What always impressed me about Cujo is that it was never over the top with the horror. There is violence in the film, but not a lot of hardcore gore. Ultimately the film chooses to scare audiences and doesn't simply settle for the gross out factor.

I have to agree with Prime on the cheating wife subplot, even if the extramarital lover is a terrific example of an on-screen scumbag.

Problem is, they were trying to incorporate the entire network of intersecting storytheads from the novel, and the adulterous wife angle bogged the book down as well.

I would have appreciated seeing an approach similar to John Carpenter's masterful handling of Christine - take the focal plot device and base your film on that. Jettison the extraneous story arcs and instead devise a striaghtforward horror picture with an eye for faithfully adpating the central conciet.

In the film Christine the other aspects of the haunting/possession plot were toned down in favor of the idea of the car being alive. In Cujo the filmmakers would have been better served engaging in a similar bit of streamlining, narrowing the scope of the film so it stayed attentive to the sudden rabid rampage these townsfolk have to deal with.

The last half of Cujo does actually take this approach, focusing almost entirely on the woman in the car with her son, and consequently it is this segment of the film which gives the whole its overall power.

I found myself really sympathizing with Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro as they experienced Cujo's atatcks as wella s suffociating heat. It certainly doesn't subtract from the impact of the film that Cujo himself has become absolutely terrifying at this point, having transformed into a snarling, foam-spewing canine monster.

Solid performances (particularly from Dee Wallace) and plenty of creepy atmosphere combine with some frankly terrifying moments to lift Cujo above the standard King adaptation, earning the film:

Eight out of Ten times a dog is going to EAT the hand that feeds it.

Cujo is the story of a small pup who breaks free of his leash and gets to wander through a beautiful meadow. While wandering around he comes across a set of train tracks and decides to cross over. Right before he clears the last track a train flies by and cuts the tip of his tail off. Crying poor Cujo leans back over the track to look for his severed tail. Just then another train screams down the track and lops off his head. The end. What was the moral of this story you ask? Why, don't lose your head over a little piece of tail of course.

Did I get ya? Did you keep reading saying "What the hell?" HA, you are all my toys.

Cujo is 165 pounds of Alpo-eating rabid badass in the form of a large St. Bernard, who ends up terrorizing a mother and son trapped in a broken down car. This film strays from it's horror roots a lot. It should have been simple like this: A woman and her son go to a local country mechanic to get their car fixed, the car on it's last legs dies as it reaches the garage. They notice a large dog who does not seem to be acting right. Boom the assault begins and you sit back and have fun for 95 minutes. But there is an entire back story involving a cheating husband that you never really care about and then Cujo himself has to take after 4 or 5 people around his podunk town to prove how bad he is.

Although any time a sum bitch who is just cruel to any animal dies in a movie I always cheer aloud. The best part in this entire movie for me is when the dog first begins to be taken by the disease and confronts his master. The look on the little boy's face as he ask "What's wrong boy?" brings me to tears I tell ya. The dog shows great restraint in fighting his killer urges.

This movie is not bad but not great either. Most Stephen King movies you either love or hate, but I'll take neutral ground and just say I like it.

5 of 10