If you were to take nothing but the various components at face value, then 2015’s psychological thriller Dark Places would lead you to believe that it was going to be a top-tier addition to the ever-expanding murder mystery canon.
Writer and director Gilles Paquet-Brenner was adapting the novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, the novelist-turned-screenwriter to gifted Gone Girl to the world, while the ensemble was loaded from top to bottom with esteemed talent dripping in awards recognition.
Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominee Nicholas Hoult, six-time Emmy-nominated Christina Hendricks, Emmy nominee Corey Stoll, Emmy winner Drea de Matteo, and rising stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Tye Sheridan were all present and accounted for, which made it even more shocking when the movie turned out to suck unfathomably hard.
Notching a 23 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and 33 percent approval rating from audiences, Dark Places also conspired to implode in a blaze of ignominy at the box office by failing to barely recoup even half of its modest $12 million budget from theaters, an unthinkable outcome for a supremely stacked story of Theron’s Libby suspecting that her brother is innocent of murdering their mother and two sisters, a crime for which he’s long since been imprisoned.
To be far, the cast and conceit is more than enough to pique interest if you’re unaware Dark Paces is awful, but ViaPlay subscribers will be discovering the unfortunate outcome for themselves now that FlixPatrol has revealed it to be one of the top-viewed features on the entire platform.