Cujo (film)
Encyclopedia
Cujo is a 1983 American horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

/thriller film based on the Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

 novel of the same name
Cujo
Cujo is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982, and was made into a film in 1983....

. Cujo was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 by Lewis Teague from a screenplay
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 by Lauren Currier. The film was #58 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Plot

Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace) is a frustrated housewife whose life is in turmoil after her husband Vic learns about her having an affair. Brett Camber (Billy Jacoby
Billy Jayne
Billy Jayne is an American actor, musician, and director. He has been in many films, and has sometimes been credited as Billy Jacoby. His siblings, Scott Jacoby, Robert Jayne, Susan Jayne and Laura Jacoby, are also actors.-Name:...

) is a young boy and a son of a mechanic, Joe, (Ed Lauter
Ed Lauter
Edward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...

) whose only companion is a St. Bernard
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...

 named "Cujo." Cujo is bitten by a bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

 with rabies
Rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...

 and his behavior begins to change. While the dog begins to succumb to the disease, Brett and his mother leave for Connecticut to visit his mother's sister. When Donna and her young son, Tad (Danny Pintauro
Danny Pintauro
Daniel John Pintauro is an American actor best known for his role on the popular American sitcom Who's the Boss? and his role in the 1983 film Cujo.-Career:...

), drive out to the home where Cujo and the Cambers live, the gentle Cujo has been driven insane by rabies and has killed Joe and the Cambers' neighbor. Worse, their car gives out at the Cambers' house and Donna and Tad are trapped inside while the massive dog waits outside, attacking repeatedly, all while Vic is out of town on a business trip.

Cujo brutally kills anyone and everyone who comes to the house, including the local Sheriff. Eventually Donna makes an attempt to dash for the house but is attacked by Cujo, the only safety being the car. After a brutal struggle between the desperate mother and the relentless animal, Donna takes advantage of a momentary distraction and beats Cujo with a baseball bat and then stabs him with the handle when the bat breaks. As Donna attempts to revive her son, who has passed out due to the extreme heat, Cujo tears through the kitchen window and launches himself at the two. Donna kills Cujo with the dead Sheriff's revolver, and manages to barely resuscitate Tad. She is joined by her husband outside who has just arrived as the carnage ends.

Cast

  • Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton
  • Danny Pintauro
    Danny Pintauro
    Daniel John Pintauro is an American actor best known for his role on the popular American sitcom Who's the Boss? and his role in the 1983 film Cujo.-Career:...

     as Tad Trenton
  • Daniel Hugh-Kelly
    Daniel Hugh Kelly
    Daniel Hugh Kelly is an American stage, film and television actor. He may be best known for his role on the 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-1986 for which he also wrote and directed...

     as Vic Trenton
  • Christopher Stone
    Christopher Stone (actor)
    Christopher Stone was an American actor.Stone appeared on film and television from the early 1970s and married actress Dee Wallace in 1980. Together, they appeared in a number of films including the classic horror films The Howling and Cujo...

     as Steve Kemp
  • Ed Lauter
    Ed Lauter
    Edward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...

     as Joe Camber
  • Kaiulani Lee as Charity Camber
  • Billy Jacoby
    Billy Jayne
    Billy Jayne is an American actor, musician, and director. He has been in many films, and has sometimes been credited as Billy Jacoby. His siblings, Scott Jacoby, Robert Jayne, Susan Jayne and Laura Jacoby, are also actors.-Name:...

     as Brett Camber


Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...

 was credited for doing vocal effects for Cujo.

Reception

Reviews of the film were mixed, and a more recent collation of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 has earned Cujo a "rotten" rating of 59%. Eleanor Mannikka of the New York Times wrote that:
Cujo was a modest box office success for Warner Brothers. The film was released August 12, 1983 in the United States, opening in second place that weekend. It grossed a total of $21,156,152 domestically, making it the fourth high grossing horror film on 1983.

Awards and nominations

Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...

  • Best Horror Film (nominated)


Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...

  • Lewis Teague - Audience Jury Award (won)
  • Best film (Lewis Teague) - International Fantasy Award (nominated)


Young Artist Awards
  • Best Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Danny Pintauro
    Danny Pintauro
    Daniel John Pintauro is an American actor best known for his role on the popular American sitcom Who's the Boss? and his role in the 1983 film Cujo.-Career:...

    ) (nominated)

See also

  • Man's Best Friend - a film about a genetically engineered mastiff
    Tibetan Mastiff
    The Tibetan Mastiff is an ancient breed and type of domestic dog originating with nomadic cultures of Central Asia.-Names and etymology:...

    .
  • Curtis Joseph
    Curtis Joseph
    Curtis Shayne Joseph is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He last played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League....

    , National Hockey League
    National Hockey League
    The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

    goaltender nicknamed Cujo.
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