| Genre: | Documentary |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Rating: | ? |
| Credits: | Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. |
Synopsis: In making PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky discovered the kind of small-town nightmare that is a documentary film maker's dream. In this sad, lurid and darkly transfixing story, they locate all the elements of true crime reporting at its most bitterly revealing. They also deliver a rich and paingully intimate portrait of West Memphis, Ark., a town torn apart by the strong emotions captured on screen.
"West Memphis can go to hell," somebody else replies. This mesmerizing two-and-a-half-hour documentary by the makers of Brother's Keeper often appears to corroborate that claim. The genesis of PARADISE LOST was the horrific 1993 murder of three 8-year-old boys, one of whom was genitally mutilated by his killer. Arrests soon followed: three teen-agers with well-known tastes for pop Satanism - books on witchcraft, Metallica records - were charged with the crime. The film makers may have begun this project with the thought of simply indicting small-town prejudice, since the nonconformity of the three suspects provoked their neighbors' venom. ("Johnny Cash wears black, doesn't he?" Damien's father asked plaintively, trying to defend his son against the charge of wearing sinsister clothes.) But is soon became clear that this case had a complicated, unpredictable life of its own.
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