After reading so many positive reviews, I thought it would be a really interesting story about the “dark side” of the maniac – as you know, most famous rapists and murderers worked not alone, but often with girlfriends or wives who are not covered in the press and news, they are kind of background. I wanted to see a look from the outside - not a maniac-rapist, not justice, but someone in the middle.
I should probably say that Misha Collins I do not like, I consider the series “Supernatural” stupid and overrated, and his talentless actor, once he agreed to play in such a project. So I didn’t look because of it, but rather in spite of it. Ahead of the conclusion, I want to say that he pleasantly surprised me, well accustomed to the role of a maniac.
After watching it, I wasn’t that disappointed, but rather surprised – it felt like we’d watched different movies. Many people complained about the translation, I looked at it in the original, but I didn’t like it anyway.
I don’t know what the authors of this creation were planning to do. They say that this film is an attempt to justify the released Carla, to give her a chance at life. The final credits refute this, although, probably, this version is the closest to the truth.
On the way out, we got a movie about nothing. “Carla” is given half the time, or even less, it was worth calling the film “Carla and Paul” to be somehow correct. I didn't see anything I wanted or could see. After the film, there are silly questions that actually should not remain.
What moved Carla? How did she grow into a relationship-dependent girl who forgave her husband all her sins? Where were her parents? Were there any? Why did her sister grow up to be a normal person? Where are Carla's friends? Was she so antisocial or so in love that she stopped communicating with the outside world?
Carla turned out dry, slick and one-sided. But maybe she was like that in life. The episode when Paul left for the first time, and Carla was left waiting for him, is perhaps the most obvious example. The psychiatrist asks her, “Karla, what did you do when Paul was gone?” and she replies, “Just lay there waiting.” And we end up with a passive character that is just as passive and lazy. It's as if it didn't happen to her at all.
Misha played well, but he may not have been given a chance to prove himself. There is no development of his character, all his actions went around slapping and beating Carla or filming videos. We don't see his character, again, we don't know his history. Both characters grew up in test tubes and were put in the center of a very strange world, inseparable from each other.
The film is gloomy, drawn out, devoid of musical accompaniment and dynamics. 1 in 10, I just can't put any lower.
The hardest thing in a relationship is to be sober. (c)
Of course, Misha Collins is the reason to watch Karla, and the fact that the film is based on real events is an interesting topic to think about.
Misha is terribly convincing, so it is worth watching at least in order to feel the familiar actor in a completely different role - not a confused angel, but a frankly cruel, sick psychopath. And the woman who (?) loves.
The film itself to my taste is shot disgusting, some flat frame composition, stupid light, tasteless music and tightness (especially in the first half). However, the emotionality of the actors still breaks through and makes you think about the interesting problems that have painted many books on psychology and psychotherapy for women. The first thing that comes to mind when watching "Karla" is trying to put yourself in GG's shoes, and like many serious films, there's a lot of rhetorical questions hidden here.
What is love? What is the difference between them?
We are all willing to compromise for the sake of our loved ones. But how far can this go, everyone decides for himself.
One thing I can say for sure – this is not a film about condemnation, a film about trying to understand another person and not being able to do it, because life is what it is.
A film about love (and what to call love), addiction, self-sacrifice, empathy and a little about how terrible it is when all your gut, all your deep and personal experiences are turned inside out at once under the reproaching eyes of the public.
I decided to watch the movie because it was about a maniac. And to my great surprise, I didn't take this movie as a thriller about a maniac rapist. I took it as the story of a woman who loved so much that you forget about yourself.
Involuntarily, the whole film I measured her role on myself. We don’t choose who we fall in love with. We just fall in love. Carla didn't give me feelings like empathy or disgust. She evoked understanding. And no matter how it sounds (sad, vile, cruel), any loving, loving woman will act like her. He said, “Send the bullets while he shoots the world.” And no matter how you knock on the chest, about self-respect, about honor, about pain, love is not always a fairy tale.
This film is not about a maniac, this film is about feelings, unhealthy, so dependent on each other people.
This film touched something inside, and it is not positive, and not negative emotions, not insanely strong, but crashed into the brain. It's like a diary kept under your pillow, no matter what you see. And watching the film my MC all the time said that the heroine is not normal, that it would be time to leave. I was thinking about how I would behave... And I was able to answer myself honestly, throwing away all the vanity of feelings. Were you able to admit it? ! . .
I came across the film completely by accident. And I was thrilled to see it. The acting is fascinating, as is the plot itself (which, as it turned out, is based on real events).
Misha Collins is the first actor whose role as a maniac really impressed me. He brilliantly showed the emotions of his hero, which really made me hate the character.
Watching Laura Prepon filled me with emotions for her character (which happens to me very rarely). Once she starts talking about her blind love for Paul, it gets a little creepy. How can you love someone so much? Can you even call it love? Shouldn't love make a person happy?
Overall, it was great. I can’t even talk about any disadvantages, as they were purely technical.
This movie has stuck in my head for a long time and now there is something to think about at leisure. The film is not easy to perceive, but I think it is worth watching.
According to my observations, many people watch this film because of Misha Collins. I was not one of those, just because I was really interested in watching the film adaptation of that terrible story, which I recently read in the book by T. I. Revyako “EPK”. Murderers and maniacs.
In the end, I was certainly pleased. Not the film itself, but the actors. In such films, you need to bet on acting skills. Also on the appropriate images to shoot and tape properly reached the viewer.
Misha Collins and Laura Prepon pull the whole picture. So you can forgive bad directing, mediocre script and primitive camera work. The actors did everything they needed and more! You look at Paul Bernardo, and then you see Misha pass him on... you’ll think, “The guy has talent!” Incredibly accurate and believable. It is enough to recall the wedding shot of a real couple and compare it with the fact that in the film it is an excellent staging. Laura Prepon (Carla) - pleased. You believe in her weak feelings. And she is beautiful here, reminds a young P. Anderson.
I can’t help but note the atmosphere. You watch a movie and it looks like it was made in the 90s. Maybe it’s a small budget, but it doesn’t hurt. On the contrary, it gives a special charm and zest.
To begin with, I should probably say why I decided to watch this movie: Misha Collins. I wanted to see what it is worth to play a reasonable angel from the “Supernatural” mad maniac-rapist. His role turned out to be quite frightening, and there was nothing angelic left in him.
The whole film tried on the role of the main character, because it is from her face that the narrative is conducted. I don't know what I'd do, I'm afraid to think about how she behaved. Nevertheless, the idea of the film is very good: about the agonizing dependence of the girl, about such a strange sadistic-Mazachistic kind of love that she and Misha had. You love a man, and that's how you depend on him and you can't do anything. He's perfectly normal on Monday, but he's not what he was yesterday. And you have to live this Tuesday to see the man you fell in love with on Wednesday. And the more you put up with it, the more you get caught up.
With a good idea, the execution left much to be desired. I’m not talking about the roles of the actors, they seem to have done a good job. I'm more about the burden of the film, its excessive length. And even if it sounds cynical, I was bored at times. It was necessary to write a different script, it was necessary to interest the dull viewer, who had already seen such films hundreds of times. And, cynically, this is also true.
I hope you will meet only angels on your way.
After watching, there is a strange feeling. The genre of the film is vague, there is no deviation. You can't call it a melodrama about love, and you can't call it a thriller.. not so intense, for drama and psychology it's too simple and the cards are open from the beginning. There remains a dual relationship with a neutral shade. You might have seen a movie, but it left no trace.
6 out of 10
Oh my God, what a terrible movie.
It's been a long time since I've had nausea rolling down my throat from the disgust of what I saw on the screen. Fortunately, Joel Bender’s sense of proportion allowed him not to turn a hard and real story into either a tearful drama about the suffering of a dependent woman, or a thriller filled with oppressive expectations of a deliberately natural murder process, or a bloody horror film savoring their details. Nothing like that. Everything is calm, smooth, simple, without bloody shirts and knives, pathetic suffering, breaking mirrors, hysterics with close-ups and other nonsense. Everything is so simple, so natural and realistic that it becomes really, really scary.
The public is in shock. How come? How could they? They went to a sports bar, threw parties, went to the sea, got a dog. A maniac is a lonely man with a marginal appearance. They are the prototypes of Mattel's dolls. Blond, white-toothed, clear-eyed, with a Hollywood smile. Perfect picture, perfect dream of the beginning of family happiness. How did this happen?
I'm not a forensic psychiatrist, but something tells me (and perhaps it's a generational experience) that there is no smoke without fire. It is not possible that you wake up in the morning, went out to get bread, but then decided that someone else’s death today you want more, found a victim and brought her closer to dinner with geranium and new curtains. Something had to happen before, something had to precede to turn into what it was. And step by step it becomes clear: at first it was a game (think everyone does it, Carla tells the doctor). Then dangerous play, then accident, then premeditation. And then there's tangible, conscious pleasure in intentionality and... honesty. Honesty to yourself, loyalty to yourself to the end. And both of them.
There is a need to dig deep into the biology, psychiatry, childhood, and accidents of a criminal’s life to understand the causes of his desires. But the moment that gives rise to crime, the moment when his thought passes from the category of the desired into the category of the actual - I think there is only one word for defining this moment - honesty. The courage to admit to yourself what you want. And in revealing this path to honesty, the path to oneself, albeit not in a genius-psychological way, but nevertheless obvious - this, I believe, is a big plus of the director, who preferred to get to the truth, rather than shoot another oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-they-what-a-horror picture for the public. Joel Bender doesn’t empathize, he doesn’t empathize, he doesn’t escalate, he just observes, and he observes perfectly — so indifferent as not to take sides, and so attentively as to notice the slightest fluctuations in the behavior of his characters — or rather, antiheroes.
The honesty of Paul (Misha Collins), summarizing the above, is obvious. In general, he seems to be a pretty complete character. What about Carla (Laura Pripon)? Together with her husband, they make an ideal couple, perfectly complement each other with their white-toothed smiles, their sadistic-victim relationship, and, finally, their role in self-awareness. If Paul and his victims are the result of a disease of honesty, then Carla is her remarkable visual flow process. Unlike her husband, who does not care about the issues of awareness of what he did and conscience at all (he is mentally insane), Karl is still tormented by the pangs of humility. She is much more painfully accepting what is happening, suffering physically - from the beatings of her husband, and morally - unable to either leave him or stop what is happening. She learns to be humble and silent, and finds the strength to continue life in her inexhaustible love for her sadistic husband. I love you, Paul, says Carla - before murder, after murder, before bed, during sex, speaks in the kitchen, in the hallway, at a party. I love you Paul, I will always love you and I will always be with you.
This is it.
A feeling that has many hypostases and dozens of words to signify, but cannot be defined – Carla calls it love, putting in it the power that millions of people around the world seek and do not find. How many of you have confessed your love from the heart? Who said things like “I’ll do anything for you,” “I’ll always love you, I’ll be with you, no matter what happens.” As much as you can blame them on mania, stupidity, the mistake of youth, blindness of feeling, but the moment you utter these words, you probably believed in them yourself. The only question is whether many have had the courage to go to the end in their conviction and admit that willing to do anything is really willing to do anything, the promise to be together is really a promise to be together in grief and joy, and even when it turns out that the loved one has crossed the line beyond which is blackness. I don’t think the words “whatever happens” Carla meant "even if you turn out to be a murderer and a sadist," but when that turned out to be the case, it didn't stop her, and thus made her words, the words of a woman very morally dubious, precious. Karla Homolka could have gone anywhere, into the fires of revolution, into the barricades, into war, but her husband chose a different path, and she followed him. She must have known the nature of her husband when he behaved as he did. Why she was with him is unknown. But there must be a great measure of the solitude which made her pass over her sister, over her parents, over herself, to be with the man whom she had trampled upon. There are thousands of reasons that could have made her what she was made to be, but the bottom line is that when she confessed to Paul of eternal devotion, eternal love, she was honest with him, and she remained honest with herself.
A person who dares to really connect his fate with the fate of another person can doom himself to a terrible life, but the desire to find such a person - only, of course, not a maniac, but a loved one - one way or another haunts everyone. The desire for great and all-consuming love. Think about this word, all-consuming. This is the scale of not only the feeling that captures you, but also the trouble that it can bring.
It is difficult to decide on the attitude to Karla, because one way or another you will have to put yourself in her place and ask – what would you do in your desire to remain the only valuable, necessary as air, unique to the person who made up the meaning of your existence? Just be honest.
P.S. According to rumors, Carla has three children from a subsequent marriage. I wonder how she handled the past. The actors played great.
To be honest, I decided to watch the film only because I was interested in the plot and the fact that it is based on real facts.
In principle, it is a simple story, she loved him, and he wiped his feet on her, she loved and forgave. For everything, for dislike, for beatings, for betrayal. Forgive and make the wrong decisions.
And all would be fine if not for one “but”. Their passion turned into a partnership of criminals, which in itself is frightening and fascinating.
During the viewing it becomes a little unpleasant and frankly wild, to what degree of atrocities people sometimes reach, and that the worst no one will ever answer, which prompted the actions that a person who becomes a maniac commits.
By the way, I had the impression that the maniac is not only Paul, everything is clear with him - he is a rapist and a villain, not devoid of attractiveness and charm, mostly at the expense of the performer. Misha Collins is on high. The range of emotions, cold eyes and toughness bordering on outright brutality. Played strongly, authentically, like a small life of an individual.
What I mean is, in many ways, Carla herself is a maniac. She's like a bunch of nerves, a ticking time bomb. Giving herself to the power of the feelings that overwhelm her, the girl is able to close her eyes to everything and everyone, as long as the sweet one was near, and there let what she wants do it. I’m not familiar with the real personas, but the movie image of Carla is far from sacrificial. She's just as criminal as her king, if not more.
It would seem that it was necessary to break the vicious circle, escape, prevent, but Carla is blinded by love and does not notice anything further than her sometimes broken nose. Or even worse, he feels pleasure from it, which in itself is a pathology.
In general, the film is good, moderately tough, moderately emotional, the only thing that suits my taste is the main character with a hurricane of feelings and doubts, the actress almost reached it. I saw no doubt in the eyes of the heroine. Carla says no, and the face reads “Yes, of course”, she calmly commits crimes and is not shocked by what she sees.
But anyway, I liked this tape, largely because it is reliable, and not just taken from the minds of the authors. And all the more terrible from the realization that no one is immune from falling into the abyss. In other words, I suggest you look. Appropriate assessment.
Like many people here, I went to see this movie to meet Misha Collins. “Carla” was one of the few films that could be found on the Internet without any problems. But after watching, I had one thought: “How do I look at actors now?”
The film made an indelible impression on me. The main emotion was disgust. Not the movie itself, but what I saw. For a long time I got used to the idea that all this was shown to me now - it was all there and in fact everything was even more terrifying and inhumane.
The line through the film is that Carla loved Paul too much. But is everything that she feels and goes through with him to be called love? It's obsession, suppression of oneself as a person, maybe passion, maybe madness, probably fear, but not love. Carla covers up her weak and driven life with such a strong word. Paul uses it to find the perfect victim—weak, repressed, and downright stupid and preoccupied. After watching, I thought for a long time, read all the positions - from the fact that Carla was just a puppet to the fact that she killed herself. I understand the side from which the film is made - we are women after men and to hell and to heaven, and to the cottage and to the hut. Except the one I don't see as a victim is Carla. She did not pity her sister to please her terrible husband.
As far as I know, Carla is now married and has three children. The psychiatrist determined that she would not have a "relapse" of returning to murder. She served a full twelve-year sentence, released in 2005. She was not allowed to change her name, but she seems to have left the country to start a new life. You know, I forgive people. I almost always forgive. But it's in this story that I don't consider 12 years worth paying for the three lost lives of girls that Carl could have saved by making just one "where to go" call. She was even more responsible for their deaths than Paul was - he was a crazy pervert, he didn't know the desire to stop, but Carla could change everything. She didn't love him, she was obsessed with him.
On the film search, I was never able to assess the film - marked only by the icon "viewed". But the thing is, I'll never forget the movie. And even abstracting from the reality of the story I was shown, I still get goosebumps. And you know, I wouldn’t be lying if I said that under certain circumstances I would have applauded Laura Prepon and Michele Collins and the director. Except... This is not a story I want to applaud. Although the talent with which played and removed leaves no doubt.
I don’t know if I’ll ever revisit it, but I’m sure even if you want to watch it without going into the details of the story, be prepared that the story will forever hide in the dark corners of your soul. Good luck.
The first reason I decided to watch this movie is Misha Collins.
The second is a real story that is told in the film, a story that is of a criminal nature.
This film made a double impression. That is, the director showed Carl an innocent sheep who just madly loved her boyfriend - a psychopath, and unquestioningly carried out any of his orders for fear that the betrothed will abandon her.
However, if you learn more about the story of Carla and Paul Bernardo, you can see that Carla is not so innocent. Eyewitnesses and acquaintances spoke of her as a strange person who secretly became involved in Satanism and craved bloody orgies. While serving time in prison, she struck up an affair with another killer and changed her name to the surname of a movie maniac. Strange behavior, I think.
But this is a complicated story, and apparently society still does not know the whole truth.
Speaking of acting, Misha Collins, as always, is on top. He played a great role, a difficult role. It will be difficult for any normal person to play a brutal killer. And in general, the presence of Misha in this film already makes it better. Prepon played her part well, too. But on the background of Misha, this is the second plan:
In general, all fans of real crime stories and fans of Misha Collins, I advise you to watch Karla!
Have a good time!
