Dr. Rictus

I rented this movie one night from the B-list video store in town, more or less for lack of anything else to do. I expected it to be really lame, and boring, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite good.

A mental patient who believes that he is a doctor escapes the psych- ward, and returns to wreak murderous havoc on the town that he escaped from as a child after the "townsfolk" stoned his demented physician father to death.

Typical of the horror genre, there is the young, innocent heroine, who saves the day, and her not-so-innocent friends who aren't so lucky.

What sets this film apart is that it is original and creative, considering it came out before the Scream flicks. There are some really good, unusual death scenes. Not gory, but unique. It is also very creepy, and it moves fast, and never really drags. Holly Marie Combs is very good in this movie, and you actually care what happens to her character.

Bottom Line: A fun, humorous, creepy film to watch.

Not that bad of a schlock 90's slasher. A good way to 'kill' a couple of hours. Larry Drake of 'Darkman' fame, plays the title role and he's great. The rest of the cast features the usual bunch of teenagers. If you like gore and a ton of one liners, this film is for you. The kills are as creative as anything that used to be done in the Friday the 13th series. Some creative set pieces, including a unique chase through a fun house filled with mirrors. Some good creativity here and there amongst some not so great film-making. No horror masterpiece, just some good fun.

Watch this film and call me in the morning. Doctor's orders.

As one of the last of the 1980s style splatter-horrors, it does take a special place in the genre but sadly is not the best on offer. Gratuitous gore are par for the course and to be expected and better is to be found elsewhere, but when appreciated as a very satirical view of the whole genre it rounded off it isn't that bad a film. When taken as a serious horror, it will fall down badly however, with very few scares, gore that simply cannot be believed, and few 'inventive' deaths considering the main protagonist is a wannabe surgeon!

Other offerings such as 'The Dentist' benefit from a more serious plot and more threatening central character (not to mention tapping a general fear in most people!), but if Dr.Giggles is seen for what it is; a very black comedy with OTT gore to match, it's worth a look. If you liked the humour and gore-splat ludicrousness of 'Braindead', you may well like this.

I believe every medical/doctor related cliche found its way into this movie. Is there a doctor in the house? Take two and call me in the morning. A house call crack. And the list goes on and on and on and on. Dr. Giggles opens with a doctor/slash real mental patient performing a heart removal in front of a host of crazies. Soon he finds his way back to his old town and house, still intact underneath the facade of decay where his father once practiced medicine but some terrible thing happened. Naturally a group of teenagers out to have fun go in the condemned house at just that time. No big surprise what happens. Larry Drake plays the lead role, and although he is working with rubbish really, I thought his obvious zeal for the part was interesting to say the least. Make no mistake here, Dr. Giggles is a routine-routine slasher film from the late seventies/early eighties vein. A sick individual traumatized from something in his past goes back to the scene of the crime so to speak, where he can exact revenge on all those that had something or nothing to do with him and his tragedy. What separates the film for me a bit is that it has a darkly humorous side - we really are not meant to take anything serious at all - and yet is very mean-spirited with the hyperbolic death rate. Roughly 15-20 people are savagely killed on-screen or off. We have death by blood pressure cuff, death by humongous stainless steel surgical instruments, suffocation from a big bandage(?), poisoning, needle injection, some kind of spinning drill that takes a woman's breath away literally, and so on and on and on and on. For me it was just too much callousness. The ending is also more than far-fetched. It is plum ridiculous! As for the rest of the cast, well, certainly this was not a huge stepping stone to great things to come. Holly Marie Combs; however, did a decent job and has faired relatively well. Some familiar faces minus notable names are thrown in as well.

Dr Evan Rendell or Dr Giggles from the title wonderfully played by Larry Drake is,along with officer Joe Vickers(Bobby Ray Shafer)from "Psycho Cop" series,one of the funniest psycho killers ever created on film."Dr Giggles" is an enjoyable slasher film filled with gore and black humour.The film is well-directed and acted and is simply fun to watch.It's quite suspenseful at times,and some of the killings are rather unpleasant(like when he castrates one guy)and grotesque.Recommended for horror fans.