Cujo

This 1983 adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel is the anti-Beethoven, the story of a rabid St. Bernard that terrorizes a community, tears up a few folks, and goes after a woman and her son. Once the point has been made that big, lovable Cujo has been bitten by a rabid bat, there isn't much more to say. The film is essentially a linear progression of doggy violence, though director Lewis Teague (The Jewel of the Nile)--building on King's implication that we all know what it's like to be afraid of a big, scary pooch--succeeds at making the fear almost primitive for an audience. --Tom Keogh