With Paradise Lost, filmmakers Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger focus on a crime that is as horrific as any found in this world, the murder of innocent children. It's a subject matter so sensitive that to appear to take any liberties with the truth, or to place entertainment value above accuracy, would be unforgivable. Aware that they are walking a fine line, Sinofsky and Berlinger present the facts of the case in unflinching detail, relying on courtroom footage and extensive interviews with both the accused and the victims' families to tell the story. In 1993, in the town of West Memphis, Arkansas, the local police discovered the bodies of three young boys, found dead in the woods with their genitals mutilated. The film opens at the crime scene on the day the bodies were found, and while the camera does not dwell on gruesome close-ups, the image of the naked corpses is arresting in its raw brutality. Through a series of radio and TV broadcasts we learn that three teenage boys have been accused of the crimes and that satanic ritual is strongly suspected as their motive.
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelly were always outsiders in the conservative community of Robin Hood Hills, and over the years had learned to embrace that role. Damien, in particular, enjoyed the public's perception of him as a strange and possibly dangerous character, and made no secret of his interest in witchcraft and heavy metal music. Searching for an explanation, the grieving town is ready to convict the boys before the trial even begins. In a very telling interview, the mother of one of the victims explains her certainty of their guilt, stating, "Just look at the freaks...They look like punks."
