| Cujo | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Lewis Teague |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on | Cujo byStephen King |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Edited by | Neil Travis |
| Music by | Charles Bernstein |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[2] |
| Box office | $21.2 million[3] |
Cujo is a 1983 Americanhorror film directed byLewis Teague, written by Don Carlos Dunaway andBarbara Turner (using the pen name Lauren Currier),[4] and starringDee Wallace,Daniel Hugh Kelly, andDanny Pintauro. An adaptation ofStephen King's 1981novel of the same name, it follows a mother and her son who are trapped inside their car while protecting themselves from arabidSt. Bernard.
Cujo, a friendly and easygoingSt. Bernard, chases a wild rabbit and inserts his head into a cave, where arabidbat bites him on the nose. The Trenton family—advertising executive Vic, housewife Donna, and young son Tad—take their car to the rural home of abusive mechanic Joe Camber for repairs, where they meet Cujo, the Camber family's pet, and get along well with him.
Vic and Donna's marriage is tested when Vic learns that Donna had been having an affair with her ex-boyfriend from high school, Steve Kemp. The early signs of Cujo's infection start to appear, though no one notices. Joe Camber's wife Charity and his son Brett decide to leave for a week to visit Charity's sister. The furious stage of Cujo's infection sets in. Cujo refrains from attacking Brett but goes completely mad and kills the Cambers' alcoholic neighbor Gary. He then mauls Joe to death.
Vic goes out of town on a business trip as Donna and Tad return to the Cambers' house for more car repairs. Cujo tries to attack them, and they are forced to take shelter in theirFord Pinto. Donna tries to drive home, but the car'salternator dies, and the two are trapped inside. The hot sun makes conditions unbearable, and Donna realizes that she must do something before they both die fromheatstroke ordehydration.
Attempts at escape are foiled by Cujo repeatedly attacking the car, breaking a window, and biting Donna. Vic returns after his phone calls go unanswered, and finds Donna and Tad missing and his house vandalized by Kemp. Police realize his wife and son might be at the Cambers'. Local sheriff George Bannerman goes, but Cujo mauls him to death.
Donna attempts to get to the house to bring an overheated Tad water; she fights Cujo with abaseball bat until it breaks. Cujo jumps and is impaled in the stomach by the broken bat. Donna takes the sheriff's gun and contemplates shooting the dog but decides saving Tad is more important. Inside the house, Cujo tries again to attack Donna, but she manages to shoot Cujo dead before Vic arrives and reunites with his family.
Principal photography ofCujo took place mainly on a cattle ranch onSonoma Mountain nearPetaluma, California in the fall of 1982.[6]
The original director wasPeter Medak, who left the project two days into filming, along withDOPAnthony B. Richmond. They were replaced byLewis Teague andJan de Bont respectively.[7]
Cujo was played by four St. Bernards, several mechanical dogs, and a black Labrador–Great Dane mix in a St. Bernard costume.[8] In some shots, stuntmanGary Morgan played Cujo while wearing a large dog costume.[9] Karl Miller was the trainer for the dogs in Cujo.[10] Frank Welker provided the vocal effects of Cujo.[5]
Warner Bros. releasedCujo theatrically in the United States on August 12, 1983.[2]
Artisan Entertainment first releasedCujo onDVD format in 2000.[11] A 25th-anniversary DVD was subsequently released by Artisan in 2007.[12] Olive Films issued a 30th-anniversaryBlu-ray on January 22, 2013.[13]Kino Lorber released a 40th-anniversary4K UHD Blu-ray edition on October 24, 2023.[14]
Cujo was a modest box office success for Warner Bros. The film opened in second place at the U.S.box office.[15] It grossed a total of $21,156,152 domestically,[3] making it the fourth-highest-grossing horror film of 1983 behindJaws 3-D,Psycho II, andTwilight Zone: The Movie.[16]
Reviews from critics were mixed.Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times wrote the film was "by no means a horror classic, but it's suspenseful and scary".[17]Variety panned it as "a dull, uneventful entry in the horror genre, a film virtually devoid of surprises or any original suspense".[18]Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four, calling it "one of the dumbest, flimsiest excuses for a movie I have ever seen".[19]Roger Ebert called it "dreadful",[20] while Linda Gross of theLos Angeles Times wrote that "no theater is air conditioned enough to justify watching this scary, gory and beastly movie," though she did concede that Teague "directs the violent, scary scenes and some of the quiet domestic ones with efficiency."[21]
Steve Jenkins ofThe Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "for the most partCujo 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".[22] Author and film criticLeonard Maltin gave the film three out of a possible four stars, calling it "genuinely frightening", and also writing: "Builds slowly but surely to [its] terrifying (but not gory) climax".[23] Stephen King called the film "terrific" and named it one of his favorite adaptations.[24]
Film student Alice Foulkes wrote a retrospective review ofCujo forThe National Student in 2018, in which she argued that the absence of fantasy elements and general plausibility ofCujo make it more terrifying than most horror films.[25]
On review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes, it holds a 60% approval rating based on 45 reviews, with the website's consensus stating: "Cujo is artless work punctuated with moments of high canine gore and one wild Dee Wallace performance".[26] On Metacritic, the film holds a 57 out of 100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[27]
In March 2025,Netflix announced they were developing a remake of the film withRoy Lee serving as producer.[28][29]
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