Link starts in London where American student Jane Chase (Elizabeth Shue) is studying at the College of Sciences, Jane needs to earn some extra money & when she discovers that Dr. Steven Philip (Terence Stamp) is looking for an assistant she applies for the position. Dr. Philips agrees to hire Jane as a sort of housekeeper at his huge coastal mansion during the summer, Jane couldn't be happier & looks forward to starting. A few weeks later & Jane travels to Dr. Philips home where he carries out his experiments & writes his bestselling books, he is particularly interested in Chimpanzee behaviour & has three living with him, one called Imp, one called Voodoo & a dominant male named Link. All three seem remarkably intelligent, they all seem able to communicate with & understand human beings, then Dr. Philips suddenly disappears leaving Jane alone with the three Chimpanzee's. Jane finds it hard to control Link as his behaviour becomes more unruly & violent...
This English production made by the infamous Cannon was produced & directed by the late Richard Franklin who also helmed the surprisingly good Psycho II (1983) a couple of years earlier & I have to say that I quite enjoyed Link for what it was, I am not entirely sure why but I did enjoy watching it. The script is interesting but a little empty, various things are hinted at but never fully explained & just when I thought I was following what was happening the film deviates or leaves issues unresolved. It's never made clear why Link is menacing Jane in the first place or why he killed Dr. Philips or his mate Voodoo with only vague suggestions to reasons why, I just would have liked the script be a little bit more definite & give me a reason why I should believe what is going on. When all said and done Link is just another horror thriller in which some young girl is trapped alone somewhere & menaced by some killer, sure the killer's a Chimpanzee here but he's still a fairly motiveless killer who seems to everywhere at once & can predict the future, the killer Ape film has never really took off & it's sort of easy to see why with this & George Romero's killer Monkey film Monkey Shines (1988). At over 100 minutes Link is a little slow, the first third of the film does tend to drag & fails to build much momentum but the climax is pretty good as Link finally gets some people to kill.
I am not quite sure what the makers were aiming for here, a straight horror or suspense thriller as it satisfies on neither count. The body count is disappointing low with all the kills off-screen, there's no blood or gore & minimal violence. There's a slightly off putting scene in which Janes undresses to take a bath & Link stands in the door looking at her naked body, it's kind of perverted & fells wrong to even watch it. The Chimpanzee's do a great job & really express themselves well but I just didn't find them scary or threatening, you can tell most of the time they are just playing rather than being nasty & it's hard not to like Link with his goofy smile & sad looking blank eye's. Special mention must go the the fantastic music by Jerry Goldsmith who nails it with a bizarre mix of African rhythm's, electric pop & classical music to produce a memorable if sometimes inappropriate score.
Filmed mainly in St. Abbs in Scotland I would say Link is a pretty obscure film & no-one I know has even heard of it, it hasn't seen a video release of any kind over here in the UK since 1992. The acting is alright, Elizabeth Shue is decent & is left to carry most of the film on her own as the always watchable Terence Stamp is wasted.
Link is a film I quite liked, it's a bit different & is well made with some odd moments but it's too long & has too low a body count. It has it's good points & it's bad points but overall I think it's worth a watch as long as you don't expect any sort of masterpiece.
This English production made by the infamous Cannon was produced & directed by the late Richard Franklin who also helmed the surprisingly good Psycho II (1983) a couple of years earlier & I have to say that I quite enjoyed Link for what it was, I am not entirely sure why but I did enjoy watching it. The script is interesting but a little empty, various things are hinted at but never fully explained & just when I thought I was following what was happening the film deviates or leaves issues unresolved. It's never made clear why Link is menacing Jane in the first place or why he killed Dr. Philips or his mate Voodoo with only vague suggestions to reasons why, I just would have liked the script be a little bit more definite & give me a reason why I should believe what is going on. When all said and done Link is just another horror thriller in which some young girl is trapped alone somewhere & menaced by some killer, sure the killer's a Chimpanzee here but he's still a fairly motiveless killer who seems to everywhere at once & can predict the future, the killer Ape film has never really took off & it's sort of easy to see why with this & George Romero's killer Monkey film Monkey Shines (1988). At over 100 minutes Link is a little slow, the first third of the film does tend to drag & fails to build much momentum but the climax is pretty good as Link finally gets some people to kill.
I am not quite sure what the makers were aiming for here, a straight horror or suspense thriller as it satisfies on neither count. The body count is disappointing low with all the kills off-screen, there's no blood or gore & minimal violence. There's a slightly off putting scene in which Janes undresses to take a bath & Link stands in the door looking at her naked body, it's kind of perverted & fells wrong to even watch it. The Chimpanzee's do a great job & really express themselves well but I just didn't find them scary or threatening, you can tell most of the time they are just playing rather than being nasty & it's hard not to like Link with his goofy smile & sad looking blank eye's. Special mention must go the the fantastic music by Jerry Goldsmith who nails it with a bizarre mix of African rhythm's, electric pop & classical music to produce a memorable if sometimes inappropriate score.
Filmed mainly in St. Abbs in Scotland I would say Link is a pretty obscure film & no-one I know has even heard of it, it hasn't seen a video release of any kind over here in the UK since 1992. The acting is alright, Elizabeth Shue is decent & is left to carry most of the film on her own as the always watchable Terence Stamp is wasted.
Link is a film I quite liked, it's a bit different & is well made with some odd moments but it's too long & has too low a body count. It has it's good points & it's bad points but overall I think it's worth a watch as long as you don't expect any sort of masterpiece.