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 chim... more »ps is found dead & the professor disappears link becomes dangerously aggressive. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 08/21/2001 Starring: Elizabeth Shue Terence Stamp Run time: 103 minutes Rating: R Director: Richard Franklin« less
"LINK is one of these great Films of the 80's , it was made at a time when you could still go at your local cinema and watch a masterpiece , LINK was awarded at the FILM FANTASTIQUE festival in France , it is an absolutely brilliant Film , do not listen to "poor"leo maltin the so-called critic and his so-called humor , he does not know what a Film is . LINK is really a cult classic."
Elisabeth Shue gets her monkey on...
cookieman108 | Inside the jar... | 09/05/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Everyone's got goals in life, things they hope to achieve at some point or another, and one of mine was to someday have my very own monkey butler...alas, after watching the film Link (1986) I'm having second thoughts as I've learned you can take a hulking orangutan out of the jungle, dress him up in butler gear and teach him to serve, but at some point he'll probably go a bit nutty on you and rip your arm out of the socket just for kicks...directed by Richard Franklin (Roadgames, Psycho II, Cloak & Dagger), the film stars Elisabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Leaving Las Vegas, Hollow Man) and Terence `General Zod' Stamp (Superman II, Alien Nation, The Limey). Also appearing is Steven Pinner, Richard Garnett (Doomsday Gun), and David O'Hara (Hotel Rwanda).
Shue plays Jane Chase, and American college student in England who lands a housekeeping/assistant gig with an eccentric professor named Dr. Steven Phillip (Stamp) in his isolated, coastal country estate, the majority of the residents being primates (seems the professor's experiments involve trying to find the common ground between human and primate intelligence or some such thing). As Jane arrives at Doctor Phillip's home, she meets the three beasts, the first being an orangutan butler named Link (whose actually dressed as a butler and likes to smoke cigars...a habit he picked up in the circus), a young chimpanzee named Imp, and an older female chimpanzee named Voodoo. Not long after Jane settles in the apes stage a sort of revolt (Link learns of his impending `early' retirement), the Professor goes missing, and Jane soon finds herself prisoner within the house, which is fortified with bars on the windows, cut off from the outside world as someone (or something) has trashed the phone line. Not only that but it seems Link has taken a real shine to Jane, illustrated earlier by his penchant for ogling her as she strips to take a bath (which also provides us with a brief side shot of a nekkid Shue), even to the point of being jealous of Jane's playful relationship with Imp, the small chimpanzee. David (Pinner), Jane's boyfriend, worried for Jane's welfare, makes the scene with a couple of friends, providing some fodder for Link, as his mischievous ways turn deadly. Eventually Jane discovers what happened to Dr. Phillip, along with discovering Link is a heck of a lot smarter than she gave him credit for eventually having to pit her wits against the orangutan's for survival.
Overall I liked this film, but then again I'm somewhat biased towards anything with monkeys in it, the exception being that awful Tony Danza/Danny DeVito film Going Ape! (1981)...the human characters in this film don't really amount to much as Terrance Stamp is barely there (talk about weak characters...his role is solely to provide the setup for Jane and the apes before he exits, stage left), and Ms. Shue is stuck with a somewhat annoying character redeemed mainly by the fact she's incredibly easy on the eyes (and then some). When I say annoying I refer specifically to her judgmental tendencies in terms of her employer and his relationships with his ape subjects. Her character sought out the professor and wormed her way into a position supposedly due to an admiration and respect she had for the man and his work, but once in place she begins expressing issues she has with how he operates and the way he treats his subjects (his character never physically abused the animals onscreen, but he was strict with the creatures, as it's important to show dominance, apparently), which seemed a bit presumptuous if you ask me. How do you come into a situation with someone whose made life out of working with apes, and then proceed to tell them their business? And it wasn't like his work bordered on the unethical or anything, except perhaps in the eventual disposition of the creatures. Anyway, the real star here was the orangutan cast as `Link', as he seemed to take direction like nobody's business. So often his expressions perfectly fit the scene making him standout above a lot of human actors currently in the business. There were a few sequences where it was obvious there was a pint-sized human dressed up like an orangutan running around, providing a stunt double for the real deal. I did learn a number of things from the film, including the following...
1. Elizabeth Shue is smarter than a chimpanzee monkey, but only slightly. 2. You don't want to anger an orangutan butler as they can really hold a grudge. 3. Cooking a phone in the microwave isn't good for the phone or the microwave. 4. Steer clear of water wells on isolated country estates, especially if there's a homicidal monkey butler on the loose. 5. When a monkey butler takes his coat off, it's go time. 6. Orangutans are monstrously strong, enough so to tip an automobile, pry up floorboards, or rip an arm from the socket. 7. In a battle between a wild dog and an orangutan, always bet on the latter. 8. Monkeys will eat just about anything, including rats, pigeons, and cats. 9. Beware of mail slots in doors when an angry orangutan is about. 10. Orangutans like to look at hot, nekkid women as much as I do.
As far as the direction, I thought Richard Franklin did fairly well providing some interesting shots and creating some real tension. I still like his earlier film Roadgames (1981), with Jamie Lee Curtis, better, though. One aspect of this production I didn't care for was the continual sense that the humans present were as stupid as they were, at least compared to the primates. Part of this is obviously due, in my opinion, to a general underestimation by the characters of the primates intelligence, but sometimes the human characters were just plain dumb. Had the apes been treated with some sort of chemical enhancement to make them smarter I would have been more willing to accept their ability to continually outwit the humans, but that wasn't the case here. There are a few good scares to be had, but not really any gore (we don't actually see anyone's arm ripped from their socket). All in all the film does have some flaws, but ultimately I found it entertaining and worth my time.
The picture, presented in widescreen (1.66:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs, looks very good on this Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD release. The Dolby Surround 2,0 audio comes through well, but it did seem a little soft at times. As far as extras there's an original theatrical trailer, a teaser trailer, a 5X7 reproduction of original poster art along with liner notes by Michael Gingold, a managing editor of Fangoria magazine.
Cookieman108 "
Very Fun and Thrilling Suspenser.
John Lindsey | Socorro, New Mexico USA. | 01/05/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This 1986 Horror Suspense thriller stars Elizabeth Shue and
Terrence Stamp ( Star of the Superman movies). It's about a Woman
who wants to spend a month in a Mansion with a professor and to
study two Chimpanzees with a Elderly Butler Orangutan named
" Link". But one of them proves to be aggresive and wants them all dead, but one of them has to escape the wraith of " Link".It's one of my Guilty-Pleasures all thanks to Anchor Bay who brings alot of Great Horror and Sci-fi movies including some Good Guilty Pleasure movies from the 80's, and this one is like a cross between " Monkey Shines" and " Psycho"."
An experiment in terror.
Puzzle box | Kuwait | 02/15/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This film was a decent horror film about a killer chimp who terrorizes a bunch of people in an old English mansion, it offers a great deal of suspense so if you like movies where animals attack people for no reason then your gonna love this. A young university student played by Elisabeth Shue goes to work for an eccentric profeser played by Terance Stamp who deals with monkeys and is soon held hostage by the main Orangatun buttler named Link who gets very aggressive cause of the way hes been mistreated by the profeser, the profeser soon disapears only to be found dead and it seems like the young student is left on her own to defend her self. A few people also arrive at this mansion only to be killed by Link, its not really explained how he becomes this way but I think its because of the fact that hes been disregarded by his owner who keeps underestimating his intelligence. This film also has some neat death scenes like when the guy gets his arm ripped out of its socket by Link but its not shown in graphic detail and the film wasn't that gory, the film has some nice scenery as the mansion is located near the ocean on top of a cliff so it doesn't seem like the victims could escape. The monkeys were very good infact they were better than the actors who were just O.K., the pace of the film was a bit slow during the beginning but then it got better as Link starts going crazy even though the film was quite silly it was still enjoyable like a guilty pleasure. Overall I would have to say that it was a very good thriller/horror film, Anchor Bay didn't provide any special features for this film except for two trailers and the transfer was very good enjoy."
Monkey see, Monkey DONT!
Trevor Willsmer | London, England | 02/18/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
""There's just a few rules that you have to remember: 1. You're the dominant species. You must never, ever treat them as equals. 2. Don't ever let anything escalate. Always forgive them, whatever they do. 3. Don't get involved in their squabbles. They sort them out. And 4. Erm, some turds in the hall. Can you clear them up?"
Whenever anyone comes up with that kind of list in a movie you can start ticking off the order in which they'll be forgotten and place your bets on who dies first, and Richard Franklin's Link is no exception to the rule. It's not a particularly ambitious film - it can pretty much be summed as a girl stalked in a remote country house by an unbalanced killer, with the spin being that this time the killer is an ape - but it's a pleasingly well-crafted and executed one. Unusually for director Richard Franklin the influence here seems to be less Hitchcock than Argento, with plenty of bravura camerawork - complicated tracking shots, long lenses, multiple speeds and step-printed scenes that are far more effective than they have any right to be. Naturally the apes outshine the humans (Elisabeth Shue and a fairly brief but entertaining turn from Terence Stamp), with Locke the Orangutan giving a surprisingly layered turn as Link himself, the unstable former circus hack and "Master of Fire."
Barely remembered today, it's one of those films that just got lost in the cracks: a key and very expensive part of Verity Lambert's catastrophic production slate (The Holcroft Covenant, Wild Geese II, Morons From Outer Space, Bloodbath at the House of Death, Slayground etc) that led to EMI films being sold lock, stock and barrel to Cannon, who promptly dumped it with a token release. The film rarely even turns up on TV these days. But any ape movie with a heroine called Jane (after Jane Goodall, not Tarzan's mate) that uses both The Kinks I'm An Apeman and Marlene Dietrich's entrance in a gorilla suit from Blonde Venus as well as offering an infectiously demented Jerry Goldsmith Baroque`n'Roll score mixing synths, symphony orchestra, calliope and a 7/8 drumbeat definitely deserves a second look.
Not much in the way ofextras - trailer, TV spot and notes are your lot - but a decent widescreen transfer."