Karen is a 2021 American crime dramedy written and directed by Coke Daniels, starring Taryn Manning, Cory Hardrict and Jasmine Burke.
Young couple Imani (Burke) and Malik (Hardrict) have just moved into the neighborhood in Harvey Hill, a suburb in Atlanta, right next door to local Homeowners Association president Karen Drexler (Manning). After a rather unpleasant first meeting with the new neighbor, Imani and Malik find themselves repeatedly terrorized by Karen, who has a visceral hatred for black people and throws everything but the kitchen sink at them in order to get them out of Harvey Hill.
Karen contains the following tropes:
- Antagonist Title: The titular Karen is the main antagonist of the movie, being an incredibly racist, self-entitled woman who does everything in her power to evict a young black couple from their home.
- Bigot with a Badge: Officer Mike Wind, Karen's brother, shares her racist views and frequently assists her in terrorizing and unlawfully detaining black people. He's also part of a brotherhood of racist police officers who help each other get away with police misconduct.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Officer Hill kills Mike Wind.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Early on, Karen gets Justice and his friend kicked out of a restaurant in a clearly racially motivated incident. Later on, when the two cross paths at Malik and Imani's housewarming party, Karen smugly notes that she doesn't even remember him.
- Children Are Innocent: Karen's son and daughter are a lot more pleasant to be around than their mother and thankfully share none of her racist beliefs. Karen's daughter even helps Imani put the trash back in her trashcan when Karen topples it over out of spite.
- Corrupt Cop: Karen's brother Mike, who seemingly has no issue arresting anyone Karen points at or planting evidence when he has insufficient reason to do so. It's also heavily implied he isn't the only one, as he apparently had plenty of complains leveled his way for profiling, but never faced any consequences in the end (until his heroic partner shoots him in the head), due to the other officers covering for him. Averted with Officer Hill, who seems out of the loop about this.
- Death by Racism: Karen and her Corrupt Cop brother's attempts to evict and later murder the black couple Malik and Imani results in them both getting killed at the end.
- The Dog Bites Back: After getting harassed, stalked and threatened by Karen and her associates the whole movie, Imani finally gets her revenge by disarming Karen and violently beating on her for a good while before Karen manages to break free and get her gun back.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Malik and Imani are put through hell by Karen and her cronies, with Malik getting arrested several times and Imani getting shot close to the end. But the movie concludes with all their tormentors dead, with Imani even being allowed to kill Karen herself and the two of them going on to live a peaceful life in their new neighborhood, having received not only an official apology from the city of Atlanta for what they went through, but also a hefty financial compensation.
- Evil Is Petty: "Petty" seems to be Karen's middle name. She gets a couple of black men thrown out of a restaurant for laughing too loud, weasels her way into Imani and Malik's housewarming party only to make several inappropriate comments and jokes towards both them and their guests, then topples over their trash can the next day because it was out before garbage day.
- Freudian Excuse: Karen's extreme racism supposedly originated when she and her family were pushed out of their neighborhood in her youth due to black families moving in and causing an influx in crime and drugs, and then later on was cemented after her husband was killed on duty by a black criminal.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Karen smokes a cigarette while observing Malik and Imani's house.
- Happily Married: Imani and Malik adore each other, often going all out on the pet names and the cuddles.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Karen's daughter is a very sweet girl and has wide blue eyes.
- In the Back: Imani shoots Karen in the back while the latter is distracted by Officer Hill.
- Intimidating White Presence: The movie is based on the suburban white woman Obnoxious Entitled Housewife as the main antagonist. Her menacing of the lead couple Imani and Malik ranges between knocking over trashcans to trying to kill them, with the outright assistance of her brother, who is a cop.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Karen calls the police on three young black men when they refuse to show her identification and is visibly pleased when they're arrested. Unfortunately for her, one of the men turns out to be the son of a prominent civil-rights activist who promptly sues the neighborhood over this obvious abuse of power. Leading to Karen getting kicked out of the Homeowners Association and turning the majority of her neighbors against her.
- Karen and her brother break into Imani and Malik's house after getting Malik arrested and cutting the power, armed with guns and ready to execute Imani. After Karen seemingly shoots Imani dead, Mike's partner enters the house and Mike gets killed in the ensuing shootout. Karen attempts to kill the partner, but is herself shot to death by a Not Quite Dead Imani.
- Nosy Neighbor: Karen becomes this to Malik and Imani almost immediately, from installing security cameras to monitor them, to pestering Malik for information on him and his wife at night. This only serves as a omen for what's to come.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Karen, obviously. She's a white, middle-aged, entitled, racist housewife who believes the whole world should bow to her and also the president of Harvey Hill's Homeowners Association.
- Playing Possum: Imani appears to be dead after Karen shoots her. She's later revealed to have faked it when she grabs Mike's gun off the floor and shoots Karen.
- Police Are Useless: Justified, as the most prominent law enforcement in the movie is Karen's brother Mike, a Corrupt Cop who's just as bigoted and anti-black as she is. What few other police officers there are in the movie are either of no help to the protagonists or just as corrupt. Subverted with Mike's younger partner who challenges Mike several times when he goes too far with Malik and even has a Big Damn Heroes moment at the end when he intervenes just in time to keep Karen and Mike from killing Imani.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Karen and Mike's entire personality revolves around their seething contempt for black people. Karen treats any black person she encounters as a criminal, has Neo-Confederate memorabilia plastered across her house, and believes that people should "stick to their own kind". Her brother, meanwhile, uses his position as a police officer to brutalize black people and frame them for crimes they didn't commit.
- Profiling:
- Karen demands three young black men to show her identification, even though they've done absolutely nothing wrong. Even more egregious since Karen is not part of any kind of law enforcement and therefore has no right to make such demands in the first place.
- Mike pulls Malik over on Karen's behest, after she informs him that Malik smokes marijuana with absolutely no proof whatsoever.
- Self-Defense Ruse: When Karen seemingly shoots Imani dead, she and Mike scheme to cover it up by claiming she went for Mike's gun and they killed her in self-defense. They don't get the chance to sell their story, though.
- Sinister Surveillance: Shortly after Imani and Malik move in, Karen installs a security camera under her roof. Later on Malik and Imani notice that it's pointing directly at their house, meaning Karen has been spying on them. When Malik goes to wash his hands in Karen's home later on, he finds a whole surveillance room with multiple monitors displaying various corners of their neighborhood.
- Stupid Evil: Karen's frothing bigotry and entitlement causes her to slip into this:
- She calls the cops on three black teenagers and lies that they're attacking her, despite knowing the whole interaction is being recorded on their phone. They get arrested, but are quickly released due to the video evidence showing that she was lying. This results in the HOA getting sued and Karen losing her position as president.
- She flat-out breaks into Malik and Imani's house at the end to try and murder the latter, with no attempt to even cover up that it's her, like wearing a mask or gloves. It's only dumb luck that the first police to arrive at the scene is her equally racist brother. Even her brother's reassurance that he'll spin a story of self-defense would be hard to buy due to the blatant breaking-and-entering with murderous intent.
- Token Good Cop: Officer Hill, Mike's younger partner, is most definitely not even close to being as corrupt as Mike and even blows Mike away to prevent him from committing an act of murderous Police Brutality.
- Tyrannical Homeowners' Association: The titular Karen is president of the Homeowners Association and uses her position to attempt a racially-motivated eviction of Malik and Imani, because they're black. When that doesn't work, she escalates to terrifying them and tries to kill them. However, at the end of the movie, after Karen's death, Imani takes over the association and is shown making it a force for good.
- Villainous Crush: In one scene it's implied Karen might be sexually attracted to Malik. She intimately touches him when he helps her with her car and reacts strangely pleased when he accidentally gets his shirt wet.
- Villain Has a Point: As racist as she is to Malik, Karen is completely correct that he shouldn't be smoking marijuana outside or having sex by the window in view of children.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After a group of young black men refuses to show her identification, Karen calls her brother and pretends that the men are threatening her, which leads to them being arrested.
