Dark Places is a 2015 mystery film written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, based on Gillian Flynn's 2009 novel of the same name and stars Charlize Theron, Christina Hendricks, Nicholas Hoult, and Chloë Grace Moretz.

Runner attempts to rip Patty's heirloom ruby necklace from her neck but, unable to do so, intimidates her and steals money from her wallet.

The stranger is later revealed as Calvin Diehl, a serial killer known as the Angel of Debt, who murders people so that their families can collect on their life insurance policies.

When her middle daughter, Debby, rushes from the bedroom seeking help for Michelle, Diehl grabs the family shotgun and kills the young girl.

The site's critics' consensus reads: "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.

[12] Peter Bradshaw's review in The Guardian wrote, "There are moments of macabre horror here, and interesting nods to Capote’s In Cold Blood, as well as America’s satanic abuse scare and the Robin Hood Hills case", but summed up the film as "a middling screen adaptation".

[13] Katie Walsh wrote in The Chicago Tribune, "It feels like the film doesn't want to commit to either pure camp or stoic darkness, fluctuating between the two...The twists, turns and reveals in the mystery sustain interest in the film, which hops between present day to the day of the murders, interspersed with Libby's flashback of fleeing the house that night.

"[15] The Observer critic Mark Kermode wrote, "Gilles 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.

[18] He called the film "a reasonably suspenseful tale populated by a slew of sordid players, bringing an outsider’s view to the seamier side of middle America that actually comes across as both gritty and fresh.

"[18] Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "As heroines go, it’s refreshing to get one as complex as this: When psychologically scarred female characters do turn up in thrillers, they're usually little more than shivering victims who set a group of male cops in motion, but here, Libby does her own detective work, while Hendricks lends star power to the flashback scenes.

[19] Chris Nashawaty's review in Entertainment Weekly stated Dark Places "isn’t terrible, exactly, but disappointing considering its cast and source…[It] just becomes an overstuffed, low-simmer potboiler with too many improbable detours and overly convenient twists".

[20] In January 2024, it was announced that Flynn would serve as co-creator, writer, and co-showrunner on a new limited series based on Dark Places for HBO.