The case of all cases for me, I keep returning back, every time I read a new book on the subject. Three 8 year old boys lose their lives, but are the correct killers on trial? A case of tragedy, that leaves many outstanding question marks! This is either a case for having the right people, with a high knowledge of forensic cleaning, or coerced statements, innocent young boys in prison sitting in prison, whilst thevtrue culprit/s sit in wait.

That's really all there is to it. This film is raw. This film will tear into you. More than just emotional, this film is magnetic. What is it really? A simple film; a simple subject. This movie is put together with simple style. It's mostly interviews and mostly hand-held, and yet somehow it eclipses so many more complex and more expensive movies when it comes to emotion. Like I said, this film is magnetic. It is not a movie that you have to work yourself up to watch. Sit down, press play, and this thing will take you. This is the sort of movie that makes you pay attention to it and once you pay attention to it, there's no escaping its impact. More so than any thriller, this is a movie that you can't look away from. Even if you already know how it will end, this film will affect you. At the end of the day, there must just be something to seeing someone look you in the eye, and pour their heart out. That's what this movie is all about.

To begin with, at first when Metallica's opening chords for their great song 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' came up at the start of the movie - as the bodies of the three children being pulled from the site where they were discovered in the Robin Hood woods - I was taken aback. It seems a little much to put that music to these images, probably images that would work best without any music or a different theme. But it becomes clearer why this is used - there's an ominous, dark tone that the filmmakers (one of whom, Joe Berlinger, would go on to make a Metallica documentary), Metallica actually does the music for the movie (all those metal-music moments are them), and for Damien Echols this was the song that made his situation remind him of the most: being stuck in a place where time stands still, no one leaves and no one will (as the song goes). Paradise Lost is the story of an insane situation, for both the parents of the victims (who think and/or know these teenagers are guilty, even before any facts are presented) and for the teenagers themselves (one of them is a 72 IQ).It would be one thing though if the film were just a true crime story, or a story of justice - or, it should be said injustice, since it's a thing that, perhaps after the fact or in hindsight one knows in 2016 the convicted killers were pardoned in 2011 after so much evidence that was tainted or botched and so on was revealed - but it's also a story of a particular place. West Memphis, Arkansas and its people are like another character, and the directors get some compelling footage and images from this part of the country where everything is just flat in the landscape sense, it looks the same at Christmas time as it does in the summer (it's kind of jarring to see all those decorations up with everything seeming to look the same), and Church is with a capital 'C' and many attend in order to ward off Satan. One of those is Mark Byers, a man who has quite a singing voice in Church and a helluva way with a pistol outside of it; see the scene where he talks about using the teenagers to shoot at with a pumpkin as his target.It's easy to see at first why tempers and passions would be so heated: three young children killed but more to that, mutilated (some of the details are sickening), and left in such a way that brings up the occult. One of the things that makes this movie stick out, to a point where it's difficult to say that the filmmakers aren't balanced, is that they show the parents of the kids as much as the killers on trial - prosecution and defense get fairly equal time on camera, albeit as the trial goes along further for Baldwin and Echols the evidence points more to not guilty than guilt. Even if one watches it today and knows the outcomes of the trial (and what happened years later) there's so much compelling information and testimony and characterizations to go on; how Echols is on the stand; how Byers changes from one place (church, shooting at a pumpkin) to another (on the stand, with a brain tumor that may or may not be there); teenage girls who won't be on camera, leaving the filmmakers to get creative with their coverage; the families and people watching who can't take it; a moment with Echols and his baby in the courtroom.The film is long at 2 1/2 hours, but it never feels it, and the movement from one point in the case to the next becomes more disheartening as it goes along. The first part where Misskelley has his separate trial is hard enough to take (that involved the confession that was false) and is heartbreaking to watch; the second part is where the details in the case gain traction - this piece doesn't fit here, the reasonable doubt there, what happened with this piece of evidence that was *lost* - and in a way knowing the outcome makes it all the more tragic and captivating. I wish I had been there at the time to see this without knowing the results, and perhaps it would have made for a different viewing experience. As it is, Paradise Lost captures not just a court case or grisly murder, but a set of feelings and emotions in the air in that place and time: rage, confusion, desperation, fear and disillusionment with the public and law enforcement and so on. It has staying power past being a typical, dark-envelope-pushing HBO documentary.

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.