RATING: C

A Purgatory Blues production. Directed, Edited, and Cinematography by Zachary Snygg. Produced by Zachary Snygg, Spencer Snygg, and Jasmin Flores. Written by Zachary Snygg and Jasmine Flores. 

Stars Jasmine Flores, Scott Bolger, Philip Green, Chiko Mendez, Tom Cisoski, Laurie Sanchez, Sarah Marable, Shaun May, Knives Suicide, Caren Lioce, and Joseph David Surico.

This homage to grindhouse horror is wildly insane with an unhinged lead character who may be responsible for a wave of killings in the city.

Karen Mangione has a serious problem. She is married to Ted and is unhappy. She dreams of fame and name recognition. How does she go about achieving the dream? By entering numerous beauty pageants in the area. However, when she gets second place in the Mrs. Yonkers competition, she has a tantrum and takes it out on Ted. However, that’s going to be the least of her problems. 

The beauty pageant winners find them followed and ultimately killed by a mysterious masked killer. When the daughter of a retired police officer is one of the victims, the police try to discover who is responsible. Meanwhile, with the Mrs. Yonkers winner killed, Karen is the new Mrs. Yonkers. However, with this new responsibility may be her ticket to fame as Mrs. America. However, it also may be her ticket to death as well. 

I have to say this. In all my years of horror, I never imagined there would be a main character that I completely found ridiculous to the state where I wished she would be offed as soon as possible. There have always been side characters that we all have had hatred for, but never a main character is so hated like the one here. 

I always say if a character is that hated, then it shows that the performer of that character is quite well and it does work with Jasmin Flores’ titular Karen. Flores, who also co-wrote and produced the film, plays Karen as an unhinged married woman whose dreams of becoming the next major beauty queens leads her to be delusional and so arrogant that she takes her frustrations out on her husband Ted, excellently played by Scott Bolger. As for Ted, he finds himself on the cusp of going insane as well as he feels totally neglected by Karen, and even reamed out for buying fruits and vegetables with Karen having an excuse to empty the fridge.

The kill scenes are quite graphic but there is one little difference. Instead of practical effects, which at first look, may look that way, the film is one of the first to use AI for gore. Some of it looks quite impressive, but at other times, it almost looks as bad as the CGI gore kills we used to have in the late 1990s and 2000s horror era. The idea of using AI for kills may seem like a good idea, but here it is a mixed bag as while some looks good, some looks pretty hokey. 

In the end, Karen: The Beauty Queen Butcher, does have a positive in Jasmin Flores’ performance as one of the most hated protagonists in a horror film. However, the use of AI for gory kills is both a hit-and-miss. They at least get an “A” for effort but while it’s promising, it comes off as a mixed bag.

The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime