Cujo used to haunt my dreams… There I said it! Having to review this movie really hurt my inner-child emotionally. I remember all those years ago, saying “Don’t worry, you’ll never have to watch that lame movie again”. Years later we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary and here I am reviewing the Blu-ray release of the cult classic based off of a story by Stephen King. Let’s see how Cujo holds up after a quarter of a decade.
Film
25 years ago Stephen King was the go to author for material to adapt to the screen. His books and short stories spawned dozens of classic horror films (The Shinning, Carrie, etc) however Cujo was not one of them.
Following a family that’s on the brink of falling apart, their paths are intersected with that of a mechanic and his dog, Cujo. Cujo has been recently infected with rabies (bats… they’re always causing problems) and without warning becomes a ravenous killing machine.
The film tries to recreate the psychological thrills and chills that the novel was famous for, but fails to do so relying mainly on cheap scares and gore. The film’s third act finds a mother and her son trapped in their car as Cujo circles and awaits…
The film hasn’t stood the test of time, the bloody trail that the dog leaves in its path is nothing when compared to amounts of gore the horror audience has been exposed to today, with film’s like Saw and other torture porn out there, our tolerance of blood is rising rapidly.
Beside the movie’s inability to do its job as a horror flick, the cinematography is just annoying and gratuitous. Shots dragged on, the running time had me staring at the clock and the overall dry tone of the film left me bored. This movie might’ve been scary 25 years ago and I’m sure it incited unnecessary fear towards St. Bernard’s, but today the only thing I fear when seeing a St. Bernard is whether or not it will try and waste 95 minutes of my life away.
Video
Watching a movie that is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1080p is definitely interesting… The film stock the filmmakers used definitely had a noticeable grain to it that is hard to hide when the image is crisp. Overall the video isn’t bad. It’s definitely not showroom quality, but during daylight shots the crisp less-grainy shots do stand out. Cujo makes the best out of the AVC MPEG-4 codec and being framed in its original 1.85:1, fans of the classic horror film will be able to enjoy the film as it was meant to be seen (and heard, see audio)
The colour is a bit washed out throughout the movie, which isn’t surprising due to some of the limitations of film stock at the time. Overall, the video quality doesn’t stand out over the DVD release of the film, I felt like I wouldn’t have missed much watching an up-converted DVD.
Audio
Presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio as well as the original English monaural mix (which is an interesting feature for older flicks, back in the day when 5.1 and 7.1 weren’t as common, we get a glimpse of how Cujo was meant to be heard. Also for those who are hard of hearing or those who were sick of trying to hear the dialogue through this terrible mix, Cujo comes with English & Spanish subtitles.
I’m sometimes shocked when I hear a movie that seemed to be mixed by cavemen (apologies to any cavemen). It’s fine when you’re listening to dialogue and a quick loud sound is heard to scare the audience, but when you’re trying to hear two people talking over ridiculously over-cranked sound effects (not even explosions, but rather foley of day-to-day sounds in the kitchen… like a chair moving)… than something is seriously wrong.
Special Features
The special features included are:
- Audio commentary with Director Lewis Teague
- Three-part documentary: “Dog Days: The Making of Cujo”
As far as special features go, having a commentary and a featurette about the making of the film as your only features, is rather insignificant considering the disc proclaims 25th anniversary edition on the cover. Even in terms of DVD’s amount of features, this is a pretty pathetic amount.
The behind-the-scenes doc wasn’t very exciting; it consisted of a small back-story of the novel and moved on to finding the cast and the right dog… groundbreaking. Some of the interviews with cast and crew were better than others, but overall the doc didn’t do much except fill up some room on the Blu ray.
The commentary with Lewis Teague was probably the best thing on the Blu-ray, I found that in the documentary itself Teague’s interviews were the best, so it was nice to get some back-story on his process while filming this movie over some of the other people involved in the interview who were less charismatic.
Final Thoughts
To the horror fans who liked Cujo, this release is targeted for you. However with a very scarce amount of special features, very poor audio and video quality even the fans will be disappointed. As for those who may be interested in giving Cujo a chance, it’s best to rent it for the replayability is non-existent.
Horrible review. Boo hoo, I see grain! Learn about film before reviewing!
I’m sorry you didn’t like the review, but I do know a lot about film, being a filmmaker and all.
Grain isn’t necessarily bad, but when the grain is noticeable and distracting, then it’s bad. Certain shots were very grainy due to poor lighting and possibly due to improper handling during the transfer.