Link

A complete bore from start to finish, Link follows zoology student Jane Chase (Elisabeth Shue) as she begins a job working for a well-known anthropologist named Steven Phillip (Terence Stamp) – with the movie detailing the horror that ensues after one of Steven’s apes develops a taste for murder. There’s never a point at which filmmaker Richard Franklin is able to even partially capture the viewer’s interest and attention, as Link, for the majority of its often interminable running time, progresses at an unconscionably deliberate pace that only highlights the various deficiencies within Everett De Roche’s spare screenplay – with the narrative’s decidedly uneventful bent paving the way for a tedious and hopelessly repetitive midsection. The picture’s massive failure is especially disappointing given Shue’s personable performance and a third act containing a handful of compelling interludes, with, in terms of the latter, Franklin delivering an all-too-brief stretch that’s rife with exactly the sort of broad nuttiness one might’ve anticipated based on the larger-than-life setup (eg the killer chimp throws a hapless victim down a deep well). By the time the anticlimactic finish rolls around, though, Link has certainly confirmed its place as a serious missed opportunity devoid of elements that wholeheartedly work and it’s not difficult, ultimately, to see why the picture’s been forgotten in the years since its 1986 release.

* out of ****