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Paula Kara Reese, simply known as Kara (Karissa Lee Staples), is the main protagonist and plot-twist hidden villainess from the 2016 Lifetime film, Inspired to Kill.

Kara is an author who moved from New York to Los Angeles after the death of her boyfriend Alan, who was also her publisher. She lived with an English woman named Charlie, and while at her job as a coffeehouse cashier, she found a tablet that belonged to a man named Paul Reese, her favorite novelist. The two began a relationship after she spoke to him on the tablet. Kara also found herself falling for Jason, a co-worker of hers at a coffee shop, and was on the receiving end of unwanted advances from her teacher, Professor Cross.

Later in the film, all of the people who have apparently crossed Kara ended up dead, first Kara's controlling boss, Tony, and Professor Cross. Later on, Charlie is found murdered in her home, and Paul admits committing the murders to Kara, stating that they were all hurting her. Kara reported Paul to the police, only to find herself on the receiving end of questioning. Jason gets Kara out of interrogation by posing as her lawyer, and the return to the house. Once Kara sees Charlie's body, it is revealed that she was the one who killed her and the others, while Paul was simply a figment of her imagination.

The memories all came back to Kara, as she was revealed as a psychotic murderess. Her real name was revealed as Paula Kara Reese, and it turned out that her publisher boyfriend's death was at her hands. After finding out that he was married, Kara stalked him and later slit his throat. After moving in to Charlie's home, Kara took out her tablet and talked to herself on it, creating Paul Reese (a play on her pen name) as an alter-ego. Kara shot and killed Tony, and killed Cross by poisoning his coffee with bleach. When she saw Jason and Charlie hugging, Kara became jealous and lashed out at Charlie. Kara caught Charlie looking at her novel, which has her real name printed, and killed her to keep her quiet.

A week after the events, Kara and Jason were set to move in together, but Jason later learns Kara's dark secret when he looks at her tablet and finds the videos she recorded of her "conversations" with her alter-ego. Kara catches Jason and snaps at him before going after him with a knife. Jason fights her off and escapes, prompting Kara to chase him. Police arrived at the home and later arrested Kara for the murders, with Kara desperately trying to claim to the police and to Jason that she had nothing to do with the murders and that it was Paul who was responsible, but due to a large amount of evidence pointing at her guilt, her claims fall on deaf ears and she ended up being convicted of her crimes.

The film ends with Kara in a mental institution, where she notices one of the nurses reading her novel. She later stated that she was planning to write another novel on a scorned woman who kills the men who have wronged her; laughing maniacally before she is taken to her cell. Once there, she sees Paul once more, and believes he has come to free her, but much to her horror, Paul spitefully locks the door and leaves, causing Kara to scream in complete rage and agony, apparently realizing the cold, hard truth that it's her own evil nature and crimes, not Paul's, that caused her to earn her well-deserved punishment of spending the rest of her life in the institution.

Trivia[]

  • Karissa Lee Staples later appeared on L.A.'s Finest as the evil Holly Gero.

Victims[]

  • Alan (slit throat)
  • Tony (shot)
  • Professor Cross (poisoned his coffee with bleach)
  • Charlie (stabbed)
  • Jason (attempted to kill with a knife; stopped by police)

Gallery[]

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