Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) on Netflix
NR19962h 30m
In 1993, three eight-year-old boys are found dead in a ditch in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. are charged as the town blames Satanism.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb8.2/1019,838 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
West Memphis, Arkansas, May 1993: Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, all eight years old, are found dead in a ditch. Detectives and the victims' parents come to believe a satanic ritual is behind the killings, and three teenagers are arrested: Jessie Misskelley Jr., who gave police a confession, and Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, whose case is tried separately. Much of the community is conservative and Evangelical, and Echols' reading of occult authors is held against him, as is the three teenagers' fondness for Metallica. Misskelley's trial is covered first, then the proceedings against Echols and Baldwin, with interviews with families, police and defendants recorded at Arkansas locations.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While the filmmakers were shooting, John Mark Byers, stepfather of victim Christopher Byers, handed them a knife with blood in its hinge. They turned it over to police, whose DNA tests linked the blood to Byers and Christopher Byers but were inconclusive because the sample was fragmented.
- Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills was the first film Metallica authorized to use their music, which stands in for an original soundtrack. The accused teenagers were fans of the band, something that played a part in their trials.
