10 Horrifyingly Underrated Stephen King Adaptations

3. Cujo

Tommyknockers Stephen King
Warner Bros.

What The Critics Said:

‘This screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Cujo emerges as a dull, uneventful entry in the horror genre’. Not our words, these are the words of Variety magazine.

Why It’s Worth A Watch:

Any book about a rabid St Bernard rampaging around on a sweltering summer’s day was never going to be dull, so by that logic a film based on this premise couldn’t be bad, right? Right, because Cujo is one of those rare beasts, a film set solely in the day time but still brimming with menace and suspense.

Any illusions that the film will be a by the numbers, dog picks off residents of a sleepy town one by one are soon shattered when film turns on its snout, as mum Donna (Dee Wallace earning her scream queen credentials in this role) and her son are trapped in a car, overheating and being circled by the deranged pooch. It’s here the film bounds towards its climax, albeit a more family-friendly one than the book.

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Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing. He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.