Horror Movie Review: Dr. Giggles (1992)

Dr. Giggles is such a 90’s horror with its slick visuals, empty characters behaving like idiots, a heroine that is just too much of a goody-two-shoes to be real & a villain that is part murderous psycho & part walking pun machine.

The movie opens with Dr. Giggles, so named because he punctuates most of his sentences with a creepy giggle, performing heart surgery. It seems to be going quite badly as the patient flat-lines on the operating table.

Dr. Giggles isn’t deterred though, probably because he’s actually in the process of escaping the mental institution he’s held in. The man on the operating table? One of the doctors. His audience of peers? All the other patients in the hospital.

As openings go it really is excellent. Completely unexpected but exciting to see the movie not hang about introducing the main villain & his many puns. Dr. Giggles is filled to the brim with puns, all manner of silly doctor related jokes & each said with a perfectly straight face. Actor Larry Drake is the highlight of this movie as he throws his all into a pretty basic character.

Free, Dr. Giggles returns to his childhood house & sets about reacquainting himself with the local townspeople. Being psychotic his methods are a bit more extreme but it’s disappointing to not really see any imagination put into the deaths. Plenty of stabbings & slashing but not a whole lot else.

Holly Marie Combs hardly holds her own as the lead heroine but it’s not through lack of trying. She just can’t compare to Dr. Giggles. Her story is basic & set up to give her some kind of basic connection to the good Dr. It’s not very interesting & always overshadowed by whatever pun Dr. Giggles has in him next.

Even his back-story is great. His father killing his patients in the hope of finding a new heart for his ill wife then sowing his son (Dr. Giggles) into his wife’s dead body. Messed up, right!? The scene where the crazed child cuts his way out of his mother is the best moment of the entire movie!

Dr. Giggles is a surprisingly solid flick. Good acting, nice visuals & a villain that you can’t help but love! Worth watching for the puns alone!