A frustrating experience. The set up and idea is solid: student Elizabeth Shue goes to work as an assistant for enigmatic professor Terence Stamp who is doing research on chimps. As she stays she starts to worry that one of the chimps, Link, could have murder on his mind.
Jerry Goldsmith is credited for the jaunty, chirpy score which doesn't feel right. There's beautiful Scottish locations but too much of it seems shot inside a studio and that lacks atmosphere. I really wanted the atmos cranked up like with Rebecca - crashing waves, isolation, hostility. That isn't done.
Elizabeth Shue is very beautiful, likeable and chirpy - and I think her semi nude scene is justified (is that a body double in long shot?) because it does add to suspense with the creepy chimp looking at her - but maybe she's too chirpy. A more ostensibly mousy, scared actor could have brought more tension - I don't know like, say, Jennifer Jason Leigh or someone. She never seems too scared. I also think she should have been romantically interested in Stamp, leant into the Jane Eyre tropes more... Shue didn't need a boyfriend, the guys who visit at the end just could've been fellow students.
It does pick up in the last third when the chimp goes on the rampage. But it never quite conquers its case of the sillies.
Richard Franklin had a difficult time of it during the shoot. He had troubles with his crew, clashed with his producer, fidgeted with the script, fell inappropriately in "crush" with with leading lady. Maybe htat's why this didn't click. It certainly was not widely seen.
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