The Academy of Motion Picture Arts often overlooks the horror genre, but now when it's a Stephen King adaption. And just recently, the Master of Horror himself revealed the star from an adaption he thinks should've been nominated for an Oscar.
Stephen King This Actress Should’ve Been Nominated for an Academy
Over the years, Stephen King adaptations have earned a surprising amount of Oscar attention. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, for Brian De Palma's Carrie. Kathy Bates won an Academy Award for her role as Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner's Misery, while Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile received a total of 11 nominations.
However, if King had his way, there would be another performance to add to that magnificent legacy: Dee Wallace in Lewis Teague's Cujo.
The author was a guest on The Kingcast recently (where he unveiled the title and subject of a new novel he's writing), and it was during a conversation about underappreciated adaptations that the author found an opportunity to sing Wallace's Cujo performance.
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“One of the other ones that's really great… was Cujo,” King said in the podcast.
“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.”
Stephen King’s Cujo Movie Adaptation
In many ways, Wallace's acting in Cujo is what makes the film work as well as it does. The cinematic techniques and animal wrangling skills utilized to bring the titular canine to life are both ingenious and terrifying, but Wallace's performance is what sells the dread.
Wallace plays Donna Trenton in Cujo, a married mother of a young son whose marriage with her husband, Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly), is given a shattering blow when he discovers she has been having an affair. While their marriage is in turmoil, he goes on a business trip with his business partner to attempt to preserve their advertising company, while she goes on what she believes is a simple errand with her son to get the family car fixed.
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But Donna and her child would end up getting trapped in their broken Ford Pinto in the middle of a heatwave when they discover that the enormous St. Bernard at the repair garage has contracted rabies.
Watch Cujo Online
The film is widely available to watch online for those of you who are either curious about Dee Wallace's performance or wish to see it again. Cujo is currently available to rent and buy digitally via Amazon, Google, Vudu, and Apple, as well as Hulu and Epix subscribers.
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