Cujo - 1983

I have always had a interest in the Stephen King movies, probably stemming from reading his books as a young kid. To be honest, I don't remember at what age I read any of his books, and I don't remember which of his books I read. I remember I lost interest in his books before I was 14, because we moved out of the house I remember at that age and I didn;t read any of his books ever again after that. I never read Cujo.

Cujo stars Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone amongst others, and in that way this always felt similar to The Howling, the original Halloween horror movie of mine which...I should really rent tonight and rewatch before I offically go off the booze for a little while. Dee Wallace is having a affair with another man and is raising her young son with her husband. The kid is played by Danny Pintauro and turns in an annoying character but extremely well written and acted, thought I.

In the beginning of the film, Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard that chases a rabbit into a hole and gets bitten on the nose by a bat that lives inside the hole. Rabies being the culprit to the events that follow, we have about 45 minutes of character building and the cheating by Dee Wallace I spoke of earlier. She would later get married to Christopher Stone and become Dee Wallace Stone, and their chemistry is undeniable. She takes their car to the shop around minute 45 or whatever, and it promptly dies there. Meanwhile, Cujo has had the rabies sit in, and he's gone fully off the deep end.

The dog in this is fucking incredible. This movie was the one that got me into animal attack films, I realized midway through it. I really have to think it was this. The dog is insane, and it looks vicious as shit. It's covered progressively with more and more blood, slime, and drool as the film goes on, and looks like a goddamn monster.

Why isn't this film more well known?! This is my Jaws. honestly, I've always talked about this, I think Jaws is massively over-rated, and I'd take Cujo over Jaws any day. The Dog in this is a character, he is smart and vicious, intense and unpredictable. He looks fucking awesome, and is fully believable as not only a acting dog, but as a legit deadly threat. I think director Lewis Teague should've gone on to great things, and he did create some known stuff, but it's too bad this is probably his best work. The animal work in this alone deserves note, and the acting and cinematography help it along as well.

This is one of my childhood horror movies, I am biased, this is a five star film.