One of the most iconic killer animal movies of all time, Stephen King’s Cujo pits a now-rabid family pet against a mother and son trapped in a broken-down car in the middle of the relentless summer heat, but the iconic beast needed several humans (and animals) to pull off the part. Like many of King’s works, the film captures the horror of small-town America and focuses on the dynamics of the family unit while bringing in an outside antagonist for terror.
In Stephen King’s book, Cujo is a St. Bernard, but dog trainer Karl Miller originally tried to persuade the director, Lewis Teague, to choose a different dog breed because St. Bernards are notoriously difficult to train. Thankfully, the director decided to stick with the source material for continuity’s sake, but there were still some challenges.
Because of the trouble that St. Bernards can be for a trainer, especially as dogs in movies, Cujo was ultimately played by a number of different St. Bernards, plus a mechanical dog for some of the more dangerous scenes, and even stuntman Gary Morgan in a St. Bernard costume in a few scenes as well. The film’s crew even brought on a backup Labrador with a St. Bernard suit just in case, though he ultimately wasn’t needed.
Thanks to Teague’s prior experience on Alligator, a killer reptile movie that also forced him to develop creative strategies for shooting with difficult animals, he was well-suited to Cujo. While the names of most of their canine stars have faded away with time, the cast and crew of Cujo generally agree that there were about five total dogs used in the film, though varying accounts have put the dog count as high as thirteen. Each St. Bernard in the movie was trained to perform specific tasks: one dog would bark on command, while others were taught to run along predetermined routes.
Of course, there were scenes in the film that required the dogs to perform tasks deemed too dangerous or difficult for the actual dog actors to carry out. So, for the scenes in which Cujo rams his head into the car window in an attempt to break through, a mechanical dog and dog head were used. Additionally, for some of the more involved scenes, stuntman Gary Morgan performed these scenes wearing a dog suit to keep both the dogs and the actors safe.
The St. Bernards themselves seemed to enjoy the experience of performing in Cujo, overall, though being difficult-to-train dogs, there were some mishaps and accidents. For example, the dogs’ wagging tails had to be tied down with fishing line to stop them from looking too happy on-screen, but there was also a rather serious injury that happened to stunt actress Jean Coulter when a dog accidentally bit off the tip of her nose.
Jean Coulter acted as Dee Wallace’s stunt double and was performing a scene alongside a trained dog named Cubby, who’d been taught to lurch forward whenever Coulter lunged towards him. The pair nailed the shot on the first take, but when they heard “Cut, we got it!” Coulter excitedly leaned forward, causing Cubby to jerk forward and bite the tip of Coulter’s nose. Thankfully, she was rushed to the hospital and doctors were able to reattach the flesh.
Aside from the setbacks, fans agree that the results speak for themselves. Director Lewis Teague did a great job making excited dogs look menacing, while Dee Wallace delivered a compelling performance as a mother in danger trying to protect her child. Additionally, dog trainer Karl Miller managed to corral the St. Bernards and led them to an excellent performance. In fact, Miller would go on to work with St. Bernards again almost ten years later in John Hughes’ 1992 movie, Beethoven.
Cujo stands up as one of the best and most well-known killer animal movies thanks to the combined efforts of five St. Bernards, dog trainer Karl Miller, several mechanical dogs created by special visual effects makeup artist Peter Knowlton, and stuntman Gary Morgan in a dog suit.
