Women in Horror: Top 30 Female Horror Movie Characters

Karen in Child’s Play (Photo: MGM/UA)

21. Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks, Child’s Play)

What parent doesn’t want to make Christmas the most magical occasion of the year for their child? Any decent mom or dad would. But what happens when you can’t find the one special toy your kid wants? What if the only one you can find is being sold out of a shopping cart by a homeless person? As you could guess, this is precisely the situation young mother Karen Barclay finds herself in.

In the original Child’s Play, Barclay is seeking a Good Guy doll for her son Andy. The one she happens to find comes with a problem— it’s possessed by a murderer named Charles Lee Ray. Donning the nickname “Chucky”, he pretends to be an ordinary doll to fool the grown-ups. His goal is to transfer his soul out of the doll’s body and into Andy’s.

Soon enough, Karen learns of Chucky’s true nature. She fights the evil doll to keep her son safe. If you’re a parent and you watch this movie, you will definitely understand her plight. Fortunately she manages to keep Andy alive, burning Chucky to a crisp in the process.

Unfortunately, while Andy returns in the sequel, his mother Karen does not. The character is revealed through dialogue to be in a mental institution. However, an after-credits scene from Curse of Chucky also reveals that Karen is still alive, as it shows a grown up Andy talking to her on the phone.