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60%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #5,135
...out of 20,886 movies
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The psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor, escapes from his mental institution to seek revenge on the town where his father was caught. The giggling doctor kills his victims with a surgical theme. His goal being to give one of the townsfolk a heart transplant.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: August 29, 2008
As a kid, there were a handful of movies that I would watch time and time again, and this was one of the reasons I bugged my parents for a second VCR for Christmas one year - just so that I could make backup copies of these movies for when the originals inevitably wore out. Dr. Giggles was one of those movies. Now, let's be clear right up front: this is not a great movie, but it's definitely a fun one due to its inventive kills, its over-the-top premise, and of course, the awesome performance turned in by Larry Drake as the titular doctor. This is one of those movies that I had expected to age horribly, but surprisingly, it was just as fun today as it was when I first saw it as a kid.
Appropriately enough, our movie for this afternoon begins in an operating room, where a doctor is performing open heart surgery while his students watch on. Something seems a little off though: the patient is decked out in a suit instead of the normal hospital gown that one would expect, and it is then that we realize that we're not in a hospital at all. We're actually in an insane asylum, those students are actually imprisoned lunatics, and Dr. Giggles (Larry Drake) has just claimed the life of a doctor. He manages to escape the prison and steal a car, and where does he proceed to drive to? The sleepy little town of Moorehigh, the town where his father, the town doctor, committed a string of murders on his patients before being dragged out in the streets and stoned to death once his murderous ways were found out. The son will avenge the father, as they say.
Meanwhile in Moorehigh, Jennifer Campbell (Holly Marie Combs) has just found out that she has a heart problem and will probably require routine surgery, a fact that doesn't sit too well with her considering that her mother died while undergoing "routine surgery." Her boyfriend Max (Glenn Quinn) isn't very understanding, her father (Cliff De Young) has already found a new woman, and really, things couldn't be going much worse for our heroine. Well, until Dr. Giggles shows up, that is. You see, he has a fixation on the heart, so naturally, it doesn't take long before he takes a keen interest in operating on Jennifer. Throw in numerous kills on those who get in his way, and we have ourselves a movie.
As I mentioned above, Dr. Giggles is not a great movie. It features all of the standard horror clichés, it's full of groan-inducing one-liners by the doctor, and although there are some surprises along the way, it would take an idiot to be shocked at where the vast majority of the storyline goes from scene to scene. Aside from Drake, the acting is acceptable at best, and even though there were some creative kills, the whole idea just reeks of slasher cheese.
With that said, I still loved the movie. Larry Drake is the main reason for this, as he made the character of Dr. Giggles - a character that could have, nay, should have been embarrassing to watch - into something incredibly memorable. The way he delivers his lines and the absolute glee that you see on his face when he's dispatching his victims makes the movie, and that namesake giggle... well, that giggle will stick with you for years to come after you watch this.
Fans of the red stuff will enjoy the numerous kills, as there's well over a dozen of them to be found with most being damned original. The doctor angle is nicely played up in this regard as most of the kills are done via medical tools, with some highlights being a thermometer under the tongue and through the back of the skull and a utensil of some sort being shoved up a lady's nose and into her brain. Yes, these kills are cheesy, and yes, some go a little too far with the cheese factor (the giant band-aid murder is a prime example), but horror fans will get a kick out of them nonetheless.
Dr. Giggles is not a perfect film and it's far from a classic, but regardless of its shortcomings, it's a film that fans of slasher flicks can break out time and time again without ever getting tired of watching the doctor perform his "checkups." For that, I'm going with an 8/10.
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#1:
Dametria
- added April 24, 2007 at 12:38pm
Such a silly film, but nice and bloody....
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#2:
bluemeanie
- added September 25, 2007 at 6:03pm
I grew up on this film. Remember loving every
second of it. It sucks by today's standards, but
I have a soft spot in my heart for it. 8/10.
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#3:
bluemeanie
- added August 29, 2008 at 5:45pm
I am so glad this was re-released. Wow. I
watched this again just the other day and loved
every cheesy second of it. I cannot wait to
purchase this DVD to add to my collection. 8/10
still.
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#4:
Tristan
- added August 29, 2008 at 5:48pm
Perfect example of pure 90's cheese. I don't even
know how many times I rented this when I was a
kid. 8/10 as well.
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#5:
Zombieboy
- added December 31, 2008 at 3:16pm
Hrrrrmmm...ok. I have been saying for a very long
time that it was the worst movie ever made.
Whenever a really bad movie would come up, I would
always throw this one out for comparison. I saw it
in the theater and just hated it. That was so long
ago now however. I will revisit it and give it a
second shot. Maybe time has given it charm. I just
remember walking out (something I never ever EVER
do) and cursing how I would never get that time
back. The three of you however have made some
excellent cases and reviews so I am up for another
shot at it.
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#6:
Lucid Dreams
- added October 26, 2012 at 8:35pm
I remember watching this years ago.
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