as Link, a 45 year old circus chimpanzee who now serves as Phillip's butler and lashes out against his human masters. Despite being written to be a chimpanzee and having a poster of his old circus days as a chimpanzee, the role was given to Locke who is an orangutan. His fur was dyed darker and wore prosthetic ears to make him resemble a chimpanzee. He was owned and trained by legendary animal trainer Ray Berwick. Carrie as Voodoo, a female chimpanzee who is often caged for her aggressive nature, but is occasionally let loose. This is one of the few times a full grown chimpanzee is used in a film. Jed as Imp, Voodoo's son and Phillip's prized student in his studies. He has a tendency to escape and kill other animals (birds, cats, sheep). Production In 1979 Richard Franklin optioned a short outline which he described as "a sort of Jaws with chimps." He did not do anything with it until the writer Everett de Roche showed him a National Geographic article by Jane Goodall about violence among chimpanzees. Franklin later said what sparked the idea of the film was Goodall observing "the cannibalizing of young chimpanzees by one particular mad female chimp. She observed actual inter-tribal warfare, not unlike the opening of 2001, between two groups of chimps. The whole ’60s idea of man being the only animal to make war against its own kind was suddenly thrown out the window. Since then, they’ve discovered that lions and other animals do it as well, but that, to me, was a really interesting idea for a good thriller.” Everett De Roche wrote the script. Franklin tried to get finance for the film in Australia in 1981 but was then offered Psycho II which led to Cloak and Dagger. After those films he decided to reactivate Link. "Link is much more mysterious than it is horrifying," said Franklin. "For a long time, the girl doesn’t know, nor does the audience, exactly what happened to the doctor. It owes a bit to Psycho, actually, because you’ll notice that in mood, tone and look, it resembles Psycho II, crossed with the English setting of Jane Eyre.” "It’s very suspenseful and moderately violent, although chimps indulge in bloodless violence," said Franklin. "They don’t use weapons, they just pull your arms off.” Shooting The film was made in the UK for EMI Films.