Cujo

On a quiet Maine-like town, a beloved St. Bernard named Cujo seems friendly and loyal, but a bite from a bat awakens a deadly infection. The film follows Donna Trenton and her young son Tad as a routine errand turns into a nightmare when Cujo grows aggressive and hunts them. After a chance encounter in the countryside, the dog returns to their neighborhood and locks them inside a battered car, leaving them cut off from help. Meanwhile Vic Trenton struggles to reach them, while Steve Kemp offers quiet, concerned support. The tension comes from dwindling supplies, the heat, and the growing certainty that rescue may not arrive in time. Neighbors watch from windows, warnings crackle on a battered radio outside.

Directed by Lewis Teague, Cujo adapts Stephen King's novel with screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner. The 1983 horror thriller rests on practical effects over CGI, relying on tense performances and a stark, grounded adaptation tone for audiences.

Cujo earned about 21.2 million worldwide against a budget of 5 million, making it a solid though modest hit for a mid 80s horror release. The numbers reflect steady audience turnout for Stephen King adaptations at the time, in theaters.

Critics treated Cujo as a lean survival thriller that concentrates fear in a single car driven by ordinary people. The story probes how domestic tranquility can rupture under pressure, highlighting maternal vulnerability, parental responsibility, and the animal menace as a blunt reminder of nature's unpredictability, for audiences seeking real tension.

Cujo left a lasting impression as a practical creature feature rather than a gore soaked spectacle. The image of a woman and child trapped inside a car while Cujo prowls outside became a touchstone for suburban horror in the 1980s and influenced dogs-attack thrillers, Cujo remains a marker of 1980s horror.