Netflix Plans to Adapt Stephen King’s Cujo for the 2nd Time
Stephen King‘s masterful tale of terror, Cujo, is set to be adapted to the screen again…this time by Netflix.
In 1983, a St. Bernard dog named Cujo got rabies and went on a rampage, terrorizing a mother and son in the film titled after the dog’s name, Cujo. That film came out when Stephen King was at the top of his game and was truly a master of terror. He may still be a genius, but his recent work has failed to live up to some of his earlier novel-based films. The Shining, Christine, The Dead Zone and, yes, Cujo, were all amazing feats of scariness and held viewers in total suspense for the duration of their running times. Netflix has recently picked up the rights to adapt King’s book, Cujo, for a large modern-day audience.
1983’s film was known best for being set in a car towards the movie’s conclusion where the film’s mother and son characters (played by Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro) were attacked viciously by Cujo and the pair had to use their wits to outsmart the dog and save their lives. This Netflix adaptation that is forthcoming is set to be produced by Roy Lee.
Recent King adaptations such as The Monkey and Mr. Harrison’s Phone before that have been middling but have attracted large viewership, partly due to those film’s clever story lines. Unfortunately, a recent remake of King’s 1984 movie, Firestarter, failed to ignite at the box-office due to being poorly made. What a remake of Cujo could do, if it is successful, is serve to actually remind viewers of the story that terrified the world when it was made into a film back in 1983. Nobody could deny the power of the suspense that the film showcased with great performances by Wallace and Pintauro to boot. Cujo was like a much more violent Jaws with a dog instead of a shark as the monster.
While the St. Bernard in Cujo could give fans of Beethoven, a family movie which featured the same type of dog, a genuine scare, King movies have rarely been as intense as Cujo. That 1983 movie holds a 60% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating but that could be because dog fans were offended by the movie’s portrayal of a vicious animal. For my money, Cujo was one of the most frightening cinematic experiences of all-time and I can’t wait to see if the Netflix adaptation could come close to capturing the essence of the original movie and the book on which it was based. Look for more news on this exciting adaptation as it develops. If it is not as good as the original, it could leave fans, pardon the expression, foaming at the mouth.
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