Link

Link (1986)

Man is no longer in control!

Young graduate student Jane Chase becomes the new assistant to an eccentric zoology professor at the remote home he shares with two brilliant chimpanzees and an elderly orangutan butler named Link. But when one of the chimps is found dead and the professor mysteriously disappears, Link becomes dangerously aggressive towards Jane. Now, the time for “monkey business” is over and the true terror is about to begin.

Date of release
1986-03-05
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (139)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Horror, Thriller
Director
Richard Franklin

Casting

Interesting facts

Link is a 1986 British horror film starring Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp along with a trio of simian stars which consist of Locke as Link, Jed as Imp, and Carrie as Voodoo. The title character, "Link", is a super-intelligent yet malicious chimpanzee who lashes out against his masters when they try to have him euthanized.

Production

In 1979 Richard Franklin optioned a short outline which he described as "a sort of Jaws with chimps." He did not do anything with it until the writer Everett de Roche showed him a National Geographic article by Jane Goodall about violence among chimpanzees.

Franklin later said what sparked the idea of the film was Goodall observing "the cannibalizing of young chimpanzees by one particular mad female chimp. She observed actual inter-tribal warfare, not unlike the opening of 2001, between two groups of chimps. The whole ’60s idea of man being the only animal to make war against its own kind was suddenly thrown out the window.

Everett De Roche wrote the script. Franklin tried to get finance for the film in Australia in 1981 but was then offered Psycho II which led to Cloak and Dagger. After those films he decided to reactivate Link.

"Link is much more mysterious than it is horrifying," said Franklin. "For a long time, the girl doesn't know, nor does the audience, exactly what happened to the doctor. It owes a bit to Psycho, actually, because you'll notice that in mood, tone and look, it resembles Psycho II, crossed with the English setting of Jane Eyre.”

"It's very suspenseful and moderately violent, although chimps indulge in bloodless violence," said Franklin. "They don't use weapons, they just pull your arms off.”

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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