Cujo (1983)

Director: Lewis Teague

Cast: Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh-Kelly, Danny Pintauro, Ed Lauter

Have I Seen It Before: Never. I know.

Did I Like It: Well, I really disliked the novel in my attempts to read it. It belongs in that depressing realm of summer beach reading where the story isn’t so much about the terrifying-bordering-on-the-supernatural terror that looms on the horizon , but more about how brave a bored housewife is for sleeping around on her marriage. Peter Benchley’s Jaws was the same way. It was such a chore that I half wonder if the legend around King not having any memory of writing the novel is only part of the story, and he was so impaired that some lesser author completed the novel under the King brand. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen to a novel.

Unfortunately, this film is a far more faithful adaptation of the source material than Jaws (1975) . There’s a dog who’s kind of scary—or at least meant to be scary—and a rather simple set up that really tries its best to ratchet up the tension, but fundamentally this is a story about infidelity, and not a very well-considered version of that story, either. Matters come to a conclusion, and it is made abundantly clear that the spurned spouse (Hugh-Kelly) is the most vestigial character a plot could possibly handle. He has a dream that something wrong is going on back at home, perhaps beyond just the domestic difficulties. By the time he comes home, gets out to the farm cum mechanic, his wife (Wallace) has already dispatched the dog in question.

Where does that leave the film? Mostly with some mild special effects, some violence, and nothing. Unfortunately this is not one of those cases where we can say the book is worse than the movie. The book and the movie are one and the same.

The Howling (1981)

Director: Joe Dante

Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone

Have I Seen it Before: Never… Which ought to be somewhat surprising*.

Did I Like It: Joe Dante is a filmmaker who, for my money, has made an entire library of work while having one hand tied behind his back. There may not be a better forging of filmmaker and material than when Dante made Looney Toons: Back in Action (2002), but the film only managed to be a mildly pleasant diversion. I’ve never quite loved Small Soldiers (1998), even though some people swear by it and on paper I can see the appeal, but not everyone can make a hit every time at bat. Even Spielberg had 1941 (1979). Even Gremlins (1984) is only a glimpse of the unleashed demented genius which was finally given the keys to the studio for Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Matinee (1993) is pretty great and also disproves the theory a bit. I’ll exchange words with anyone who says otherwise.

So, too, does this movie almost feel like a work of subversive genius, but only in those moments when the money behind a film aren’t paying attention. The film swings somewhat between being a serial killer cat-and-mouse thriller, an body snatcher-style invasion story, a marital drama, and ultimately in its final act the werewolf story advertised. By the time the heroine (Wallace) attempts to take control of the situation, and warn—at great self-sacrifice—the world of what is to come, the world reacts pretty much like the audience of a horror movie might, by shrugging and going on about their lives as if not much of any consequence has happened. It’s a pretty great ending for a movie, and the rest of the film—minus a set of cell-animated werewolves copulating—works against the Joe Dante curse and reaches for that brilliance Hollywood seems to want to stop him from accomplishing.

*To say nothing of the fact that this will be my first film back on Beyond the Cabin in the Woods. Life’s funny sometimes, and there’s always room to move forward and return to what worked in the past.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Drew Barrymore

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. Find me the child of the 80s/90s who hasn’t seen the film, and I’ll show you a pod person. My wife, Lora, in fact, may have been so over-saturated by the film as an impressionable child, she finds the creature frightening and repellant now.

Did I Like It: Which is a real problem in our house, as for my money it is Spielberg’s best film. Yes, honey, even ahead of Jurassic Park (1993). It single-handedly set the standard and defined the aesthetic of cinematic spectacle not just for its generation, but quite possibly for all time. Hard not to be struck by just how much Super 8 (2011) slavishly toils in E.T.’s shadow. Gremlins (1984) shifts the setup from sweet and heartfelt to the chaotic and mischievious*. The less said about Mac and Me (1988), the better. Hell, even Transformers (2007) (but not any of the sequels, aside from Bumblebee (2018)) tries to harness the “boy and his dog alien pal” current that fueled the proceedings here.

And there’s a reason that it has inspired that level of imitation. One hesitates in using the term “purity” with a story featuring white people in the suburbs, but the simplicity and pure pathos that Spielberg brings to bear here hits like a ton of bricks every time. It works for anyone who has ever had a pet. It works It works as a child as a simple adventure story. It works for adults who feel they might have hit a wall and are disappointed that the world might not be as fantastic as it might have seemed when young.

It just works. 

My only qualm regarding the film is that, for the DVD I own, we are still subject to the 2002 special edition, complete with walkie-talkies in lieu of guns and other CGI effects that aren’t nearly as magical as the material from the original. I think Spielberg would agree with me there. Between this, shooting digitally, and some of the later Indiana Jones stuff, I think Spielberg spent most of the 2000s being bullied by George Lucas into things he wouldn’t have otherwise done, and has spent the last ten years trying to shed himself of those less-than-stellar decisions.

Trust your instincts, Steve. I’ll even buy the more recent Blu Ray releases of this film, so I never have to see another walkie-talkie as long as I live.

*While Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) remains one of the greatest films ever, but I digress...