Cujo Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Cujo by Charles Bernstein.

Buy the score here (if available)

At a glance:

Geek Score: 92.2
Total Minutes Of Excellence: 30.1
Album Excellence: 70.1%

How are the scores calculated and what does it mean?

Cujo is a 1983 American horror film directed by Lewis Teague and starring Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh-Kelly and Danny Pintauro. It is based upon Stephen King’s novel of the same name. 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 score is composed by Charles Bernstein.

Having only been part of a promotional CD it is great to finally have a bonafide official CD pressing, and an expanded and remastered version as well. It’s a classic horror film, another one to add to the number of times I was too little to watch them, but I did anyway. The score opens with ‘Main Title & Rabbit Chase’ and the “breathing” bass and synth reminds me of another early 80s horror classic, Ennio Morricone’s The Thing. The middle part of this cue is more inviting with a nice little romantic montage before entering and switching between action and whimsical music. Love it. This is the start of a great 80s horror classic.

I love how warm it can sound like parts of ‘Bedroom’ and particularly ‘Kemp To Dinner Table’. It’s a shame there’s a lot of wear and tear in ‘Kemp To Dinner Table’, particularly the first part. Other than that, I didn’t notice much other than it’s excellent sound quality throughout which is always a bonus. There’s no guarantee that the tapes are in pristine condition so we’ve been quite lucky. Cujo sounds like Jaws on land as you can hear sometimes with menacing horns like in ‘Hoist Delivery & Spilt Milk’ and rightly so. Cujo is fierce and ferocious and deserves to be recognised musically in a menacing way. Sometimes it mixes in some lovely dark 80s ambient synths best heard in cues like ‘Cujo Kills Gary’ and ‘Cujo Kills Camber’ and it wouldn’t be a proper 80s score without some synths now would it. Personally I love it and it gives a nice scary effect as well. This is just as good as I remember it, maybe even more so. It’s scary, but in it’s obvious 80s way. I love this score but what do you think about it?

HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Main Title & Rabbit Chase
2. Bedroom
3. Kemp To Dinner Table
4. Cujo’s Entrance (Revised)
5. Hoist Delivery & Spilt Milk
6. Monster Words Wall & Cujo In Fog
8. Cujo Kills Gary
9. Cujo Kills Camber
13. Cujo Attacks Car
16. Final Confrontation