Watch: Gillian Flynn’s Horrifying ‘Dark Places,’ Starring Charlize Theron, Gets First Trailer

A first trailer has arrived for “Dark Places,” writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s second novel “Dark Places.”

Dwelling in even grimmer terrain than her pulpy page-turner “Gone Girl,” the murder mystery turns on Libby Day (Charlize Theron), the sole survivor of the 1985 mass murder of her family of Kansas farmers committed by her teenage brother Ben—or did he actually commit these gruesome, purportedly Satanic killings? Now grown up, in her early 30s and barely eking a living out of her faded celebrity status, Libby is approached by members of the Kill Club, an underground society of true-crime devotees. She reluctantly takes on their assignment to track down her missing father, finally face her life-imprisoned brother and solve whether or not Ben was actually responsible.

The 2009 novel is a slick, nasty and wincingly funny piece of work with a female protagonist who for some may be even more unlikable than “Gone Girl”‘s enigmatic Amy Dunne. The cast also includes Corey Stoll, Tye Sheridan, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicholas Hoult, Sterling Jerins and Christina Hendricks.

But without Flynn, whose witty and vivid prose carries this dark tale, writing the script, can this really deliver on the promise of “Gone Girl”? A24 has picked up “Dark Places” for US release, though no date has been set. The film opens in Paris on April 8th. Here’s the French-subtitled trailer though, full disclosure for those who plan to read the book, it’s rather spoiler-heavy.