Hollywood has a habit of misunderstanding what makes great movies tick. After the first few Bourne films came out, action movies became so quick-cut that they were incomprehensible to watch, as filmmakers didn’t have quite the same skill with action as Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass; following Saw, torture porn became pervasive in the horror genre, as filmmakers failed to realise that the mystery is what makes James Wan’s film tick, as opposed to its more gruesome scenes; and in the wake of Get Out, parts of horror have focused on trying to portray racism and the modern black experience, while not realising that the Sunken Place is the true horror of Jordan Peele’s film, not the racism of its white characters.

It is this final category into which Coke Daniels’ Karen falls. This is a film that attempts to say something big, but is so ham-fisted and obvious in its approach that it fails to say anything at all, coming off in the end as preachy and uninteresting, with nothing at all to redeem it.

Karen is based on the Twitter meme of the same name, which stereotypes a certain kind of white woman as ‘Karens,’ meaning selfish and entitled to the point of endangering others, particularly people of colour through the weaponisation of their whiteness. It follows young couple Malik and Imani (Cory Hadrict and Jasmine Burke, who do almost passable work given how little they have to work with) as they move into a rich, white neighbourhood, quickly finding themselves terrorised by their racist neighbour (the titular Karen, played here by Taryn Manning).

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong with Karen because it’s a film whose very foundations are unengaging to the point of repulsion. Many audience members aren’t interested in stories of black suffering anymore, particularly when there’s little point to it. Karen adds nothing to a worthy conversation, and instead seems more interesting in ripping off better genre fare and exploiting its black leads. People don’t want entertainment about black suffering in 2021 because we’re past it – but watching Karen, you wouldn’t think we are.

So the very idea behind the film is a rotten one. Is it at least somewhat entertaining? Nope. Its poor story basis results in a woeful script that gives audiences mere whispers of characters who feel about as real as that pig flying past your window right now. Every single line of dialogue is geared to exposit, leaving no room at all for any actual character growth – we know things about Malik and Imani because we’re told them, and we know they love each other because they seem to be in a competition to see who can call the other ‘baby’ the most times in one conversation. It’s nauseating.

Then there’s Karen herself. There are tweets with more character than this woman – she’s so clearly inspired by the meme that she has no other characteristics, making everything she does predictable and dull. Taryn Manning is almost decent with poor material, but she’s so cartoonish that she’s impossible to take seriously at all. And in yet another misunderstanding of Get Out, she’s the ultimate horror – there’s no Sunken Place, no commentary on the commoditisation of black bodies, nothing of any substance or interest. Just her. And when she’s written like this, one white woman isn’t enough to carry a horror movie.

Karen is nothing short of a failure. Wholly derivative of better movies, it’s entirely unable to add anything productive to the conversation around racism and the weaponisation of whiteness. Make no mistake, these are certainly conversations that need to be had – but this isn’t the way to do it. People like Karen exist in the real world – we know this. We don’t need to watch a feature film about a white woman exploiting her race against black people, because it happens enough in real life. There’s no entertainment value in simply regurgitating real life whilst adding nothing to the conversation. If there’s one film to steer well clear of like a racist anti-masker, it’s Karen.

Karen is out now in the US.