The Perfect 'Gone Girl' Replacement Is Officially Streaming for Free Next Month

13 hours ago 20

Libby looking out a car window in Dark Places.

Published Nov 1, 2026, 7:15 PM EST

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.

The streaming world loves a mystery to solve. In the past year, some of the biggest shows on streaming have seen troubled crime-solvers putting the pieces together on a tricky puzzle, including Chris Chibnall's Agatha Christie's Seven Dials, the latest installment in Rian Johnson's acclaimed Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and, of course, the latest Netflix adaptations of the bestselling crime writer Harlan Coben.

The most recent of these Coben adaptations, the eight-episode mystery series I Will Find You, proved an enormous hit that defied even the highest of expectations. No doubt inspired by the fame of stars Sam Worthington (Avatar) and Severance's Britt Lower, the show became one of Netflix's top ten most-watched English original scripted shows of all time, as global subscribers proved yet again how much they love a twisting mystery. For those who loved Coben's latest adaptation, one of the most underrated mystery novel adaptations in recent years is about to make its way to a new streamer.

Based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling mystery novel, which has accumulated over 823,000 user ratings on Goodreads, Dark Places will be available to stream for free on Plex, starting November 1. Penned three years before her most famous novel, Gone Girl, Flynn's Dark Places is a truly twisting tale that more than deserved its big-screen adaptation. This adaptation came just one year after the beloved, Rosamund Pike-led Gone Girl, which earned more than $370 million worldwide. Dark Places, which stars Charlize Theron, sadly collapsed at the box office, earning just $5.6 million against an $11.9 million budget.

What Did Critics Say About 'Dark Places'?

Charlize Theron reading by flashlight in Dark Places (2015)

Dark Places had the nigh-on impossible task of trying to follow the genius Gone Girl. Sadly, this proved far too much to handle for Gilles Paquet-Brenner's adaptation, which earned pretty scathing reviews from critics, illustrated by a poor 22% average rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The film was called "just plain awful" by one critic, "an apathetic film with no fire in its belly" by another, and "wishy-washy and all-round characterless" by a third.

Dark Places will be available to stream for free on Plex, starting November 1. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming stories.