Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

Directors:

Joe Berlinger
Bruce Sinofsky

Release Date:

10 June 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Crime

Tagline:

It's frightening to think they did it. It's terrifying to think they didn't.

Plot:

A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.

Plot Keywords:

Trial | Murder | Triple Child Murder | West Memphis Arkansas | Small Town

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Joe Berlinger	...	Himself (voice)
Bruce Sinofsky	...	Himself (voice)
Jessie Miskelly	...	Himself
Jason Baldwin	...	Himself
Damien Wayne Echols	...	Himself
Christopher Byers	...	Himself (archive footage)
Steven Branch	...	Himself (archive footage)
Michael Moore	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jessie Miskelly Sr.	...	Himself
Pam Echols	...	Herself
Joe Hutchinson	...	Himself
Domini Teer	...	Herself
John Mark Byers	...	Himself
Melissa Byers	...	Herself
Terry Hobbs	...	Himself
Pam Hobbs	...	Herself
Diane Moore	...	Herself
Det. Byrn Ridge	...	Himself
Regina Meek	...	Herself
Marty King	...	Himself

Directed by
Joe Berlinger
Bruce Sinofsky

Produced by
Joe Berlinger	....	producer
Loren Eiferman	....	associate producer
Jonathan Moss	....	coordinating producer
Sheila Nevins	....	executive producer
Bruce Sinofsky	....	producer

Cinematography by
Robert Richman

Film Editing by
Joe Berlinger
Bruce Sinofsky

Sound Department
Michael Karas	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Bill Carrier III	....	aerial photographer
Douglas Cooper	....	additional camera operator
John Thoma	....	second camera/ac

Other crew
M. Watanabe Milmore	....	trial segment editor

Production Companies

• Home Box Office (HBO)

Distributors

• Creative Thinking International Ltd.
• Home Box Office (HBO) (1996) (USA) (TV) (original airing)

Also Known As:

America Undercover: Paradise Lost - The Child Murders at Robin Hood Woods (USA) (series title)
Murder in West Memphis (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

150 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

West Memphis, Arkansas, USA

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Trivia:

Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky spent 79 days over a 10-month period filming in the actual Arkansas locales.

Quotes:

Damien Wayne Echols: I kind of enjoy it because now, even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. They're going to talk about me for years. People in West Memphis will tell their kids stories. It will be like, sort of like I'm the West Memphis boogeyman. Little kids will be looking under their beds before they go to bed..."Damien might be under there!"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Raises good questions, leaves others unasked.

This film left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Not that it was gruesome -- it is, but I've done research involving reading coroner reports, so gruesome I can cope with. It was the unanswered questions and the unasked questions.

It seems so utterly implausible that a jury could have convicted any of the suspects that I wonder what the filmmakers did not show us. Specifically, I wonder about the fiber evidence, which was the only real physical evidence at all.

I could only rate this documentary a 7 out of 10 because of the unasked questions and the evidence we were not shown. I would like to have come away from watching Paradise Lost with a clearer understanding of what those jurors heard and saw that led them to their verdicts. Mind you, I don't think those boys did it -- I think that even fiber evidence could have been too flimsy to convict them. But I wish I had been left convinced.