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| “ | The heart. Shoot him in the heart. | „ |
| ~ Karen to Norris |
| “ | Don't fuck with my son! | „ |
| ~ Karen to Chucky in the 2019 film |
Karen Lee Barclay is the deuteragonist of the 1988 horror film Child's Play and its 2019 remake. She's a widowed mother who works at a Carson Pirie Scott & Co. department store to support herself and her son, Andy.
She is Andy Barclay's mother and portrayed by Catherine Hicks. In the 2019 remake, she is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza.
Biography[]
Child's Play[]
She first appeared when Andy made her breakfast in bed (a small bowl overfilled with Good Guy cereal, spilled glasses of milk and orange juice, and two burnt pieces of toast covered in large globs of butter).
She took him into the living room for him to open his presents where Andy insisted that he opened the larger present first in hopes it was a Good Guy Doll. Then, he opened it, only to find pants. Then, he tried the smaller present and uncovered a Good Guy Tool Set, upsetting him.
Karen goes to work where her best friend, Maggie Peterson drags her into the back alley where they find a pettler selling a Good Guy doll. After a short conversation, Karen purchases the doll and goes back to work, but is confronted by her boss.
She was told that she's able to leave at 5:00, but must be back at 7:00. Maggie then volunteers to babysit Andy while Karen is at work. Then, she gets home and gives Andy his new Good Guy doll which through a talking mechanic reveals his name as Chucky.
Later that night, Karen comes home to find that Maggie has been murdered and speaks with Detective Mike Norris who tells her that Maggie fell out the kitchen window.
Karen, severely upset that her best friend was dead, orders that Mike and his men leave her apartment. Later that night, she hears Andy in his bedroom talking, enters the room and asks who he was talking to which he replies by telling her he was talking to his doll who had revealed its full name as Charles Lee Ray.
Karen gets in an argument with Andy who asks her if it was about Maggie's death that she was yelling. She realizes that was the reason and goes to bed.
Karen takes Andy to school the next day who takes Chucky with him. Later that day, however, she is called to the police station and is informed that Eddie Caputo, the accomplice to the now-deceased serial killer Charles Lee Ray, was murdered at that Andy was found at the scene.
He was being questioned at the police station and Karen enters the room to talk to him. He insists that Chucky was alive and that the doll would kill him if he told them anything.
Nobody, even Karen, believed his story and was taken to a mental hospital for a little while. Then, Karen returns home and checks the box that Chucky came in. The batteries fall out and she reads on the box "Batteries included!" Then. She slowly approaches the doll, picks it up and checks the battery slots.
The slots are empty and the doll's head suddenly turns 180 degrees and says "Hi, I'm Chucky! Wanna play?" Then, she drops the doll in fright which it rolls under the couch. Then, she slowly retrieves it and threatens to throw it in the fire unless it talks which Chucky comes to life in her hands and attacks, followed by him escaping through the apartment elevator.
Karen makes her way to the police station to tell Mike what happened, but he did not believe her. So, she decides to find the peddler who sold her the doll, searching all over the slums of Chicago. After questioning several homeless people, she finally finds the man who sold it to her. Not being able to pay the amount of money he wants in order to tell her what he knew, he attempts to rape her, but is then attacked by Mike who arrives from the shadows.
The peddler tells them that he found the doll in a burned down toy store. This disturbs Mike who tells Karen that the same night that the store was burned down the serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, was shot to death there. Still not believing Chucky was alive, Mike takes Karen home. Karen learns that Chucky is possessed by the soul of Charles Lee Ray and decided to check his abandoned house.
She was confronted by Mike and the two learn that Chucky was a skilled Voodoist, so Karen and Mike go to the home of Chucky's mentor, only to find that Chucky had already been there. Chucky's mentor, John was bleeding to death and with his last breath, he told Karen and Mike that the only way to kill Chucky is to shoot his heart.
After a wild goose chase looking for Chucky all around the city, Karen and Mike finally find Chucky and Andy in her apartment. A long battle begins and Karen manages to trap Chucky in the fire place. Andy tosses a match in, burning the doll.
Then, Karen began calling the police while Andy went to get the First-Aid Kit to treat Mike's wounds from the battle. It is revealed that Chucky was still alive and the battle continued. Karen finally managed to severely cripple Chucky and the two were met by Mike's partner. Not believing the doll was alive, he brings Chucky's head to show Karen, Mike, and Andy that it was "as dead as it gets."
Without warning, Chucky's torso was crawling through the walls and burst through, attacking the partner. Then, they toss it at the wall and Mike finally shoots the heart, killing Chucky. The four leave the apartment without celebration, knowing it was too traumatizing.
While Karen did not appear for the rest of the series, she's mentioned in the second and third film which reveal that she was sent to a mental hospital for supporting Andy's story of Chucky.
Curse of Chucky[]
Karen does not make a live appearance, but she can be heard from the phone while talking with Andy and it's implied that Karen is married to Detective Mike Norris and have a 10-year-old daughter name, Cecily.
Child's Play (2019)[]
While working her shift at Zed-Mart, an angry customer confronts Karen about his recent purchase with a Buddi doll, explaining that his son wanted “the blonde one”. Karen tells him that he actually purchased the first edition of the Buddi doll, and that the one his son wants is in fact a Buddi 2, which will not be released for another couple of weeks.
Karen returns home to her son, Andy, where they argue about him not unpacking the boxes in their apartment and feeding their cat Rooney. When she remarks that he never gets off his phone, he tries to sway the conversation to getting a new phone for his birthday. However, she tells him that she is already working double shifts to pay for a new hearing aid. Karen reminds him that this move is supposed to be a new start, and asks him to go out and try to make new friends.
The next day at Zed-Mart, Karen is once again confronted by a customer, who is returning another Buddi doll. Karen is told that the dolls was “not working”, and that its eyes were “glowing red”. In an attempt to cheer Andy up, Karen blackmails her boss Wes in order to procure the returned Buddi doll and gives it to Andy as an early birthday gift. Later that afternoon when Andy comes home from school, he leaves the apartment when he sees Karen is with her boyfriend Shane. She goes out and finds him in the hallway, talking to their neighbour's son Mike. Bringing him back, she tells him that she knows the move has been tough on him, and that she has a surprise: a Buddi doll. Once Andy activates the doll, she notices that it is malfunctioning heavily and offers to take it back to Zed-Mart. But Andy refuses, telling her that he likes the doll, now named Chucky, and takes it back to his room.
A couple days later, Karen has her boyfriend Shane over at her apartment. While getting a beer from the fridge, Shane encounters Chucky, who keeps repeating "Shane's such an asshole" on his speakers. Karen finds it funny, but Shane is angered by it. She confronts Andy about the doll, and he insists that he didn't make Chucky say anything. But she retorts that he only spend one hour a day with the doll, and that it will be put into the living room cabinet for the rest of the time. The next day, Karen's manager calls and asks her to work the night shift for the Buddi 2 launch, but she refuses as it is Andy's birthday. She notices that their cat Rooney is missing, and Andy blames it on Shane to cover up that Chucky killed the cat. After getting home from school, Karen asks Andy if he wants any pizza as she and Shane are ordering some. Taking one look at Shane, Andy leaves the apartment with the excuse of going to his friend's place. Some time later that night, Shane is again scared by Chucky, who is still repeating "Shane's such an asshole". He confronts Andy and leaves him in tears before storming out of the apartment. Karen runs after him down the hall, telling him that if he has a problem with Andy, she should be the one to talk to the boy as Shane is not his dad. Regardless, Shane continues walking out, leaving Karen to go back to her apartment alone.
The next morning, Andy wakes up to find Chucky has skinned Shane's face and stapled it onto a watermelon. Along with his friends Falyn and Pugg, Andy tries to cover up the watermelon with the wrapping paper Karen used to wrap Chucky in. As they make their way to the garbage chute to dispose of the evidence, Karen spots them and asks what they are doing. Andy quickly lies that he is giving a gift to Doreen, their neighbour, for helping him with his homework. Karen offers to deliver it with him, and to Andy’s surprise, he and his mother deliver the present to Doreen. Later that night, Mike and his partner Willis come to Karen's apartment to deliver the news of Shane's death. They also reveal the truth about Shane's affair, which greatly upsets her. Once Andy walks into the room, Willis takes Karen into another room to ask her more questions in private.
While Karen is working a shift at Zed-Mart, Andy and his friends enter the store to browse through the new Kaslan products. Once Andy is alone, his friend Omar's Buddi reveals itself to be Chucky, whom he believed to be dismantled. He attempts to destroy the doll, causing him and Omar to get into a fight. He attempts to get everyone to believe him about Chucky, but none of his friends are on his side and leave him. Before heading back home with Karen, Andy discovers that Omar left his phone behind and uses it to see what Chucky is doing. He sees Chucky following Doreen, and tries to warn his mother that the doll might have done something to her. However, she is not convinced as she thinks Chucky is just a toy; she also believes something is wrong with her son, as she found the cat's collar and thinks he killed the cat. After she learns that Andy stole Omar's phone, she snaps that he is coming to work with her during her night shift, which coincidentally is the launch of the Buddi 2 dolls. She leaves to return Omar's phone, and walks back into the apartment just in time to see Andy smashing their television with a bat.
Andy's friends discover the truth about Chucky, and rush to the Zed-Mart to rescue him. The four kids run to find Karen, but are halted when Mike handcuffs Andy under that suspicion that he killed Shane. Karen tries to stop Mike from taking Andy away, but they all freeze when Chucky takes control of the store and begins massacring everyone inside. Andy and his friends manage to reach the exit, only for Andy to be forced to return when Chucky reveals that he is holding Karen hostage in the warehouse section of the Zed-Mart. Making his way through the store, Andy finds his mother tied up and gagged. He does not notice the doll sneaking up on him, allowing Chucky to knock him unconscious. When he wakes up, Chucky activates a forklift that has a rope tied to one of its forks, with the other end tied around Karen's neck to hang her. Andy struggles to free his mother as he grabs onto the rope that Karen is hanging from while being attacked by Chucky. Using Chucky's knife, he cuts Karen down, overpowers Chucky and finally defeats the him with help from Mike shooting him and Karen ripping off his head. Karen is last seen being tended to by paramedics, along with Mike by her side.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The original script for the second movie had an opening scene of a court hearing dealing with the events of the previous film. Catherine Hicks was to reprise her role of Karen Barclay in this sequence but it was cut before filming began. Elements of this scene appeared in a similar courtroom scene in Curse of Chucky.
- Even though Karen doesn't have a husband in the film: they do closeups of her left hand, she is wearing a wedding ring.
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Child's Play (1988) Child's Play 2 Child's Play 3 Bride of Chucky Seed of Chucky Curse of Chucky Cult of Chucky Child's Play (2019) Chucky(2021) | ||