History Literature / Cujo

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The plot point about Red Razberry Zingers dying children's digestive tracts red is based on a real incident: when [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Franken Berry Cereal]] was first introduced in the early 1970s, it included an indigestible pink dye that turned many children's feces pink, prompting General Mills to change the recipe.

** 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.

''Cujo'', the second of Creator/StephenKing's novels to feature the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, was published in 1981, and adapted into a film starring Creator/DeeWallace in 1983.

--> Steve: Oh, my God, you’re rabid!

* AdultFear: Being trapped with your sick child in a swelteringly hot car that won't start, as a rabid dog waits for you just outside.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Borderline example. Rabies typically takes longer than a week to begin showing symptoms (it usually takes a few months) - to be more precise, symptoms don't begin to show until the virus reaches the brain. However, the distance from bite site to the brain is actually a factor, and Cujo was bitten on the nose, so there is a slim possibility that the virus could indeed have advanced that quickly. In some rare cases [[TurnOfTheMillennium during the modern age]], human victim got bitten by a wolf very close to the head and the virus got into the nervous system almost instantly. ''Despite the full vaccine course and serum being given the next day at the hospital'', the poor guy developed rabies and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath died a horrible death]] in less than 2 weeks after bite. Very rare, one-in-a-million chance, but it still can happen.

* ShootTheDog: Through the entire book, Cujo is shown to be a good dog who had the sheer bad luck to run afoul of a rabid bat and his brain deteriorated to point of aggression, Cujo was only killing people under a frenzied belief that the humans were responsible for the pain he was going through. After everything that happened, the narration points out that Cujo was never truly violent or aggressive and his behaviour was only a result of rabies. [[spoiler Making Cujo's death at the end of the book more tragic and merciful than letting him continue living in pain and killing people.]]

* AxCrazy: Cujo after being infected with rabies. Seeing a BigFriendlyDog slowly go mad and turn murderous under its influence just makes it stand out even more.

* BewareOfViciousDog: Although, to be fair, nobody knew he'd become vicious.

* 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]].]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Roger Breakstone, one of Vic's colleagues, and Roger, who [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom advises the Mailman not to make the trip over to the Cambes' house since they'll be away,]] preventing him from rescuing Donna and Tad.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Borderline example. Rabies typically takes longer than a week to begin showing symptoms (it usually takes a few months) - to be more precise, symptoms don't begin to show until the virus reaches the brain. However, the distance from bite site to the brain is actually a factor, and Cujo was bitten on the nose, so there is a slim possibility that the virus could indeed have advanced that quickly.
** In some rare cases [[TurnOfTheMillennium during the modern age]], human victim got bitten by a wolf very close to the head and the virus got into the nervous system almost instantly. ''Despite the full vaccine course and serum being given the next day at the hospital'', the poor guy developed rabies and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath died a horrible death]] in less than 2 weeks after bite. Very rare, one-in-a-million chance, but it still can happen.

* WarHero: Gary Pervier won a Silver Star during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and is now an angry and bitter alcoholic. His wartime injuries led to him being addicted to morphine, and once he came home from the war he substituted alcohol for morphine.

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

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Although the book is realistic fiction horror rather than the supernatural horror that King is most well known for, there are a few lines scattered throughout implying that the rabid Cujo is the reincarnation of the psychotic killer/rapist [[Literature/TheDeadZone Frank Dodd.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: Sheriff Bannerman lasts about 30 seconds with Cujo, and he is by far the most effective cop in the book. In addition, if he'd followed procedure and called in that the Pinto was at the Cambers' before he got out of his car to investigate, backup would have arrived and [[spoiler: Tad most likely would have survived. /spoiler]]

* PoliceAreUseless: Sheriff Bannerman lasts about 30 seconds with Cujo, and he is by far the most effective cop in the book.

* IntimateMarks: Donna has a mole just above her pubic hair that looks like a question mark. Steve Kemp mentions it in his letter to Vic (see {{Cuckold}}).

* {{Cuckold}}: Vic Trenton. His wife has an affair with Steve Kemp, and after she breaks it off, Kemp sends a crude message to Vic in revenge about how he enjoyed "fucking the shit out of her". He also mentions the mole Donna has on an intimate place, so Vic knows that the message is true. It causes him horrible emotional pain.

* NeverWakeUpASleepwalker: During the first night they spend at her sisters' house, Charity finds her son Brett sleepwalking. Although she has enough common sense to know that all those horror stories about the dangers of waking up a sleepwalker are just myths, she still can't bring herself to wake him up and instead watches him untill he goes back to bed. She also recalls how she took Brett to the doctor when he was six because of his frequent sleepwalking, and the doctor blamed [[CriticalResearchFailure poorly researched movies]] for the wrong ideas people still have about sleepwalking.

* TheVirus: [[RealLife Rabies]]. The effect of rabies was so prominent on Cujo to a point where the main character repeatedly said how Cujo had always been a good dog but it was only the virus that made Cujo lose his mind and become murderously violent.

** Cujo was one, before he got rabies (as St. Bernards tend to be). When rabies starts to change his behavior and he growls at Gary Pervier, Gary is surprised because he never heard Cujo growl before. 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.

* TheAllegedCar: Donna's [[EveryCarIsAPinto Ford Pinto]]. In fact, the whole reason why Donna and Tad are trapped is because they took it to Joe's to get the broken alternator fixed. By the time [[spoiler:Cujo dies]], it's in even worse shape.

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

* AnyoneCanDie: Both [[spoiler:Sheriff Bannerman]], who has been prominently featured in ''Literature/TheDeadZone'', and [[spoiler:Tad, a ''child'']], die.

* StealthSequel: To ''Literature/TheDeadZone'', being set in Castle Rock (which would become a recurring location in King’s stories), with the deceased Frank Dodd's influence looming over the town. Sheriff George Bannerman and one of his deputies also return, and John Smith is mentioned a few times.

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 Donna and their five-year-old son Tad home alone.

* {{Mundanger}}: Unlike most of King's works, there is no supernatural threat in this book. Just a huge, rabid dog. The end of the book even includes a passage that clarifies that Cujo was simply a large, formerly well-meaning dog driven mad by rabies.