Forget BEETHOVEN and any other shaggy dog story you may have watched or read - CUJO is the real deal. Based on one of Stephen King's lesser-known, earlier books, this is a non-supernatural horror-cum-thriller which centres around a large, lovable, dopey St. Bernard which gets bitten (right on the nose - ouch!) by a rabid bat and eventually goes on a savage spree of slaughter. Now, this is one scary dog. Getting progressively more evil-looking as the film progresses, it ends up as a huge, unstoppable monster with a little instinct and one covered in gore. Not a bad leap from the initially cuddly family pet it started off as. Definitely the scariest dog I've seen in a film, except maybe for that one in THE OMEN which was pretty damn frightening too.

Unfortunately the dog Cujo doesn't figure too much in the first hour of this film, which is so caught up in boring character exposition that it almost forgets about the title character entirely, instead popping him up brief scenes throughout of him gradually getting dirtier and messier and more feral as the effects of the rabies virus take hold. Until the last half hour, which is one long set piece, we have to make do with everyday characters going about their not-very-interesting lives. Dee Wallace-Stone (THE HOWLING) is a cheating wife and mother, married to the boring Daniel Hugh Kelly. The pair have a bratty, whining little kid (another obnoxious child, here played by Danny Pintauro) who has asthma attacks at the most inappropriate times and keeps threatening to die (and by god, I wish he would). The rest of the small town hicks are fairly predictable folks, despite heavy attempts at characterisation to make them more interesting.

The last half hour of this film is great stuff and contains numerous frightening scenes to make up for the lack of them in the first hour. Basically, Wallace and Pintauro are trapped in a car in the middle of nowhere whilst Cujo lays siege to them, smashing the car to pieces in some ferocious attacks that play on everyone's fear of dogs as unpredictable, snarling beasts. Very taut and suspenseful, this is a text book example of setting a movie in just one location and having lots of fun with it. The ending may be predictable but at least its clean and there's an (un)surprising twist to come at the warm-hearted family reunion in the kitchen.

The acting is passable, yet nobody here shines much. Dee Wallace-Stone comes off the best and is given the most emoting as the housewife caught in the middle of a nightmarish situation and she puts in another strong turn. Danny Pintauro is saddled with a hateful character so it's not really fair to judge his acting (and can it be said that child actors truly act anyways?). Daniel Hugh Kelly is okay but has a boring character whilst Christopher Stone is badly miscast as the town stud (instead he resembles a neanderthal). Two familiar faces, lower down in the cast, are Ed Lauter and Jerry Hardin who would both go on to appear in THE X-FILES television series.

Director Lewis Teague (ALLIGATOR ) handles the proceedings with some level of skill and he's assisted by the superior camera-work skills of Jan De Bont, who adds a glossy sheen to the look of the film. It's just a shame that, until the end, they don't have more interesting material to work with. The dog attacks are fairly brutal without being gory and, with the use of a few real dogs, a mechanical head (and even a guy in a dog suit at one point!) the film-makers create a convincing menace that becomes scary due to the realism. In the end, CUJO is a good attempt at a horror movie, albeit a rather dull one saved by the superior climax.

Friendly family pet St. Bernard named Cujo is bit by a bat and turn rabinous. He kills his owner mechanic Joe (Ed Lauter) and a neighbor. When Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace) and her son go over to Joe's, their car dies trapping the pair while Cujo lurk in waiting.

This takes a while to get the dog to start killing. In fact it takes way to long too get there. The only compelling idea is being trapped by that dog. Everything else seems beside the point. They are better off stripping away the excess.

Dee Wallace is doing her utmost. She's a great actress and probably the only compelling thing in this movie. She's very effective trapped in the car although the dog attacks aren't that scary. Somehow the attacks need to look more violent.

St Bernard's are so friendly but not Cujo when he is bitten by a bat that turns him rabid and he goes on a killing spree.

Poor Donna (Dee Wallace) who along with her son is getting her husband's car fixed by Joe, Cujo's owner. As she pulls into his farmhouse , Donna finds herself trapped inside the car as Cujo is ready to pounce. His face covered in blood and his mind gone insane.

This Stephen King adaptation is really a thin story. Director Lewis Teague tries to crank up some tension but it is only effective in the latter part of the film as Donna is trapped in the car with her son getting poorly.

Some nice, effective cinematography by Jan De Bont.