Cujo: Dee Wallace should have won an Oscar, says Stephen King

As you may know by now, author Stephen King recently sat down for an interview with the hosts of The Kingcast, a podcast dedicated entirely to King’s stories and the film adaptations of those stories. They had an interesting hour-long conversation, which of course isn’t long enough to cover everything you want to hear King talk about, but they got some good comments from him. Along the way, they discussed a few of the best adaptations of his stories – and he had some very strong praise for the 1983 film version of his novel Cujo (watch the movie HERE, buy the book HERE).

One of the other ones that’s really great – and I never got an advanced screening, I saw it in pretty much an empty theatre. I just paid my admission and went in… was Cujo. I thought, again, this is the sort of conversation that you get into with people about awards season, and who gets nominated and who doesn’t get nominated. Dee Wallace should have been nominated for an Academy Award, and in my opinion, she should have won it. She was just passed over. I think, as somebody who votes for the Academy Awards now, a little bit more of an insider, I think a lot of voters – particularly those who are a little bit older… We won’t say they are walking around with colostomy bags, but I won’t say they’re not. I think a lot of them give those movies a pass, and that was just an incredible, incredible performance. And it was fairly truthful to the book, it followed the book fairy closely, but I can remember (someone from the company that provided the production money) said, ‘We have an idea about this, and we don’t know if you’ll like it. … We think the little boy should live at the end.’ And I said, ‘I think audiences would lynch you if they went through that particular experience, that exhausting, emotionally draining experience, and the kid didn’t live.’ But one of the things that has always amused me is that you see that St. Bernard lick Danny’s face, Tad’s face, so he probably died miserably of rabies some time after.”

Directed by Lewis Teague from a screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner (writing as Lauren Currier), Cujo has the following synopsis:

In this tale of a killer canine, man’s best friend turns into his worst enemy. When sweet St. Bernard Cujo is bitten by a bat, he starts behaving oddly and becomes very aggressive. As Cujo morphs into a dangerous beast, he goes on a rampage in a small town. Stay-at-home mom Donna (Dee Wallace) gets caught in Cujo’s crosshairs on a fateful errand with her son, Tad (Danny Pintauro). Stuck in their tiny car, Donna and Tad have a frightening showdown with the crazed animal.

The actresses who were nominated for Best Actress in films released in 1983 were Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment, Jane Alexander for Testament, Meryl Streep for Silkwood, Julie Walters for Educating Rita, and Debra Winger for Terms of Endearment.

Do you agree with King that Dee Wallace should have been in the running for Cujo? Let us know by leaving a comment below.