It Came From the ‘80s is a series that pays homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
For the most part, the great age of practical effects meant unbridled creativity in horror. Horrific and deadly creatures that thankfully only exist on celluloid. Monsters aren’t always plucked from the ethers of imagination; every once in a while, they’re based in reality. Such is the case with Link, a horror-thriller that unleashes a trio of primates upon unsuspecting humans.
Directed by Richard Franklin (Psycho II, Patrick, Roadgames), Link centers around young zoology student Jane Chase (Elizabeth Shue). She approaches university professor Dr. Steven Phillip (Terence Stamp) about an assistant position. She is invited to his remote coastal summer home to assist with experiments meant to research the link between man and ape. Dr. Phillip has a trio of chimpanzees at his home, free to wander the premises. The eldest of which is Link, a male chimp that dresses in butler’s clothes and prides himself on service. But the primates’ serious strength means that Jane has to abide by specific rules to preserve her safety; never interfere with the chimps’ in-fighting, and maintain dominance but always forgive. When Dr. Phillips disappears one day, Jane assumes he’s traveled to London for a scheduled appointment. The longer he’s gone, the more violent the chimps become.
Right away, you’ll probably notice something’s off with Link. It’s not that he’s wearing clothes or that he prefers praise for displaying human mannerisms, like smoking a cigar. It’s that he’s not a chimp at all. He’s an orangutan. After Locke the orangutan got the role, his trainers dyed him black, and he was given prosthetic ears to make him look like a chimp. In the film, Link is a 45-year-old former circus animal that often tests boundaries with his human masters.
As for the other two primates, there’s Imp (played by Jed), the youngest and favored chimp of the bunch with a penchant for animal slaughter, and Voodoo, a female often caged because she’s so aggressive. Carrie, an adult chimp, plays Voodoo. It’s very uncommon for a film to use an adult chimp because, like the character Voodoo, they tend to be much more aggressive and violent.
While using the primates for the shoot meant a much more authentic engagement with the film, it also made production more difficult. Even more so, considering there was pressure on Franklin to use men in primate suits, not actual primates. The animal actors could only perform their tasks in limited spurts, and often used wheelchairs when not shooting to conserve energy. Much of their performance was on head ape trainer Ray Berwick, a legendary animal trainer with notable credits on The Birds and Gremlins.
Franklin approached Link the same way he approached Psycho II, with a sense of mystery and mood. Dr. Phillip’s whereabouts are unknown for the length of the runtime. Meanwhile, Jane unwittingly breaks all the simian rules and causes increasingly erratic behavior from her chimp companions. That makes these “monsters” a little different than the norm in that they don’t fit the standard villain role. There is a body count, and one final “aha” moment that ends the film on a somber note of terror, but Franklin doesn’t treat this film as a traditional horror affair.
By the time the film was ready for release, the production company Cannon Films had acquired EMI. Cannon shaved off eight-minutes of the film and gave it a limited theatrical release on Halloween in 1986. Due in large part to that limited release, this horror-thriller remains an underseen gem to this day.
