Cujo was originally published in September of 1981.Warning, this review does contain spoilers.
The small town of Castle Rock is home to Joe Camber and his family, which includes a St. Bernard named Cujo. One day Cujo is chasing a rabbit around the yard and gets his head stuck in a hole. He is bitten by a bat infected with Rabies. Cujo slowly begins going insane.
Vic Trenton is having major problems of his own to deal with. His wife is cheating on him and his business is failing. He goes out of town to make an attempt to save his struggling business. His wife and son take the family car over the Camber's in order to have it repaired.
No one is there when they arrive and the car breaks down further leaving them stranded. Cujo forces them to retreat into their car during one of the hottest weeks in Castle Rock history. They make many attempts to escape but are unsuccessful. Vic's son dies of heat stroke.
Believe it or not, there is not a lot of action in this novel. Most of the horror comes from the struggles the different town folk are facing as well as the terrifying point of view of Cujo. The ending is quite strong with mother and son trapped in the car, dying of thirst and scared for their lives.
This book is somewhat different from other King novels in that it does not have a concerted evil that must be overcome. There is just a dog that has a disease and slowly loses his will to not be dangerous.
3 comments:
I read this back in high school and remember really liking it and that it was scary. Other than that I don't remember all the details. I may have seen the movie... I can picture one of the scenes, but I don't remember if I saw the entire thing or not.
I thought this was a little scary when I read it...I remember liking it. But the movie...now that made me laugh! Did you ever see it? The dog that played Cujo was wagging his tail in the scenes where he was supposed to be mean. :)
Missy, I have to agree. There have been very few movies of King's works that have not been total losses.
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