Karla is a 2006 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Joel Bender, and co-written by Manette Rosen and Michael D. Sellers.

On 11 May 2000, a psychologist, Dr. Arnold, is conducting a session with Karla Homolka at Canada's Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile Karla, suffering from the abuse and desperate to reclaim his affections, helps Paul abduct and rape another young girl named Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn's disappearance immediately attracts a storm of media and police attention, so Paul kills her, to be rid of her.

Back at the Regional Psychiatric Centre, Dr. Arnold asks Karla about her relationship with her younger sister, Tammy, and her jealousy towards her, because of Paul's attraction to her.

Shortly thereafter, the DNA samples Paul provided as part of the Scarborough rape investigation, are matched to the evidence found on one of the murder victims.

[3] Karla was deemed "a creepy but botched work" by Robert Koehler of Variety, who felt that the film was marred by its "choppy" direction, its sub-par production values, and its "confused" and "morally precarious" depiction of Homolka, which Koehler felt undermined her complicity in Bernardo's actions, writing, "There's a certain darkly suffocating quality to the chamber drama played out by these two sick souls, but the fact that the film is more willing to explicitly show Paul's constant beatings of Karla than the worst aspects of the killings underlines who is to be seen as the victim here.

"[4] The Globe and Mail's Rick Groen was similarly critical of the film emphasizing Homolka's suffering over that of her and Bernardo's victims, and further opined that the picture was both "inexcusably mundane" and lacking in substance before awarding it a final score of one-and-a-half out of a possible four.

[5] Ken Eisner of The Georgia Straight condemned the film, deriding it as nothing more than a dull, clichéd, and "slapdash portrait of serial killers" that was completely devoid of "depth, tension, or psychological insight.

"[6] While Louis B. Hobson (who called the film "disturbing" and "nauseating") of the Calgary Sun praised Misha Collins and Laura Prepon's acting and the restraint that Karla showed by not depicting or exaggerating "the worst excesses" of the crimes that it was dramatizing, he went on to write, "You don't recommend a movie such as Karla, even if you can appreciate the performances that make it unnerving.

"[7] The Winnipeg Sun's Pat St. Germaine lauded the film's acting, but also felt that it was a failure as a psychoanalytical character study, and concluded his review of it with, "Those who choose to see Karla will exit the theatre with much food for thought, but it's hard to imagine anyone will be enriched by it.

"[8] The film's inadequate exploration of Homolka's psyche was also a point of contention for Vue Weekly's Brian Gibson, who wrote, "There is little ambiguity or tension at the core of this basically hollow karaoke version of the Bernardo-Homolka murders.

Joel Bender's movie never resorts to gore-porn or sleaze-sationalism, avoiding any shots of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy (given different names here) being beaten or raped, and the simulations of Bernardo's horrific films offer no flashes of nudity that would make us feel complicit with the sexual predator.

"[9] Bruce Kirkland of the Toronto Sun expressed annoyance over Karla's "awkward" and "clumsy" narrative, gave mild praise to both its stars' performances and its restrained portrayal of its subject matter, and ended his review of the film with, "This film is not for the families of the victims, nor is it watchable by anyone with strong feelings about the case.