10 Great Horror Movies With An Incredibly Simple Premise

Despite their typically genial temperaments, the St. Bernard breed was used for pretty startling and horrific effect in this Stephen King chiller.

Cujo's a gentle giant when the viewer first meets him, a beloved family pet who makes the unfortunate mistake of chasing a rabbit headfirst into a cave. There, a rabid bat bites the unlucky canine, infecting him with rabies.

Needless to say, Cujo's days as a trusty member of the Trenton family very quickly come to an end from there. And that's it really, that's the premise of Cujo: a big dog goes rabid. The story almost follows a slasher structure, as the increasingly slobbery beast mauls and tears apart several hapless members of the supporting cast in suitably grisly fashion.

Eventually, the mother and son in the family the pre-rabies Cujo loved find themselves trapped in a hot car as the diseased beast looks for a way in. It's a claustrophobic, uncomfortable segment in a film where the tension quickly piles on during the closing stretch.

Between Dee Wallace's increasingly frenzied performance as Donna Trenton and the many curious dog-related stunts on offer, this is a silly but relatively effective adaptation of one of King's more conservative efforts.