It’s Evil Animals Week over on Instagram so we decided to do a Dog Eat Dog challenge featuring two of the most ravenous creatures in film. Our first four legged freak is Cujo (1983). Could the stress of this rabid canine raise our subjects heart rate to terrifyingly high levels?

Test Subject: Jess

Age : 34

Gender: Female

Fears: Claustrophobia

Resting HR: 62-65 bpm

Walking HR: 80-85 bpm

ANALYSIS:

Our subject refused to show any major physiological reactions for the first thirty minutes of the film. A heated family affair at 33:00 however sparked our subject to life. As the dog began to dip into delirium, her numbers began to climb. Her beats per minute rose with each attack and she finally hit her peak of 85bpm during an extremely intense scene.

CONCLUSION:

In a slow burn standoff, our subject, along with the dog, were driven to severe agitation. A drawn out first act depleted our subject’s overall average but Cujo was able to prey on her empathy for a family in peril, giving us a third act with bite. These stressful moments during the finale were enough to burn the exact amount of calories as a bun-less hot dog. We’ll see if An American Werewolf in London (1981) can ratchet up more tension as we continue with #EvilAnimalsWeek.

Cujo (1983): Burns 151 calories

Hot Dog (No Bun): 151 Calories

How many Fear Calories did you burn watching Cujo? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook