Dark Places

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Dark Places

R

Released Aug 7, 2015

1h 43m

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

23%

Tomatometer

83 Reviews

33%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

A woman (Charlize Theron) confronts traumatic, childhood memories of the murder of her mother and two sisters when she investigates the possibility that her brother (Corey Stoll) is innocent of the crime.

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Critics Consensus

Dark Places has a strong cast and bestselling source material, but none of it adds up to more than a mediocre thriller that gets tripped up on its own twists.

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Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

Paquet-Brenner invests the split-time action with some brooding menace and the cinematographer, Barry Ackroyd, does his best to lend some urgency, even as things spiral from suspense into outright silliness.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 24, 2016

Full Review

Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

The film, overall, is fatally uncertain of its identity - never quite certain whether it's a gruesome murder-mystery out to shock us or a heavy, character-based drama about a family torn apart.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 22, 2016

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

All in all, its contrivances might have been indulged more satisfyingly in a TV miniseries.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 21, 2016

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

The material plays like a common potboiler mystery with predictable twists and turns. That such weighty subject matter has been reduced to such banality is a tale of true crime itself.

Rated: 2/4

May 29, 2022

Full Review

Brent McKnight

The Last Thing I See

There is quite a bit to Dark Places that appears very marketable, at least on the surface.

Rated: C-

Jul 4, 2020

Full Review

Mikel Zorrilla

Espinof

'Dark Places' is a complete waste of time that wastes Theron, Moretz and the rest of the cast to give us a lazy thriller. [Full Review in Spanish]

Apr 15, 2020

Full Review

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Martin E

I guess sometimes it's ok to score a film simply on the extent to which it moved you. This is one of those for me. Probably a particular set of triggered emotions that not everyone would have. It's hard to describe but the best I can come up with is to say that if you have a keen sense of the fine line between hope and despair, this film will probably get to you. But it's probably just me.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/02/25

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Catherine K

Very underwhelming..

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/04/24

Full Review

Deon'Jha

Makes no sense how the brother let himself take the blame for that sicko b!tch of his. He let her kill his sister and he didn't even touch her. Ain't no way. He would have been cut off completely. U can't protect your family as a man you are disgusting. Movie or not that is what made it trash.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

09/26/23

Full Review

Mark W

A poor adaptation of a pretty good book. The audience score is about right. Most book-to-film movies get flack for not being exactly the book, but that's not the problem here. Things need to be cut, but they did a poor job of it. The kids going straight from a bar to slaughtering a cow, with literally no transition, ends up being almost comical rather than sinister. Moreover the characters are done poorly. Adult Ben is supposed to be charming and young Ben highly troubled and angry, but they reversed it. Diondra is nowhere near as crazy and mean as she needs to be. One of the twists is too heavily hinted at in the beginning. The result is the transformation of a plot that is forgivably farfetched into a complete mess. This would be really good with an HBO-series treatment like Sharp Objects. I believe it would make good TV, think it really can't be done well as a movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/03/23

Full Review

Regina P

I didn't think the audience score was going to be this bad. I didn't think it was that bad. The ending does leave something to be desired, though.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/05/23

Full Review

Cristian s

Por momentos difícil de ver de lo lenta y aburrida que puede resultar pero, dentro de todo, una buena película de drama y crimen. Sacando la buena historia (pesada pero buena al fin) lo que la salvan son las actuaciones que resultan tan verídicas que la logran hacer llevadera.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/05/23

Full Review

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Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Director

Charlize Theron

Libby Day

Nicholas Hoult

Lyle

Chloë Grace Moretz

Diondra

Tye Sheridan

Young Ben Day

Sterling Jerins

Young Libby

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Dark Places: Trailer

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Synopsis

A woman (Charlize Theron) confronts traumatic, childhood memories of the murder of her mother and two sisters when she investigates the possibility that her brother (Corey Stoll) is innocent of the crime.

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Producer: Azim Bolkiah, A.J. Dix, Matt Jackson, Matthew Rhodes, Beth Kono
Screenwriter: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Distributor: A24
Production Co: Cuatro Plus Films, Exclusive Media Group, Denver and Delilah Productions, Mandalay Pictures, Source Investments B.V.
Rating: R (Language|Drug Use|Sexual Contact|Some Disturbing Violence)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 7, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 5, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $195.5K
Runtime: 1h 43m

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