Dark Places (2015)

A few years ago, Gillian Flynn's novel "Gone Girl" was turned into a film that received Academy Award consideration. While I won't go so far as to say that "Dark Places" is quite as good as that one, there must have been something going on behind the scenes in the production that really hampered its marketing. It doesn't nearly deserve the terrible reputation it is receiving right now.

For a basic plot summary, "Dark Places" tells the story of Libby Day (Charlize Theron), a woman still haunted by the memory of a childhood incident in which her brother murdered the rest of the family...or did he? Down to her last dollar and no longer able to exploit public sympathy, Libby hooks on with a group of murder investigators/enthusiasts led by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult), who pay her to re-examine that infamous past night. The lead-up to the massacre is told in flash-backs, featuring Ben Day (Tye Sheridan & Corey Stoll) as the supposed killer and mother Patty (Christine Hendricks) as the mother hanging on by a thread. What really happened that night? That won't be determined until the final memories begin falling into place.

To me, "Dark Places" matches up pretty favorably with "Gone Girl" (I actually liked this one even better as a book than I did "Gone Girl"). They both have a pretty respectable cast (even Chloe Moretz has a key role in this), they both feature a psychological thriller/mystery at the heart of the narrative, and both are thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end.

So, why did "Gone Girl" soar while "Dark Places" puttered out? There seemed to be very little advertising for "Dark Places", it premiered in very few theaters, and came to home video right away. There is also a sense (while watching the film) that the production value isn't quite as good as maybe it could be. Not overly detrimentally to the experience, by any means, but also not quite as polished as "Gone Girl". It felt a little bit cobbled together and stunted when it could have been just as great and nuanced as its Flynn-inspired predecessor.

Overall, though, "Dark Places" is a pretty solid movie that (for whatever reason) gained such a bad reputation that it flopped early and often. If you enjoyed the book, though, I think you will like this one just as much. Don't be scared away by a few bad reviews and some terrible score markings on other websites...it isn't nearly that bad!! Had some of the kinks been worked out of it, it could have been a lot more well-received.

Fmovies: I'm going to do this short and sweet: This film starts out like an episode of "True Detective" or "Touching Evil", and then as it comes down to the final inning, shifts into a beautifully paced and developed revelation, that is truly unexpected and chilling.

Charlize Theron, as always, is amazing. Her performance here has the intensity of both "Monster" and "North Country, " and she gets great support from the supporting cast.

Ignore negative reviews. This is a film that you need to see and then make an opinion about. For me, this was a very satisfying and effective movie that deserved far more accolades than it has received.

After viewing "Dark Places", It is hard for me to comprehend that it is not receiving a positive buzz right now. After being somewhat disappointed with "Goodnight Mommy" and seriously disappointed with "It Follows," "Dark Places" is a thriller that actually thrills. Bottom line" you need to see it!

Dark Places was interesting but not as riveting as I had hoped. I never had a chance to read the book - because the movie came out very early in France - so I watched the film with fresh eyes not knowing what I was in for. Problem solver that I am, I watched the film looking for clues but I fairly quickly had all the right suspects lined up before I even got through a quarter of the movie. I don't know if it's a testament to my "mad" deductive skills or a lack of mystery in the story telling. The exact same thing happened to me with Gone Girl - the book - which is why I didn't finish reading it. I guess I was hopping for more of a challenge with Dark Places, something that would have surprised me at the end.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the film, particularly how Libby's past memories were shot. They had an 1980s feel to them, I mean in the quality of the images, they had an old VHS tape look to them. They were grainy and shaky, which also gave them an horror movie vibe, while at the same time illustrating how Libby feels about them.

The film is like the title suggest dark, and I'm not just talking about the murders but the whole context the characters are in. It's socially realistic, you really feel for the struggling mother (Christina Hendricks) and her kids, the poverty and the hardship of their situation is almost palpable and that's thanks to Hendricks' performance. The rest of the cast is good but Christina Hendricks and Corey Stoll stand out and elevate the film.

So to me Dark Places really depicts how prejudices, despair, and a bunch of white lies can snow ball and change people's lives forever. It's definitely not thriller of the year but the film is not boring. @wornoutspines

Dark Places fmovies. I am one of the lucky guys to watch this movie in Paris earlier than the fans around the world. After the initial 30 minutes, the movie starts picking up its pace which was maintained till the end.The screenplay and direction were near perfect.

Needless to say, Charlize Theron has done an amazing job in acting. She carries the film on her shoulder from the beginning to the end. Next to her, Chloe has done a good job. Apart from these actors, the other people play a little role.

I can say that it's better than Gone Girl. Just go for it people. You won't get disappointed. My rating : 9/10.

Ungodly and sinister, Gillian Flynn's Dark Places is just as devilish as you hope.

Again Gillian Flynn takes inspiration from the headlines, this time Dark Places sheds unsettling and ominous light on the famed mass murders that capture society's attention.

When Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was just seven years old, she was the lone survivor and he family was viciously murdered in what the media claimed was a satanic occult sacrifice at the desolate farmhouse in Kansas. Her brother Ben, just fifteen at the time, was found to be guilty. Twenty-five years later, in desperate need of cash and with no way to get it except capitalize and exploit her seedy past, she allows an organization obsessed with real life murders investigate the case with her help, as they hope to exonerate Ben. As she investigates her past, she opens old wounds and uncovers things about her life she had long since buried deep in her soul.

Not being able to speak of the novel, the Dark Places as a film does a great job of leading you on myriad paths of misdirection. The audience desperately following leads and evidence to discover the truth of what happened that fateful night in the when a family was brutally murdered, leaving two surviving siblings left standing when the carnage stopped. The multi-layered story is well paced and realistically utilizes real life murders and victims for a believable interpretation of a crime.

Gillian Flynn and her fellow screenwriter of the adaptation, Gilles Paquet-Brenner, do a marvelous job of refusing to resort to lazy exposition, showing rather than telling. The result is an engaging mystery that garners your full attention in the hopes you might be able to deduce the truth of the heinously bloody murders. Paquet-Brenner does double duty in directing the film, and translates the subject matter with cohesively gritty and complementary cinematography.

It seems as though fans of the novel were a bit disappointed in the casting for this film, that Theron does not match the physicality of Flynn's written description. Not knowing this fact, Charlize Theron is flawless as the tortured lead Libby. Her Libby and the medley of supporting characters are gripping and match the brutal content of the film.

Dark Places is a satisfying mystery that tells of savage desperation and sadistic cold-hearted murder. Given the weak and bland thrillers of recent years that shy away from the truly horrifying callous of human nature, fans of the genre should be pleased.

7.5/10 Please check our website for full reviews of all the recent releases.

I didn't care much for Gone Girl -- maybe it was Ben Affleck -- but I was drawn to this movie despite that. Maybe it was Charlize Theron, maybe it was Nicholas Hoult, whom I have enjoyed watching grow into a first rate actor since his days in Skins. In any case, whatever reservations I had at first rapidly dissolved into a distant memory as the first ten minutes passed.

Usually I roll my eyes at flashback-driven efforts, but not so with Dark Places. Each switch back to 1985 is like the tumblers on a lock giving that satisfying click as you pick it, breeding anticipation and certainty that there is a rich reward at the end for your efforts, every scene evoking a subtle revelation that drives the story onward.

Well cast, well scored, well directed, Dark Places deserves more recognition than it has garnered. If I had to point out one flaw, it would be a forgivable one; MISFITS swag was not that easy to come by in 1985.