son, Tad. Vic discovers her affair, but before they have a chance to talk about it he has to leave town for a few days to sort out a business deal after an advertising contract of his falls through. On top of this a local man's dog, Cujo, is bit by a bat and gets rabies, he kills two men before Donna and Tad pull up outside his house to get their car, which is on its last legs, repaired. They are attacked by Cujo, and the car won't start, they're trapped and have no way of contacting anyone.

The film is fairly dull, with a lot of build up that is very slow and due to the actors not being all that good comes off as much too long before the actual horror starts. However I will say that once the dog does start attacking it is relatively frightening, and they made the dog playing Cujo actually look really, really sick. However it can get a bit repetetive and does last for an awfully long time which subtracts from the horror as you get bored of it.

As an adaptation it is actually very good, containing all the major and minor points from the book, until the end, where the climax isn't quite as pro-active, in that she kills Cujo through his jumping on a broken baseball bat handle here, whilst in the book she jams it in his eye. Also in the book the son dies, whilst here he lives which somewhat lessens the emotional significance, but overall a good adaptation.

His Bite Is Worse Than His Bark... Much, Much Worse

In short, I'd say worth a watch by fans of Stephen King but otherwise, you wouldn't miss much if you gave it a miss