Three blood-thirsty child murders have been sent free, thanks to this one-sided propaganda piece. The whole notion that these three were the victims of small-town prejudices is nonsense. These three were not convicted because they wore black, listened to Metallica, or read Stephen King novels. That is patently absurd and is a huge insult to people in small towns. Consider the following things that this documentary conveniently omits:1) Jesse Misskelley did not have just one confession, in which he admitted to murdering those boys. He had a total of FIVE confessions!! Including a confession where his lawyer was present and advised him not to. 2) Damien was not simply a misunderstood outcast. He was certifiably mentally ill and had been in multiple psych wards prior to this incident. He was into animal torture, setting fires, drinking human blood and had talked about his desire to kill his parents. He was prone to hallucinations and often had extremely violent thoughts. One psych ward had labeled him as a psychotic and took precautions so that he wouldn't injure other patients. Incidents at the trial where qualified psychiatric professionals testified to his mental state were omitted from this farce of a documentary.Please, I urge other readers to do further research into this matter. WM3truth.com is a good source to get started.

First of all, the rating should be on the film and not anything specific it contains right so for that reason I give this one the lowest possible because it's a classic case of a bias idiotic perspective they view this case. Documentaries today is about twisting the truth rather than exposing it, the world is upside-down.So I'm 100% sure that these psycho teens committed the crime.Their defense was so apathetic, what teenager wouldn't cry, rage and just panic over the possibility of being convicted for murder if they had nothing to do with it. The one guy, the one with the black shark eyes even smirk, waves and seem a bit proud at times in and around the court room. The retard gave a statement where he confessed the crime and goes into details on what they did. This is the thing the film makers and the conspirators claim to be a false testament meaning that the police either force him to confess or that the police interrogate in such a way that the suspect are manipulated or tricked into confessing the crime. But why would this be even remotely plausible if the police on the tape question again and again about details if they police had planted the statement they wanted the suspect to say.Like "at what time did you come there" -"at 7 or 8", "before you said around 9" - "yea, around 9" , "so which is it, 7 or 8 or 9", "-8 or 9" and it goes on like this. Say that the police had their estimated time frame for the murder at 8. Why would he Not stop asking when he said 8 but instead ask again and again like a honest cop asking to get a straight answer would. No no no! His statement was real. Guilty!You should instead question these film makers and those crazy nuts giving the murderers such support on at best equally unfounded evidence that they were innocent. The women that fall in love with killers is a classic too, do you really believe this broad is the exception?Hell no, these guys planned to kill and killed these children.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) **** (out of 4) Heartbreaking, shocking and at times disturbing documentary about three teens (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.) put on trial for the murder of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The documentary, running 150-minutes, digs into the pre-trial hype surrounding the case and goes all through the trial up to the conviction of the teens. PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS is a film that got a lot of attention when it was first released but I missed out on it. In fact, I really hadn't paid too much attention to the case, although I had certainly heard about it. Going into watching this I was unaware of any of the evidence or lack thereof and I also wasn't certain about anything in the story. I'm not going to sit here and say the boys did or didn't commit the crimes but you really do have to wonder about the motives for them being found guilty. I do think the word evidence is very loosely used here and for the life of me I can't help but think things like heavy metal music and black clothes got them convicted. People are so terrified of those who dress in black yet I'm sure this redneck town had heard of Johnny Cash and I don't think they'd look at his clothes and see Satan worshipper. What impressed me most about the documentary is how open they are to all of the families involved. This includes the family of the three kids who were murdered as well as the families of the three teens convicted. The filmmakers did the right thing by not placing one over the other. While it's clear that they do paint that there's a lot of strange things going on throughout the trial, not once do they take away from the victim's families and this here is very important. The entire backwoods world is probably going to strike many as weird. The families say some pretty strange things. They act or say things that some might object to but I think what's so fascinating is that we're really seeing these people as they try to get on with their lives after losing their kids. Some of the victim's parents talk about killing the teens themselves and we even hear one guy talking about what he wants to do to them. Some might be turned off by this but I think it's an honest reaction to having your kid stolen from you and you wanting revenge. Even some of the teen's families come across saying bad things but it's good they're in the movie because it's an honest reaction to hearing your loved ones have been found guilty of something you don't think they did.Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have taken a truly grisly triple murder and turned it into some of the greatest drama you're going to witness. The events of the murders are just so chilling that you want to see justice done but at the same time the evidence on which the three were convicted is so questionable that you can't help but think that more crimes have been committed. Again, I don't know the truth. Perhaps the three teens did have something to do with it but there just wasn't any evidence. Perhaps they're innocent and have been found guilty because of the way they look. Either way, PARADISE LOST shows the pain of families who have had their children taken away from them in one way or another and the human drama here is something painful to watch but at the same time fascinating. The movie certainly gives one a lot to think about and discuss.

On May 5, 1993, three second graders, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, were reported missing and were later discovered murdered and mutilated in a small section of woods in West Memphis, Arkansas. Soon after, three teenagers, Damien Echols, 18, Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, and Jason Baldwin, 16, were arrested for the murders and put on trial.Why were they arrested? Because they were outcasts in a way. They were the strangest of the strange, and had been arrested in the past for vandalism and shoplifting. Misskelley was the first to be tried and interrogated, and with an IQ of about 72, it was safe to say the story would be jumbled and a little shaky. The actual confession from Misskelley, which we are grateful enough to hear, is full of inconsistencies (for instance, saying the murders were committed in the afternoon, then later in the evening). Miskelley was tried separately from the other two boys, and received life plus forty years in prison.The next trials were of Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, whom were tried together. It seems Echols was tried on personality and interests more than hardcore evidence. Echols appears to be an intelligent young man who has developed a fondness for wearing black, listening to Metallica, and practicing the Wicca religion - a religion where one has love for the world and the environment.Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is an excellent journey through a suspicious case and three convicted men who may not deserve to be. What is truly astonishing is how much filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were allowed to film. They seem to have been present the entire trial, day in and day out for both. We get footage I'm not sure we're even supposed to see.The interviews with the parents of the boys are haunting yet understandable. One parent says that the day the boys die he will spit and release other bodily functions on their graves. He curses the day they're born and the mothers who birthed them, as well. The other parents are stunned and saddened, some not even feeling sympathy or sorry for the three boys of the tragedy. They are far too consumed with sadness, lost, and pessimism to care.One other thing the film does very well and without apology is it shows us the inner-workings of the legal system. The case seems to be judged entirely on subjectivity and first impression. If I were to see only pictures of the three boys, without hearing a word of them I'd probably believe they did commit the murders. After hearing their pleas I can't say that I do any longer.The most convincing boy is Echols. Baldwin rarely gets any camera time, and when he does, he speaks entirely in soft-spoken fragments, yet still projects believability to his claims. Misskelley is a big confusing in his statements, but it's understandable. Not only he is slow, but he's put under an immense amount of pressure obviously making it worse.I concluded Paradise Lost with three emotions in my system; confusion, frustration, and optimism. Confusion because of what just unfolded in front of my eyes. This is a very long documentary and makes you take a lot in during its two and a half hour runtime. Frustration because the legal system the United States provides claims everyone will have "a fair trial," yet parts of the case seemed biased and judgmental. And optimism because I believe the appeals Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley have requested will provide insight, answers, and perhaps hope for the youths.NOTE: This marks my five-hundredth review. Glad it was at least a four star film.Starring: Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin. Directed by: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.