Dark Places – Read the Book

Runtime: 113 minutes

Release Date: June 18, 2015

Rating: R

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Libby Day was just as a child when she lost her entire family. Her older brother Ben became the chief suspect and landed in prison for the murders of his mother and two younger sisters. Libby became an overnight sensation for her survival, landing on the covers of magazines and doing television appearances. She even wrote a best selling book and had a group of fans raise donations in the form of $1 million for her.

Years later, Libby is an adult and still trying to recover from the events of that night. After a meeting with her agent, she learns that all the money is nearly gone because she lived off it her entire life without working a single day. She gets a letter from a young man named Lyle who asks her to meet with his group one night. His group attempts to solve mysteries and loves serial killer crimes, and he can pay her for participating.

When Libby attends, she learns that many people believe that he brother is innocent of the crime. Many think it was her estranged POS father, while others think Libby herself is to blame because she named her brother as the killer. As Libby becomes caught up in the mystery surrounding what actually happened that night, she discovers that she knows less about her family than she ever believed.

After reading and watching Gone Girl, I downloaded Dark Places and read it in a single night. It was so good that I couldn't put it down, couldn't stop talking about it, and raved to everyone that it was so much better than Gone Girl. The twists that came at the end kept me gasping page after page, and I spent much of the book trying to figure out what happened. Sadly, Dark Places was nothing like the book.

The book did a great job of making you suspect every single character and keeping you guessing. Once it finally started wrapping up all its loose ends, it was like one amazing new piece of information every page. The movie takes too long to tie up those loose ends. You learn one piece of information, get another boring scene, learn something else, another boring scene, something new. I was so excited for my boyfriend to try and figure out the ending, but it took so long for us to learn everything that it wound up being a let down.

There were multiple things that both my roommate and my boyfriend didn't understand that I had to explain. It was like the screenwriter assumed that everyone who watched Dark Places read the book and would know what was coming. Other things were glossed over so quickly that it took awhile to remember what happened earlier in the movie.

While there was some good acting in the movie, it really didn't compare to Gone Girl. Charlize Theron gave Libby such a cool and calm attitude that it seemed like she didn't give a shit about anything that happened and that she never worried or felt any type of danger. It just gave me a cold feeling that made me want to go back and read the book.

The Removed – AKA After Effect

Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: October 8, 2013
Rating: UR
Director: David McElroy


Lacie is a college student down on her luck and in desperate need of cash. Not so desperate that she's ready to hit the pole but desperate enough that she needs to make some extra cash if she hopes to stay in school. After running into an old friend, she learns that he makes extra money doing research projects. He gives her a number to call if she wants to take part in the next study. When she calls, a voice tells her when to show up and what to bring.


Once she arrives, she finds out that the building looks like a hospital on the outside but a military base on the inside. She also runs into her friend who also signed up for the study. Then we get to meet a few other random characters. There is the super lovey dovey couple who can't stand to be away from each other for more than a few minutes, a random hot girl, and of course a sassy black girl.


After the group has fun eating together and partying, they wake to find out that the study started. They all have to sit together in one room and go in one by one to meet with the scientists. Lacie gets taken to a dark room and left alone for a few minutes. Scared, she starts screaming before a weird gas starts filling the room. She passes out and later wakes back in her room.


That annoying lovey dovey couple stars making out, ripping their clothes off, and going at it. Suddenly, the girlfriend freaks out and starts attacking her boyfriend. It doesn't take long before other members of the group start following suit. What the poor college students don't know is that the study is actually part of a military experiment designed to create the perfect killing machines. Led by an unscrupulous senator, the students must find a way to get out of the facility alive.


When I tried finding information about a movie I saw called After Effect, I learned that it was originally released under the name The Removed. I'm really not sure why because it really doesn't have anything to do with that title and After Effect makes more sense given that the majority of the movie takes place after they experience the effects of some random gas.


The hands down best part of the movie is seeing Daniel Baldwin as Senator Davis. He's only in a few scenes, but he does his best to chew the scenery. It's almost like he read the script, realized he was in a crappy horror movie, and decided to just roll with it. There are literally moments where it seems like he isn't even acting! He just strolls in with an angry face and starts snapping at people. It might not seem like much to some, but it was worth it for me.


All in all, After Effect/The Returned really wasn't that bad of a flick. The scenes where the couple turn on each other were some of the best in the movie. While I wasn't a fan of the stereotypical characters or the sometimes forced love connection between two of the other characters, it really wasn't too bad. It kept me from reaching for a book or heading to Reddit, which is more than I can say for a lot of recent horror films.