2020 October Horror Challenge #46: "Cujo"

 

I like the contrast between the two movie posters up there. One kinda tries to keep a sense of mystery about what might happen in the movie, while the other is like "hey, it's a big, scary dog! Look everyone!" I suppose once the movie came out everyone knew what the "monster" was in the movie, so there wasn't much point in trying to hide it, and most of the posters capitalize on showing the huge dog covered in blood. Anything to get people in theaters, amirite?

So if you live on the moon under a rock and somehow don't know,  this movie is about a big, rabid, killer dog. In the days before cellphones, a mother takes her young son on a car trip to a house out in the boonies to have someone look at her car (this happens a lot in small towns) and her car breaks down in front of the house, but the owners aren't home, and unfortunately their pet dog is home, roaming freely in the yard, which wouldn't be a problem except the dog has gone rabid and the mother and son are trapped in their car by the crazed, violent dog which attacks them every time they try to escape.

I guess this kind of movie would be harder to pull off nowadays with cellphones and GPS trackers installed in everyone's phones and cars, but back in the 80s, this movie was eminently believable and really freaky. I read the book when I was 11, and then when I saw the movie years later I was all pissy because they changed so much, but I've calmed down some in my old age, and I can appreciate this movie for what it is without being pissed at the changes that were made. I still think the ending is bullshit, though (yes, they changed the ending from what happened in the book). Whatever dudes.

The dog really helps the movie work here. He's so big and goofy and friendly that to see him change as the rabies takes hold of him is really creepy. I remember crying when I read the book because he was such a good dog and it was so sad what happened to him (I may or may not like dogs more than people sometimes). Plus I was attacked by a big dog when I was 7, and I barely got away, so I can vouch for how realistic the terror can be when a big dog is after you. 

I don't want to spoil anything in this movie, but one of the scenes is a lot scarier with old cars where you had to turn a crank to actually roll up the window to close it. Deep Wallace does a good job playing the mother trapped in an increasingly horrible situation with an asthmatic kid trapped in a hot car with a rabid monster outside trying to get in and seemingly no way out. In spite of my quibbles, I have to admit, this movie works. We'll just ignore the ending and call it good.