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Good concept, poorly executed.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I was about 8-9 years old in the late 80s and I remember having a huge crush on Elisabeth Shue… She starred in one of my favorite childhood movies called "Adventures in Babysitting" (a.k.a. "A Night on the Town") and I remember being crazy in love and simultaneously jealous because the babysitters that I had those days nearly weren't as cool as she was. Anyways, back then I didn't know that Miss Shue previously already starred in a horror movie that I wasn't allowed to watch yet. With a bit of crazy imagination, "Adventures in Babysitting" is actually similar to "Link", since in both movies Elisabeth Sue gets into serious trouble whilst babysitting, only in "Link" she's babysitting a rather different type of animal species. "Link" is an entertaining and unpretentious '80s horror creature-feature, well-written by the Aussie genre veteran Everett De Roche ("Long Weekend", "Razorback") and well-directed by the Aussie genre director Richard Franklin ("Patrick", "Psycho II"). After attending just one lecture, the ambitious American zoology student Jane Chase eagerly accepts the rather eccentric Professor Steven Philip's proposal to come and work for him in his spooky old mansion somewhere high up on the cliffs in the middle of Scottish nowhere. Jane gets welcomed by Link, a clever orangutan in a butler's outfit, and Prof. Philip also has two other apes running around: the chimpanzees Imp and Voodoo. Both Link and Voodoo are getting a bit too old and difficult to work with, so Dr. Philip arranges for a sleazy animal trader to come take them away. Soon after he mysteriously vanishes and Jane remains trapped at the estate with the apes. She discovers that Link knew what fate Philip had in store for him and suddenly it's no more Mr. Nice Orangutan… Richard Franklin built his entire career around the fact that he's a massive Alfred Hitchcock fanatic and he once again demonstrates it in this movie as well. Apart from a couple of 'Hitchcockian' plot aspects, Franklin also copies a lot of stylistic and visual trademarks of The Master of Suspense. Jerry Goldsmith's catchy score also reminded me quite a bit to the legendary music used in "Psycho". All the action and suspense takes place during the last half hour, or even less, but Franklin cannot be rushed and patiently takes his time to build up towards a dazzling climax. Of course, the crew member who deserves the most praise remains Ray Berwick, as he was the animal trainer and thus responsible for the impressive stunts that Imp and Link perform.

Link is an orangutan on a murderous spree in a bad polyester suit, and neither of these things are his fault. Blame the misguided doctor mistreating the apes with untempered threats of aggression and useless mindless experiments who dressed him. Keep pet apes in a mansion estate in the middle of sheep country, just treat the loving apes like apes. The chimps and orangutan are what really makes Link so good to watch and I would like to say that they are the real stars, but clearly Elisabeth Shue is. Elisabeth is so bright and affectionate to the camera that her lackluster emotional drive for the character is far less important than her beautiful nature and sexy charm. I love Elisabeth Shue. She's so gorgeous. Terrance Stamp is excellent as the mad ape doctor, Dr. Phillips, as he mostly is. Stamp can make any character sensationally interesting. The apes are maybe the best part of Link and watching them perform in Link is endlessly amusing. Too many people underestimate the animal's true strength and intelligence. Link is the best killer ape movie made. I love the parts where they find clues to the crazy ape's mischievous works and the natural progression of relations shared between Link and Jane which slowly turns deadly. Link is a very good horror that's not really scary moreso entertaining and suspenseful. The way Link is so effectively killing his victims is a bit unimaginable. I really enjoyed it.

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.

To me, this film feels very mysterious in many ways. But that's what made this film fun to watch.A young girl in uni is a scientist and she moves over to an old, run down house with a Doctor called Dr. Phillip. He is studying the races of the Chimpanzees. He lives with two of them called Imp & Voodoo and he has a butler Orangatanga named Link. One morning though he goes missing and Voodoo is dead. The girl (which I forgot her name) then tries to locate the professor/doctor and then there is a sense of anger in Link.The plot takes on very well from what I have said. I watched this film at the start of the year, wondering what I would get out of it. I chose to watch this film for two reasons. 1. There where Monkeys and I think monkeys are great in any sorts of films what so ever, and 2. I just like horror. So with these combinations this is why I watched it.I love the suspense that this film gives off once the doctor has gone missing. When this occurs your mind starts to have any vision about what could have happened to him.Besides the fantastic plot, I think that chimps did a job well done, it must have taken hours for them to be trained! I also like all the music from the great music composer, Jerry Goldsmith. He was able to blend in the music really well.Even if the deaths aren't as what you expect (Bloody, gory, which none of us like anyway), you will get a shocking kick out of this film.I believe that this film deserves an 8.3/10, not a 5.6/10.