42 days of Darkness (42 días en la oscuridad) is Chile’s new Netflix crime thriller series, released on 11 May 2022. The series is inspired by a real-life incident where a woman named Viviana Haeger disappeared in 2010 and was found dead in her house attic, 42 days later. Directed by Gaspar Antillo and Claudia Huaiquimilla, it has 6 episodes in total. Each episode has a runtime of about 41-59 minutes.

The series stars Aline Küppenheim as Verónica, Claudia Di Girólamo as her sister (Cecilia), Pablo Macaya and Daniel Alcaíno as the Husband (Mario).

Netflix’s synopsis of the series reads as:

“In a town in Chile, a woman leads a frantic search to find her missing sister amid a media storm and the police investigation. Inspired by a true case.”

-42 Days of Darkness Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-

If You Vanished, What Would They Say About You?

The series reveals to us within the first five minutes that a dead woman is found in her house and her sister is devastated to find out the news of her death. The woman turns out to be Veronica Montes who was married to Mario Medina and had 2 daughters together, Karen and Emi. She had gone missing on June 29th, 2010, with no evidence of abduction or murder or any clue that could give the police any lead to start with.

The only thing missing from the house was Veronica’s camera while all the valuable things were left untouched. Whenever such incidents come to light where there are no leads at all and any number of possibilities can be considered, they are highlighted widely in the media with their own conspiracy theories that might even declare a random person guilty.

The kind of things that are speculated about the people connected to the case or the family of the victim is really outrageous. Some might say that Veronica ran away from home or with her lover. Her husband must have killed her or someone else in the family and hundreds of things that one can think of.

That’s when this question comes to mind, imagine if you vanished one day, what would the media and the people around you say about your life? Were you a good person, friend, sibling, husband or wife etc? Maybe it also depends on your life situation too but the question can make one reflect on their own life.

Who Is The Culprit? Biases Are Challenged In This Series

Often in crime thrillers, nothing is black & white. No one person is a villain, it is a result of various actions and situations that leads to a crime to happen. But when watching a series like 42 days of Darkness or a film of a similar genre like Gone Girl, we as viewers have our own hunches of who could it might be. This series challenges those biases that we might have.

In the cases of a wife getting murdered or missing, the first person to be suspected is the husband. It’s like everyone is secretly hoping for him to do something out of the ordinary that could be pinned against him in court during the trial. But is the husband really such a mastermind that would orchestrate a plan like that? Or is it someone external entirely that nobody will ever know about?

The cinematography and the place where the characters are set in, play a big role in setting a gloomy and sombre mood in the series. Secluded houses in the midst of nature with a lake nearby add to the mystery about the character & their life. The music and the brief humming used with it are really haunting and feel like a cry for help from Veronica.

Final Thought: Stream it or Skip it?

Netflix’s 42 days of Darkness is the first series content from the country of Chile. The story is said to be a fictional work inspired by a real incident but most of the details and the ending are exactly the same. There are some questions that can’t be answered and this crime thriller is one of them. The last episode is named, ‘Still In the Dark’ and you can imagine what to expect from it then.

It is an engaging and intriguing series for a weekend watch. I personally didn’t know about the real event and took it as a piece of fiction only, where the acting is top-notch which will confuse you till the end while guessing the culprit. Although the plot can be written more tightly as sometimes it feels like it is going on a different tangent.

42 days of Darkness focuses mostly on its characters, their inner struggles and the relationships around them. It tries to show the investigation process from the point of view of the people involved in it. What really happened to Veronica is something we all want to know about but can’t really say one exact thing with assurance.

42 days of Darkness is streaming on Netflix.

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