In movies, most of the attention and importance hone in on the main or titular character. This is logical since the story revolves around their mission, motivations, and fight. This is definitely the case for the film Blade (1998), an action-packed horror movie starring Wesley Snipes. Blade is a day-walking half-vampire set on a mission to eradicate blood-sucking fiends and hunt down the one who killed his mother, Deacon Frost.
Although Blade is a movie that I will watch till the end of time, I realized that one character doesn’t get enough recognition: Dr. Karen Jenson. This article spotlights an incredible and underrated character who smashes the stereotype of a woman needing to be saved.
Discovering Darkness
One night becomes a nightmare for Karen, a hematologist, when a charred vampire in the emergency room suddenly attacks her. Plagued by the flashbacks of his dying mother, Blade takes pity on her and brings her back to his hideout. There, Karen discovers a horrible truth: her transformation may be underway and that she doesn’t have long to live. Despite the clock of her human life ticking away, she doesn’t let fear deter her from saving herself and eventually Blade.
When science meets ass-kicking
As a badass doctor, Karen uses her medical knowledge to research and eventually reverse the transformation process, ultimately saving herself. Given the fact that she had a deadline of a day or two, this feat, albeit fictional, shows she’s more than capable of getting things done when it counts the most.
Besides being a medical heavyweight genius, she demonstrates compassion and a need to help others. To help Blade, she’s managed to create a stronger serum to curb his thirst, neutralizing his greatest weakness. Furthermore, she creates a bioweapon for Blade that, as she says, explodes “vampire heads”.
Making up for her physical weakness against vampires, she quickly learned her way around garlic-based mace and other weapons. However, she proved she could hold her own when she kicked her ex-boyfriend/co-worker, Curtis’s ass after he morphed into a zombie-vampire and tried to kill her. She even displayed impressive athleticism, climbing to safety using nothing but a sharpened bone and pure grit. Judging by the number of bones left in that trap, she’s likely the only person to ever make it out alive.
Finally, she saved Blade from the ritual where Frost used Blade’s blood to evoke the Blood God. She even sacrificed her own blood to restore his strength without hesitation. In the end, she is the one who indirectly saves the world from an onslaught of day-walking, bloodthirsty vampires, with Blade delivering the final blow.
Give my girl her flowers
Without Karen, it is an undeniable truth that there would have never been a Blade II. She was a formidable force, which makes her an icon. She didn’t need super-strength or fangs to stand tall; she used her intelligence to survive and win. As a Black woman, it is amazing that we even had that level of representation in horror in the 90s. Yet, she is still highly overlooked. Dr. Karen Jenson wasn’t just a sidekick; she was a brilliant, skillful Black woman who saved humanity. It’s time we give her the credit she deserves.
Who is a character in a horror movie that you think is totally underrated? Drop a comment below and give them their flowers!
