Link, der Butler (1986)

Link, der Butler: Directed by Richard Franklin. With Elisabeth Shue, Terence Stamp, Steven Finch, Richard Garnett. When a female zoology student is invited to a remote seaside mansion to assist a primatology professor with his experiments involving chimpanzees, dangerous events start to occur, all involving the intelligent 45-year-old chimp, Link.

“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 u0026quot;Adventures in Babysittingu0026quot; (a.k.a. u0026quot;A Night on the Townu0026quot;) and I remember being crazy in love and simultaneously jealous because the babysitters that I had those days nearly werenu0026#39;t as cool as she was. Anyways, back then I didnu0026#39;t know that Miss Shue previously already starred in a horror movie that I wasnu0026#39;t allowed to watch yet. With a bit of crazy imagination, u0026quot;Adventures in Babysittingu0026quot; is actually similar to u0026quot;Linku0026quot;, since in both movies Elisabeth Sue gets into serious trouble whilst babysitting, only in u0026quot;Linku0026quot; sheu0026#39;s babysitting a rather different type of animal species. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Linku0026quot; is an entertaining and unpretentious u0026#39;80s horror creature-feature, well-written by the Aussie genre veteran Everett De Roche (u0026quot;Long Weekendu0026quot;, u0026quot;Razorbacku0026quot;) and well-directed by the Aussie genre director Richard Franklin (u0026quot;Patricku0026quot;, u0026quot;Psycho IIu0026quot;). After attending just one lecture, the ambitious American zoology student Jane Chase eagerly accepts the rather eccentric Professor Steven Philipu0026#39;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 butleru0026#39;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 itu0026#39;s no more Mr. Nice Orangutan… Richard Franklin built his entire career around the fact that heu0026#39;s a massive Alfred Hitchcock fanatic and he once again demonstrates it in this movie as well. Apart from a couple of u0026#39;Hitchcockianu0026#39; plot aspects, Franklin also copies a lot of stylistic and visual trademarks of The Master of Suspense. Jerry Goldsmithu0026#39;s catchy score also reminded me quite a bit to the legendary music used in u0026quot;Psychou0026quot;. 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.”