The dog gets little respect in the world of film. If it's not accompanying a cat on some crazy adventures to find their way home, it's playing up its role as the ultimate companion - or worse, animated in a Disney tale. Which makes Cujo such a strange and enticing beast.
A horror movie about a rabid dog on the loose, it's based on a Stephen King novel - but any fan of the author's adaptations will know that is far from a sign of a good movie. In fact, it's a pretty awful one, the standard Jaws trappings channelled through man's best friend.
The film was released in the early 1980s, in a particularly King-heavy year, with adaptations from horror directors David Cronenberg ( The Dead Zone) and John Carpenter ( Christine). The author had reached a "high" point - both literally and metaphorically - but unlike those relatively well-written works, Cujo was based on a book King wrote in the throes of his cocaine addiction, and was supposedly so high he can't recall writing most of it.
It shows, even on screen.
Director Lewis Teague spends a good hour building up character exposition in the dysfunctional family who are the focus of the human drama, before breaking it all down in the second half with the angry mutt.
But that's when the film gets into its groove, with mother and son trapped in a broken-down car while the crazed Cujo circles and snarls. The suspense is there, but so is the pure 1980s cheese - and for any fan of that particularly matured taste, you'll be happy to know Cujo has aged beautifully as each year passes.