Customer Reviews

Karla

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This was a very disturbing, yet, very engrossing movie. Real life crime stories intrique me and this was no exception. I thought the two main leads, Collins and Prepon were exceptionally good and it's a role certainly against type for Prepon. Perhaps there is too much sympathy for Karla in the movie, however, if some of the deleted scenes had been included, it may not have been the case in the finished product. This movie could have been explotive if the sex and rape scenes were more brutal, but, I commend all involved for leaving more to the immaginiation than the eyes. It's a movie you really want to follow almost word for word, frame by frame, as to not miss something that might give you a reason to understand the callousness and the brutality of the two principals in the case. I highly recommend this movie, but, it is disturbing, especially knowing it is based on a true story. Well done, well crafted, and well worth seeing.

"Karla" is a small, fairly low-budget film that rather quietly recounts the story of Karla Homolka, wife of serial rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo. Being somewhat familiar with their story, I anticipated it would translate well to film. For the most part, the film succeeds in providing a realistic portrayal of a battered wife, whose husband managed to maintain a semblance of normalcy and elude capture for a few years. The tone of the film is fairly understated, which seems to contrast somewhat with the story. These were some horrific, disturbing events that might be shocking, though they were also true. Director Joel Bender deserves credit for not making them overly dramatic by adding stylized violence or ominous music, as so often happens in films that deal with this type of material. The actors also deserve credit for not overacting and hamming up their performances, which often occurs in horror and suspense films. Perhaps out of respect for the families of the victims, this film is not exploitive or sensationalized. If one watches this film expecting a prurient, American-style horror film, replete with blood, gore and gratuitous nudity, one will find the experience disappointing. I was, nonetheless, a little disappointed with the film, though not for the above reasons. It is pretty clear that Karla Homolka was abused by Paul Bernardo and that he perpetrated some atrocious, unconscionable acts. I cannot comprehend why abused women stay with their men, though I know it does happen. Karla Homolka was (and perhaps still is) a deceitful, manipulative individual, who knew her husband was raping and murdering young women; yet, she did nothing about it until her own life came into jeopardy. Even though she decided to stay, that doesn't provide rationale for condoning his raping and murdering these women. The end of the film contains an epilogue, which refutes much of what was portrayed in the film. It states in part that she has expressed no sympathy for the murdered girls, yet she is portrayed in the film as being at least moderately sympathetic toward them. She also did not appear to be too emotionally hurt by her abuse, as though the filmmakers could not decide what to make of her and consequently decided to write the character without much of a personality. It seems her character is based solely on a credulous, verbatim reading of interviews with her so that she comes across as stoic, detached and passive. Perhaps in reality she is emotionless and inured to her environment, though here she is presented so innocuously that it makes me wonder how "Evil has a beautiful face" was chosen as the tagline. Her character provides the impetus for the story since it is told from her perspective, which makes her lack of definition rather unfortunate for this film. Character issues aside, the film has too many slow-motion scenes, which gives it a little made-for-TV feel. Although no subtitles are included, the DVD does have several deleted scenes that are presented by the director. After hearing his extremely dry, insipid introductions, I understood how Karla's character came to be so underdeveloped. Contrast this film with "Monster" for a good example of how a person's motivations and experiences can be parlayed into an interesting, yet insidious character. For a different perspective of these characters, read the books "Invisible Darkness" or "Deadly Innocence."

I remember when the killings happened only 3 hrs away from my hometown. All of my father's family is from St Catherines and many of my family knew of or had met the victims. My grandmother actually went to church were one of the girls was abducted from. This case really hit home. I read one of the books that told the story of Karla and Paul and when I found out there was going to be a movie I was very interested in seeing it. I felt like by reading the book and watching the movie that I was keeping the victims memories alive not glorifying these sick people for the crimes they committed. This movie was only viewed in very few movie theatres in Canada, none in which were close to my home so I was unable to see the movie while in theatres. When the movie then became available on DVD again there was nowhere near to rent or buy it. I purchased this movie without ever seeing it but with a case that I had followed for such a long time I had the need to see it. This movie kept close to the facts that were released to the public through the media and the books available. The movie was very powerful, very graphic and very hard to believe to be true. It's so hard to believe that someone could do such horrible things to such innocent victims. I highly recommend this film but only to viewers that realize what this film in tales. The actors/actresses in this film did a wonderful job and I can only imagine how hard it was for them to be in these roles. To the families of the victims their memory is still alive. I hope that others who watch this film watch it for the same reasons as me not to glorify but to remember.

First, it was tough for me to watch this. Not because of the subject matter but because I actually knew Karla. Growing up in St. Catharines and going to the same high school as Karla and her sisters did, and living literally a three minute walk from where Kristen French was abducted, it's hard to get past the differences in what was filmed to what happened in reality.

Overall, the acting is fine and Laura Prepon does a good job, but it was stylized just a bit too much and a bit too far removed to accurately represent the area where everything took place. For viewers who weren't too close to the action it won't be an issue.

Good for a Saturday night rental if you're interested in True Crime.

I wanted to watch this movie after watching an A&E documentary on Ken and Barbie killers. It turned out to be an odd combination of a documentary and a thriller, narrated from Karla's perspective and many times showing her as non cooperative, victimised woman but ending on an unsympathetic note to her. (The jury concluded she was 'artificial, manupulative and with a strong moral vaccum bordering on psychosis' but there is no depiction of these traits anywhere in the movie's portrayal of her, just a scared, victimised woman). For a low budget movie though the pace is entertaining and victims treated with respect, their names are changed and no nudity is shown. Perhaps for a boring friday evening.

I first became fascinated by the Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka case when I had to study it in my high school class on Canadian Law in 2005. The Ken and Barbie killers. It was the only part of the whole course that wasn't completely boring. It was also the same year Karla was freed from prison. I watched the French CBC interview she gave the night she was freed (what a stupid move for such a hated woman I would've thought dead by now). I also read almost all the books and watched several documentaries about the case too. I was much more interested in Karla than in Paul. Simply because sadistic serial rapists/killers like Paul, as sad as it is to say, are a dime a dozen. But Karla was unique. She was a young pretty little enigma from our own Canada, who also happened to be a sadistic serial rapist/killer. Some psychiatrists that have evaluated her say she's pure evil, others say she's an innocent victim, and some came out saying she's a complete mystery. I personally think she is a person who happened to have been born without a conscience, like some people are born without limbs or vision or hearing. I think had she never met Paul, she wouldn't have done anything like this in her entire life. But she did. And she has no remorse for what she did, at all. Neither does her family. In Stephen Williams' first book about the case, Invisible Darkness, it's documented that, although her family appear to be nice normal people, they didn't really seem to care about what she had done. They defended her, stuck by her, and her mother, Dorothy, was heard to have said "Well the girls are already dead, so might as well party" at Karla's going away party before she went to prison. My theory is that the whole Homolka family is psychotic.

First time I watched the movie, I didn't like it. I was disappointed that the facts had been twisted the way they were. But the second time I watched it, I understood the whole point of having it be her side of the story. Because there are certain parts we don't know for sure exactly how they happened (the deaths of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French not being videotaped), there are now three sides to this story: Karla's, Paul's, and the truth. Being told from her lying mouth was the only way they were able to make this movie. That, and also because Karla's compliant victim defense adds another layer of complexity to the story which might make it more interesting for some. She's still crazy, but it's a different kind of crazy you see. Since then, this has become one of my favorite movies. It really is well made and well acted. If it had been received better and not totally slandered by Canada (as a Canadian myself, I say you can't have a problem with this being based on a true story without having a problem with Bonnie and Clyde or Schindler's List), I think there could've been a possibility for Laura Prepon to have maybe even gotten an Oscar Nomination for this role. She probably thought it was going to be her big breakout role in Hollywood. And it could have been, especially after Charlize Theron received critical acclaim and an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. But now she'll be remembered as Donna Pinciotti from That '70s Show, which is what I'm sure she was trying to avoid by taking on such a challenging and dark role. But she played the murderous bitch perfectly, especially during the evaluation scenes between her and her psychiatrist, Dr. Arnold, who served as a proper mediator for her unreliable narration. In a way, she was playing two different characters. Both the Karla who's been reported as having an "indifferent, haughty and irritable" personality, and the compliant victim Karla from her version of the story. The real Karla was obviously not that good an actress.

I've watched this movie with friends who knew nothing at all about the real case and they all liked it even though they thought it was sick and disturbing. But as sick and disturbing as this movie is, it's actually toned down through the movie's editing, as compared to what happened in real life. Almost every time I will watch the scenes of the psychotic rapes, torture, and murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French (renamed in the film out of respect), I will cry. Although, one particular part always makes me laugh for some reason; when Karla mentions Demerol to Dr. Arnold, he asks her if she wants some. She then looks him dead in the eyes with a hateful expression on her face and just calmly says, "No". I don't know why, but that part always cracks me up! This movie has some flaws, as most movies do. For example, there are some minor omissions and a couple of names have been changed due to legal reasons. It's not perfect or a masterpiece by any means. And it doesn't have a moral at the end of the story, other than love makes you crazy. But it is a very good movie that seemed to get a lot of negativity that wasn't necessarily deserved. It is much better than it gets credit for.

I only gave this a great rating because it is a real depiction of sadism, evil and I hope it saves other girls from someone like this.

I've been through a rough relationship with a Paul type. It was three years of hell mixed in with intense passion just to keep me attached and desperate. Men like him know weaknesses and play on them. I had family issues, abuse at home, issues with my parents. Men like this look for girls that are vulnerable, needy and craving love.

Men like this are not wired right. I was only 15 at that time and now in my late 30's I can't believe I was so naive.

I'll be in therapy forever.

This movie is just awful. If you know anything about the real crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karlma Homolka, you know that the movie is very inaccurate and full of things that attempt to make Karla Homolka look like a victim. She was not a victim, she was a very willing participant. I was so frustrated with how inaccurate the facts were, I couldn't even finish this piece of junk.

Aside from the movie being full of crap, the acting was horrible.

For anybody who is familiar with this story you won't enjoy this film. It's missing a lot of valueable pieces.
If you happen to catch on TV than yeah why not watch it but to buy it is not neeeded.

I did not sleep well at all after watching this movie-nightmares. The extras included on the dvd explain that the movie could not say all of the atrocities, because of the victims family privacy, etc. Many men, including investigators or medical examiners (sic), as per public testimonies somewhat felt physically attracted towards Karla Homolka because of her 'innocent sorority girl in plaid skirt' looks on certain pictures in her (manipulative) 'real life'. After watching this movie and reading about her in Wikipedia, no more of that for sure. I just hope that the actor and actress who accepted to play these difficult to accept (disgusting) roles of PB and KH will not be chastised by the public opinion like the real PB and KH.