Delayed Reaction: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

The Pitch: A small town blames some satanist teens for the murders of three young boys.

I'd been looking forward to seeing the Paradise Lost documentaries for a while, especially since I know where they end up. The story as I'd always heard it was that a small town went crazy when they heard the word "satanist" and blamed three teens for three murders on very weak evidence. That turned out to be a slight simplification, at least, as it's presented in the film. The documentary comes in after the (as they would come to be known) West Memphis 3 had been charged with the murders and arrested. I would've liked a little more explanation about how the police first targeted the WM3. I was confused about how Jessie Misskelly came to be questioned in the first place. After that, the documentary is thorough and engaging. I'm impressed by the amount of access the directors had to the trial, the WM3, and the victim's families. The film does an excellent job of letting the absurdity speak for itself. It would not have been hard to make the prosecution and townspeople look like oafs. The directors didn't take the bait. They presented the trial simply. It went sequentially and they interjected background when needed. They even resist the urge to use John Mark Byers too much, despite how huge his personality is. By the time it ends, with the three teens going to prison with life sentences, it trusts that the audience has enough information to be enraged.

This movie has two sequels and the WM3 eventually get released from prison. I knew that going in. I try to imagine what it would be like watching this in 1996, when it was first released. Would I think the documentary was balanced? Probably not. The case for the prosecution is weak. Very weak. I'm used to seeing things like Making a Murderer, which ignore more damning evidence in order to make the case that the subject is innocent look more airtight. It turns out, the case against the WM3 was as weak as it was presented. That's infuriating. I'm glad I didn't have to wait 18 years to see it get fixed.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend