Oregon Movies, A to Z

By Blake Simonsen

Larry Drake (Durant of Darkman fame) is Dr. Giggles, the maniacal son of a notorious surgeon whom the town of Moorehigh condemned for his grotesque attempts at heart transplants to reanimate his wife. Dr. Giggles kills with surgical precision, pun intended. Meanwhile, Jennifer Campbell (played by Holly Marie Combs of Charmed fame) is a local teen with a problem, she has a possible heart problem and might need surgery. Murderous hi-jinx ensue.

Despite not bringing a ton of innovation to the slasher genre, except for one bizarre scene that takes place inside a mirror filled fun-house at an amusement park, the strength of Dr. Giggles lies in its cast. In addition to the aforementioned Drake and Combs,  the well-above average slasher cast includes Glenn Quinn (Mark from Roseanne), Keith Diamond (guest star on countless TV shows, trust me you will recognize him), and Doug E. Doug (his next role was Sanka in Cool Runnings).

Dr. Giggles was directed by Manny Coto. He got his start after film school by directing low budget horror and sci-fi. After doing a series for Showtime titled Odyssey 5, which starred Peter Weller (ofRobocop fame), he was eventually put in charge of the final season of Enterprise. Recently, he has been one of those in charge of the most recent seasons of 24.

If you are not a fan of slasher flicks, this will definitely not interest you. However, if you enjoy slashers or just want to see how the man behind the aforementioned shows started his career, you might want to give this a look. It does fall prey to all the standard pitfalls of 80’s and early 90’s slasher genre. Some of those are lame puns from the killer right before his kills (even lamer than the pun made in this review), the killer always seems to show up at the perfect place at the perfect time without needing time to travel from location to location, a bumbling police force, and all the characters make the worst possible decisions. Although, that might make this just fun enough to hold your interest.

Dr. Giggles was shot entirely in Portland.