One of Stephen King’s Most Controversial Movie Adaptations Just Landed on Paramount+

As HBO Max subscribers continue to wait for new episodes of It: Welcome to Derry, Paramount+ subscribers can stream another adaptation of Stephen King’s works. The famed author’s novels have served as inspiration for Hollywood for the better part of five decades, beginning with Carrie in 1976, and many of those movies and TV shows have found streaming homes in recent years. Included in a November 1st update to Paramount+ was one of the most controversial King adaptations.

The movie in question is Cujo, and it is now streaming on Paramount+. The film was one of three King adaptations released in 1983 alongside David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone and John Carpenter’s Christine, and it remains among the most controversial adaptations of the author’s works. Directed by Lewis Teague and based on King’s 1981 novel of the same name, Cujo stars Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro as a mother and son trapped inside their car attempting to hide from a rabid St. Bernard.

Cujo Changed a Major Part of King’s Novel

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There have been plenty of adaptations of King’s works, but Cujo remains among the most controversial. While the best adaptations of King’s works tend to stay true to the source material, Cujo strayed from the book in a major way. Teague’s film completely reworked the dark ending of King’s novel, in which Tad dies of dehydration and heatstroke, to end on a happier, more bittersweet note of both Tad and Donna surviving and being reunited with Vic after Donna kills Cujo. That change, made after Wallace argued that audiences would not tolerate the child’s death, undermined the book’s gut-wrenching horror and wasn’t as emotionally impactful for many, though Wallace later revealed that King was grateful for the change after the ending of his novel received backlash.

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That ending, which may work better for film over the bleak conclusion of King’s novel, received mixed reactions from critics and audiences. Cujo currently holds a 60% critic score and 46% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the controversy surrounding the ending and any discomfort from animal lovers about the film being about a rabid dog, Cujo remains among the most memorable King adaptations and one of the few where the terror stems from a grounded, realistic horror rather than something supernatural.

What’s New on Paramount+?

Cujo isn’t the only movie freshly streaming on Paramount+. The film joined the streamer’s content catalog on November 1st alongside dozens of other movies. Paramount+ subscribers looking for a new movie to watch can now stream 21 Jump Street, Blades of Glory, the Bridget Jones film series, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, several Indiana Jones movies, Shakespeare in Love, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Paramount+ is also spreading the holiday cheer this November, with several Christmas movies now streaming. Those titles include favorites like Deck the Halls, Reindeer Games, and Scrooged.

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