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‘Dr. Giggles’
By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 26, 1992
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"Dr. Giggles" feels more like a formula for box office grosses than a prescription for terror. It's also clearly in need of a laugh-support system as director Manny Coto turns to co-writer Graeme Whifler time and again for punch lines in a desperate attempt to revive a script that begins in critical condition and ends up DOA.Laughter may be the best medicine but illness, not wellness, seems the goal of this film. In fact, "Dr. Giggles" is a parade of so many horror cliches that you'll feel a sense of deja boo. Among the transplanted genre staples is the escaped loony who goes back to the scene of his childhood trauma and starts killing high school kids who wander into a freaky abandoned house deep in the woods. He also goes to the carnival and visits the labyrinth of mirrors before a final battle in a secret lab. Not to mention the cautionary nursery rhyme and the policeman with a pained past. Clearly, the script doctor for this project was Frankenstein.the sawbones who prefers open-heart surgery without anesthetic, Larry Drake (Benny on "L.A. Law") is a two-trick pony: Drake's either living up to his character's name (though the giggles turn whiny as he gets his comeuppance) or else he's delivering more punch lines than were landed in the entire run of "St. Elsewhere." (It doesn't help that every single one of them is telegraphed well beforehand.) Drake played a bad guy before in "Darkman," but all the weird camera angles in the world can't turn him into a bogyman (yes, there's even a golfing doctor joke). This "Dr. Giggles" has a lot of hearts and no brain. "Dr. Giggles" is rated R and contains some graphic gore.
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