Watch Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills For Free

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

In 1993 West Memphis, Arkansas, three young boys Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch are kidnapped and brutally murdered. Three teen outsiders Jessie Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin are soon taken in as suspects in a supposed satanic sadosexual murder ritual. Despite questionable evidence and questionable police tactics, the three are convicted with Damien getting death by lethal injection.Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky are functional documentarians. The film looks more like a TV news report from the 80s. It's gritty and raw. More than anything, it is the subject matter that is the most compelling. It's a fascinating case with exciting trial revelations and obvious injustice that is better than most fiction written in Hollywood.

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.

I always believed that a case needed only reasonable doubt to find people innocent. Apparently I was very wrong. I am in no way claiming my support for the three found guilty, but I for one could never convict them based on this evidence. The film shows just how unstable people can be when faced with those that don't conform. I was amazed by how much I disliked the parents of the murdered boys. They ramble and scream about killing these three, already convinced of their guilt. They seem more unstable and threatening to me, and not just because their children have been murdered. No real physical evidence is brought up against the boys, whom should probably start training professional killers on how not to leave evidence at a murder site. I know for a fact that a lot of details were left out of this documentary, and the celebrity worship that has followed the accused since is a bit too much. However this film is terrifying. It shows that just because of the way you look, and what people say about you, can take away your entire life. Make sure to check out all the evidence for yourself.