Cujo: 25th Anniversary Edition

What works on paper doesn’t always necessarily work on screen – it’s a time-proven fact that movie adaptations of successful novels often gauge correctly, and just as often spectacularly fail to grasp. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, tweaks the timeline of Tolkien’s books perfectly to sustain the drama that is necessary to make Peter Jackson’s films work; similarly, most of the successful adaptations of Stephen King rely on anything from minor (Carrie) to significant (The Shining) changes for a winning film experience. This week, Cujo is released in a special edition DVD and… well, it swings both ways with this one.

For a nail-biting, spellbinding 45 minutes, Lewis Teague’s 1983 adaptation of King’s novel about a sweet Saint Bernard who is bitten by a rabid bat and turns into a frothing, wild-eyed killing machine is superb horror cinema. Stranded in the immediate vicinity of the dog with a car that won’t start and no help in sight, Dee Wallace – fresh off her turn as Elliot’s mom in E.T. – portrays the terrorized mother who must think outside the box in order to protect herself and her pint-sized son (Danny Pintauro) from the slavering jaws of Cujo. The ensuing struggle is maddeningly intense and does real justice to the spirit of the storytelling in King’s novel. Unfortunately, it only amounts to about half the film. The preceding half leading into the big showdown with man’s best friend amounts to a lot of underwhelming set-up that works on a utilitarian level, but doesn’t really capture the sense of dread that permeated the book from start to finish. Still, it’s certainly worth a sit-through for what comes later.

At any rate, Lionsgate’s package includes some great extras, including a director’s commentary and a brand new three-part documentary featuring interviews with Teague, Jan de Bont (who cut his teeth as a cinematographer on films such as Cujo before leapfrogging to directing), the cast and others.

Also recommended this week: Demons: Special Edition; The Hand; Knocked Up: Unrated Special Edition; My Name Is Earl: Season 2; Streets of San Francisco 1.2; The Untouchables vol. 1.2

— Nicole Campos

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 12:35 pm by nic campos and is filed under DVD New Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.