A "dark place" can mean a literal area with little light, or an emotional state of distress. It often suggests fear, sadness, or danger, and the need for care or support.
To see a candle's light, one must take it into a dark place. Ursula K. Le Guin
For always in her there was a dark place full of despair and a great dividing force to make meaning because there was none. Anne Rice
When I was little there was a picture in one of our books, a dark place into which a single weak ray of light came slanting upon two faces lifted out of the shadow. William Faulkner
Marianne tried to stay hopeful. But slowly her imagination bulldozed her optimism aside and pushed her mind into a dark place. There, she saw Abby tethered to the boat in her bright red foul-weather gear, being dragged along dead in the sea. Abby Sunderland
I grew up in Bulgaria in a small city on the Black Sea Coast, so I was very interested in the sea, marine life, and everything related to it. But it was also a very dark place at night, so I could see the stars. And I just got very interested in it. Dimitar Sasselov
I think good art does come from a dark place. Rick Springfield