Unravelling Darkness: Deconstructing the Depiction of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo in the Film ‘Karla’ (2006)!
A personal story to start — several years ago when I was looking for a school for my son, I did what any parent would do. I would review the school online and see if there were any controversies or grievances held against them. In this one instance I did not. I went to several interviews with the staff. All went well. That was until I noticed a non-staff member in the hallway with an animal. She was recognizable but I didn’t know who it was at the time. I simply thought she had a sort of Sarah Palmer-esque look to her for a middle-aged woman. Then again, another occasion, she was in a classroom nearby in an older year as some sort of volunteer helper. I couldn’t believe it when I identified who it was, Karla Homolka. I immediately abandoned the school and left with my son, never to return.
Starring Laura Prepon (That 70’s Show) as the eponymous Karla (Karla Homolka) and introducing to me personally a tour-de-force performance by actor Misha Collins, who portrays our home-grown Canadian psycho rapist and resident pervert on duty, Paul Bernardo (a.k.a. the Scarborough Rapist), with chilling confidence and at times intense, uncontrollable fury.
Karla (2016) came and went with little fanfare, but I plan to give it its due as a film. The central question of this film: Is Karla a psycho, or merely a sociopath, or just a girl who fell in love with the wrong guy and liked rape fantasies?
To find this out is the job of fine actor Patrick Bauchau (Panic Room) as Dr. Arnold who simultaneously wants to understand Karla but occasionally flirts with her indirectly. It’s a book-end side story, as most doctors are these days, but he offers her chocolates and promises a good parole in exchange for telling him salaciously the sordid intimate details of the real life, snuff-rape-murder videotapes for our collective voyeurism. Thank you, Doctor Arnold!
The good doctor starts showing Karla pictures of her wedding with Paul, and of her murdered sister, Tammy Homolka. Laura Prepon impresses me with her immediate reaction of amusement, exhaustion, and a barely detectable but present residue of deeply repressed resentment, thus instantly elevating her acting in my mind beyond That 70’s Show. I haven’t had such an instantaneous transforming of my mind to an actor’s ability since I saw her co-star from That 70’s Show, Topher Grace, who also has real underutilized chops.
Karla recalls meeting Paul Bernardo at a hotel during a veterinarian convention in Toronto at 18-years-old. Paul with his friend Nick and Karla is with her friend from work. Karla confesses she knew she would marry him the second she saw him. Love at first sight.
Paul aggressively slides up next to her and when she says what she does for a living, being a veterinarian, he quips “Maybe that’s why you’re bringing out the animal in me.” which is, admittedly, a killer opening line. To which Karla replies “I like that.”
They rush back to Karla’s hotel room and her and Paul instantly make love in front of their two gawking friends. Wild!
The Doctor asks her if she thinks that’s normal. She just says “It livens things up. You should try it.” In other words, don’t make sex the culprit. Here-here! But the doctor erects the idea of rape-fantasy play as leading to real rape and murder. As Laura Prepon says as Karla “It’s fuck talk. People do it all the time.”
The argument that rape talk between couples leads to real rape is as thin as blaming playing Doom on the Columbine shootings. Millions of people do it. The majority don’t take games to their logical reality. I mean it’s technically silly anyways as the idea of rape is against consent so to “agree to rape” is by definition not rape.
“What time shall I rape you tonight hunny? 7 O’Clock sound good to you? Okay then. It’s a date!” I rest my point.
Paul of course blames Karla for her indulgence into rape fantasy as the reason he started doing it for real. What a noble guy. Karla adds “That’s bullshit. Because he was raping girls before we met.” Touché!
We soon see a familiar picture of “The Scarborough Rapist” before his identity was discovered. I remember this in the news — the sketch. It was a big story in Toronto newspapers and local Ontario news at the time.
Similar to Ted Bundy, the charm offensive and the “one of us” factor applies to Paul Bernardo; being that certain type of psycho helped Paul fly under the radar as a prime suspect on several occasions. They ask for a blood test then lose it or didn’t process it correctly. Great work OPP!
Dr. Arnold moves onto Karla’s feelings about her sister Tammy Homolka. She says, “Paul was disappointed I wasn’t a virgin when we met so her wanted something pure.”
Dr. Arnold states “Tammy was pure.” Karla replies “maybe to him.” Jealous much? She resented Paul’s closeness to Tammy.
Karla confronts Paul directly if he wants Tammy. Paul being the honest psycho he is replies “Yes.” Karla starts a teary anxiety fit. Paul continues “I want her, but I love you.”
“Are you going to marry me?” Karla retorts. “I love you so much. It’s too much.”
“It’s never too much.” Paul replies. There’s the tragic theme and message of the film.
Later Karla goes deeper into her fantasy of Paul as he asks her “What if your King wants something precious? What if the King wants the Virgin?”
“The King is the King.” Karla replies. “But what if she doesn’t agree?”
Paul plots, “she doesn’t have to know. This would make us close forever.”
Devious, evil. Paul is like a real-life Game of Thrones episode in the modern world. Sit on the morality of that for a moment.
Paul says she should steal some Halothane from her veterinary clinic and drug Tammy unconscious.
Paul and Karla proceed to make a real snuff film with the fair virgin Tammy completely unaware of the plot against her. It’s sickening how innocent she is, Paul standing there with the camcorder all cheerful and familial. Creepers!
Paul and Karla mix their potion and Tammy drinks it. Ken and Barbie from Hell proceed to rape Tammy while out cold.
When Karla refuses to suck her sister’s tit Paul is enraged. He slaps her hard and screams “You fucking slut you’re ruining my movie.” then slaps her again. Then Tammy overdoses.
The murder and guilt is what Paul then uses to blackmail Karla into future allowances for him to make future rape-murders on videotape. He goes on a raping spree. I remember my own mother was attending a college at that time near the area and they warned against going in the parking lots alone. This was a real concern with definable features to the residents of Ontario at the time and even so today (which I’ll come back to later).
Paul digs his psychological barbs in deeper “I fucked a girl named Tracy. If she calls just tell her, you are my sister.” Sister. Sister! Evil much? “I’m going out with some friends. I’m gonna take these just in case.” Paul says so casually holding a stocking for his head and a rope and knife.
Shit gets worse as Paul goes on a rampage of kidnapping and brings the girls back to his abode: kidnapping, rape, murder, and dismemberment on videotape, one after the other.
I still personally remember the TV commercials “Where is Kristen French?” It’s kind of surreal watching this movie revel in the evil of what happened. Karla is paralyzed by guilt and fear. She is portrayed as a captive. Not a perpetrator. Of course, she would believe that.
Tina, a captive teen, is told to keep her eyes closed. They take off her blind fold and are about to have a threesome with this teenage girl. But she opens her eyes. After a brief discussion she is promptly strangled to death by Paul. He then with full premeditation and without an ounce of remorse chops up her body and puts 8 pieces into cement. Gruesome!
Then a beautiful wedding ensues. Karla believes Paul might change after the wedding. Hope springs eternal indeed!
Shortly thereafter the spree continues, and Paul gets cockier the more the police fail to pick up his trail. This is where the infamous line occurs after he fools the police once again “I was as cool as a cucumber.” A final victim is captured with full help from Karla this time and Paul forces her to beat Kristen French with a hammer to death when he is done with her sexually. She does so under orders. She is remorseless. The moral dimension of the matter is blown over by Paul’s frenzied momentum.
Soon the police finally close in and as they do the beatings to Karla become more severe. He gets so fed up he is reduced to raping her again. Then he throws her in the cellar with a dead body, telling her she should spend the night in here. He beats her further next to the corpse.
Neighbours catch on that Paul is a bastard and call the police for Karla. This separation allows Karla the chance to go soil her oats with some dude at a club and to remember to forget her horrible life for a short while.
Paul Bernado is caught (this can’t be a spoiler as it was in the news 20+ years ago, I reckon). We conclude with cards stating that Karla never felt remorse for any of the killings the parole boards noted. It could also be that all the abuse she suffered froze her empathy and she detached from her true feelings, leaving her disconnected out of survival. Or she’s just a psychopathic participant. The ending is for you to decide after all you’ve seen.
I know one thing that’s decided, our governments are completely bonkers as a recent fun fact and an addendum to this film should be, they moved Paul Bernardo, after all you’ve seen in this movie, from maximum security to minimum security prison. Seriously?! Multiple snuff films with teenage girls and grisly murders and stashing the bodies all over town and you give him minimum security prison? What next? A job in Parliament?! And on what basis did they de-escalate his punishment? Based on what? The fact this charming psycho had a chance to work his magic on the dummies in the provincial criminal system?!
Karla Uppers:
The Acting! Laura Prepon’s performance is terrific and captivating as is the even more impressive performance from Misha Collins who I had never heard of before or since this movie. They bring such life and consequence and realism to these troubled people that I was fully immersed in their demon flight through this world.
The directing from Joel Bender was also spot on. Karla is totally underground and underwater too, according to the mainstream. Rotten Tomatoes give Karla a 0% Tomatometer and 37% audience score. Those are obviously not our kind of reviews here at Severed Cinema. They missed the marrow of this film entirely.
Karla is a frighteningly realistic portrayal of a killer couple that are in the book The Evil 100 (I recommend it on Amazon) to learn more.
Karla Downers:
There were no serious downers in this film other than the subject matter itself, but that’s kind of why you’d be watching this movie to begin with. The worst thing I can say about this excellent film in the context of it being an underground film is that it didn’t push the boundaries of the genre in any way further than other films. It is an excellent, if not, domesticated version of events. It is not gratuitous. It is very careful not to cross certain lines.
Overall, Karla is a thoroughly underappreciated film that we think deserves, like the Devil, it’s due. I highly recommend the film for its overall realistic impressions.
As for the real couple: alive and doing well considering, unlike their many victims who died far too young.
Directed by: Joel Bender
Written by: Joel Bender, Michael D. Sellers, Manette Rosen
Produced by: Marlon Parry, Robert Ramirez, Michael D. Sellers
Cinematography by: Charles Mills
Editing by: Joel Bender, Michael D. Sellers
Music by: Tim Jones
Cast: Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, Patrick Bauchau, Emilie Jacobs, Alex Boyd, Carole White
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 42min
Studio: Goldmill Productions, MB Partners, MovieBank, Quantum Entertainment, True Crime Investments LLC
Distributor: Monterey Media, Christal Films