In partnership with Lifetime and directed by Simone Stock, “The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story” is an adaptation of the true event starring Katie Douglas as Kara Robinson, Kristian Bruun as Richard Evonitz, Cara Buono as Kara’s mother, and several others. The screenplay, written by Haley Harris, is based on the traumatic childhood event of Kara Robinson, who sustained a harsh kidnapping and summoned down the manslayer. The names and designations of the characters are not altered in the script.
Spoilers Ahead
The Real Story Behind Kara Robinson
A 15-year-old teen Kara Robinson got kidnapped by Richard Evonitz, who served in the US Navy and was later identified as a rapist and murderer. Her survival instincts cannot be underestimated, as she did her best to abscond from the hell she had been cooped up in for eighteen long hours. She waited for the right moment to mislead the monster to escape and got herself the rightness she deserved. Currently, Kara is working as an established lawyer, author, orator, and executive producer. She is the silver lining to your clouds. The 90 minutes of the film would showcase the damage and wound that Kara has suffered till her reconciliation.
The Peace Before Chaos Arrives
The opening scene of the real-event-based movie is pretty soothing, where Kara and her best friend Jess (Sophia Carriere) are sleeping like babies. But who knew the calm environment was soon going to bring a turbulent storm into Kara’s life? The two teens plan how to start the day off after a sleepover at Jess’s place. Kara calls up her mother, Debra, who seems quite concerned about her daughter, especially when Kara urges her to visit her father, as the couple has already been separated for quite some time. The plan is sorted not just for Kara but her mother, who hints at having a date night – showcasing exactly a warm bond between the two.
While Jess went to take a shower, Kara was seen watering the plants in the yard in South Carolina. On June 24, a man in his mid-forties, wearing beige jeans and a formal blue shirt, came out of his Trans Am offering leaflets to Kara. She replied that it was her friend’s house and her family was not available right now. At gunpoint, the man pressured her to get inside a plastic storage container stowed at the back of his black car. Here begins the deadly journey of Kara Robinson, a 15 years old innocent girl heavily panting inside the claustrophobic container that would surely make your blood run cold.Â
Satanic Energy vs. Angelic Power
The man stops the car midway and threatens her with the gun, saying that each of her steps will face fatal circumstances. He uses the handcuffs and ball-mouth gag to shut her up until they reach his messy apartment. Kara started tracking the moves he made each second to get out of the place as soon as she could. She remembered the reference number on the back of the plastic box he made her lie down in. The brutal man started taking notes about Kara and her family members, including Jess as well. She has been asked about her boyfriend, Ryan, and if she has been involved in sexual intimacy so far or not.
After such a nasty investigation, the man, later recognized as Richard Evonitz, a serial killer, physically assaulted her for hours. It did not stop there; the man asked her to smoke and forced her to watch adult movies with him. How did Kara respond to all of these strange things? She noticed every little detail and asked him about his personal life. He was playing classic rock music, smoking Marlboros, and making dinner for the two of them. Kara’s self-preservation skill seems way too strong, as she doesn’t complain about anything to him but rather follows all his words and helps him clean the kitchen floor too. Not just a cluttered space with irrelevant furniture and wall paintings, his apartment is a shelter for birds, guinea pigs, rats, lizards, fish, and other little creatures. The man tries to convince Kara that her missing news is still not among the top news, and thus nobody cares for her.
Soon, Kara wins his trust with manipulation, and her survival impulses help her gather enough information, like the name and details of his physician and dentist. Think of such a horrible night when you are sharing the bed with a kidnapper—the man fastened her hands and legs so that she could not run away. Our willpower gives us strength to go through any hardships, and so was with Kara. In the early morning, Kara, with her sharp teeth, removed the handcuff set and unbuckled the limb restraint while her abductor was sleeping and snoring. She crept gently to the main door, unlocked it, and skedaddled out of hell.
Fearless Kara and Her Intuition: See Who Wins?
Kara found her own way out to the parking area, where she saw two men in a car. She shared her ordeal with the men, and believing her words, they took her to the nearby police station. Kara introduces herself to the cops and describes the nightmare she has gone through in the past few hours. With her acute observation and insight, Kara led the police back to the apartment to find the killer, but he fled. On the investigation board, Kara shared all the details from last night, which helped the officials continue their further operations. They discovered a sealed store containing old newspapers about the suspicious deaths of three girls: Kristin Lisk, Sofia Silva, and Kati.
The younger children all disappeared in Spotsylvania County, molested and dumped over by the kidnapper before Kara’s case came into the scene. All along her near death trauma, her parents and friends were there as “green lights.” Finally, after getting information from Evonitz’s family, the police were able to track him in Florida. He tried to escape but eventually got caught by the cops. He shot himself to death before any inspection would have followed.
Coming to Kara, ignoring all the questions and care coming from her mother, the strong girl tries to act as if nothing has happened and wants to get back to normal. She followed Jess and Ryan to the playground for a soccer match. It could be the coping mechanism that she was enacting to get herself “justice.” Her mom arranges a nice breakfast to make Kara feel better, but when she learns about Evonitz’s suicide, she bursts into tears. She wanted to see the demon rotting behind bars for years and years, but justice didn’t happen the way she expected it to. It was the sheriff who made her understand that she is one of the rarest humans who is not a victim of the situation but rather a survivor—who created an example for the world!
The movie is going to creep you out as you see the evil torturing a girl who is too young to understand the concept of rape. It took years for Kara to be healed, but the moment she told her mother that she was the same person and that nothing had changed defined her unbreakable attitude. We are not capable of gluing the pieces back together once something is broken, but Kara, with her on-the-spot master plan, found a way to give closure to the families who had lost their kids.