History Literature / Cujo

** It happens again when, on the third day, sherriff Bannerman shows up at the Camber house to investigate Donna's and Ted's disapperance, only for Cujo to kill him before he has a chance to call for backup.

* AdultFear: Being trapped with your sick child in a swelteringly hot car, as a rabid dog waits for you just outside.

* AdultFear: Being trapped along with your sick child as a rabid dog waits for you just outside.

Meanwhile, Charity Camber is enduring a marriage to her dominating and abusive husband Joe, who works as a mechanic. One day, a lucky lottery ticket brings her $5,000, and possibly a way out for both her and their 11 year old son Brett, if she plays her cards right. In the midst of all this, the Cambers' pet dog, Cujo, chases a rabbit through a field one day that summer, and into an underground bat cave, where one of the bats ends up biting Cujo on the nose.

Vic Trenton has discovered that his wife Donna has been having an affair, and as if that weren't enough, his advertising agency is in dire straits thanks to problems with one of their clients' products. Vic is forced to travel out of town to try and fix things with the agency, leaving his wife and their five year old son Tad home alone.

Meanwhile, Charity Camber is enduring a marriage to her dominating and abusive husband Joe, who works as a mechanic. One day, a lucky lottery ticket brings her $5,000, and possibly a way out for both her and their 11 year old son Brett, if she plays her cards right. In the midst of all this, the Cambers' St. Bernard dog, Cujo, chases a rabbit through a field one day that summer, and into an underground bat cave, where one of the bats ends up biting Cujo on the nose.

And with that, two families at domestic crossroads are about to have their lives altered in bloody, violent fashion. For Cujo is a five year old, two hundred pound Saint Bernard who has never had his rabies shots...

Meanwhile, Charity Camber is enduring a marriage to her dominating and abusive husband Joe, who works as a mechanic. One day, a lucky lottery ticket brings her $5,000, and possibly a way out for both her and their 11 year old son Brett, if she plays her cards right. In the midst of all this, the Cambers' dog, Cujo, chases a rabbit through a field one day that summer, and into an underground bat cave, where one of the bats ends up biting Cujo on the nose.

''Cujo'', the second of Creator/StephenKing's stories featuring the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, was published in 1981, and adapted into a film starring Dee Wallace in 1983.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cujo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Kids, this ain't Film/{{Beethoven}}.]]

It is summertime in Castle Rock, Maine. Two families, the middle class Trentons and the working class Cambers, are going through a rough patch.

** Cujo was one, before he got rabies. The NightmareFuel comes from how quickly a BigFriendlyDog is turned into a killing machine by the virus. There's a reason why most places require all registered dogs to get the rabies vaccine.

* YourCheatingHeart: Donna has had an affair with Steve Kemp and broke it off. This comes back to haunt her when a rejected Kemp vandalizes the house and wipes off a very important message on the blackboard that delayed her and Tad being found -- contributing to [[spoiler:Tad's death in the book]].

* ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs: Red Razberry Zingers, a product of the Sharp cereal company Vic works for. It's "halfway between candy and cereal" and leaves behind a red-stained toilet bowl, which makes it look like someone is undergoing internal bleeding. Though it's completely harmless, many horrified parents take their kids to the emergency room, creating a public relations disaster for Sharp.

* InfantImmortality: [[DeathOfAChild Averted]] in [[spoiler:the book]]. Played straight in [[spoiler:the movie.]]

It is the summer of 1981 in Castle Rock, Maine. Two families, the middle class Trentons and the working class Cambers, are going through a rough patch.

Administrivia/NeedsABetterDescription

It is the summer of 1981 in Castle Rock, Maine. Two families, the middle class Trentons and the working class Cambers, are going through a rough patch. Vic Trenton has discovered that his wife Donna has been having an affair, and as if that weren't enough, his advertising agency is in dire straits thanks to problems with one of their clients' products. Vic is forced to travel out of town to try and fix things with the agency, leaving his wife and their five year old son Tad home alone.

Joe Camber's dog, Cujo, is infected with rabies from a bat bite.

Rabies can start showing symptoms in as little as a week after initial infection. And Cujo is a ''huge'' St. Bernard.

[[OhCrap Yeah]], bad stuff very quickly starts to happen.

Written in 1981 by Creator/StephenKing, and adapted into a film starring Dee Wallace in 1983.

* CatchPhrase: An in-story example. Vic Trenton, who works in advertising, along with his partner, Roger, creates a character called "The Sharp Cereal Professor", who becomes hugely popular. His catchphrase is "Nope, nothing wrong here".

Rabies starts showing symptoms in as little as a week after initial infection. And Cujo is a ''huge'' St. Bernard.

* BigFriendlyDog: Cujo was one, before he got rabies. The NightmareFuel comes from how quickly a BigFriendlyDog is turned into a killing machine by the virus. There's a reason why most places require all registered dogs to get the rabies vaccine.

* DomesticAbuser: Joe Camber. To the point (in the book) that during sex, his wife is afraid of crying out, because she's not sure he knows about female orgasms and it might upset him.

* TheFilmOfTheBook

* InfantImmortality: Averted [[spoiler:in the book. Played straight in the movie.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: Steve Kemp, who is responsible for nobody knowing where Tad and Donna are, is arrested for kidnapping them, which of course he didn't do. Unfortunately for him there's also drugs in his car.

* MamaBear: Donna's primal rage at the end is partly due to Cujo threatening her son, and partly due to [[spoiler:early symptoms of rabies]].
** ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[spoiler: Rabies has an incubation period of one to three months before symptoms start to appear. While there have been records of incubation periods lasting only four days, she didn't even spend THAT long trapped.]]
*** [[spoiler: Not to mention she almost certainly would have been a goner if symptoms appeared (Post-exposure treatment has a tragically low success rate, and survivors suffer severe neurological problems for the rest of their lives). Also, rabies very rarely manifests as "primal rage" in humans the way it does in animals.]]

* TragicVillain: Cujo. He's shown to suffer terribly from rabies, and he attacks people because he believes that they are responsible for his pain. At the end of the book, it's written: "It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. [...] He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor."
** He was also ''possibly'' influenced by the ghost of a [[Literature/TheDeadZone previous Stephen King villain...]]
** Not to mention his brief encounter with [[Franchise/TheDarkTower Randall Flagg]].
** Sadly, Cujo [[spoiler:isn't even at peace after his death. His restless, malevolent spirit makes a cameo appearance in [[Literature/NeedfulThings King's "last" Castle Rock story]].]]

* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Cujo needed to be put down before he hurt or killed anyone else while under the effects of rabies. Considering how we got moments from Cujo's perspective, it's fair to say that Cujo would of wanted this as well.]]

* {{Mundanger}}: Unlike most of King's works, there is no supernatural threat in this book. Just a huge, rabid dog.

* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: The dog playing Cujo was such a BigFriendlyDog that getting him to show any degree of aggression was a struggle.