Photo of Mark Byers courtesy of Warp
The great thing about horror films is that even while you’re shitting your pants, you know deep down that everything is going to be ok—in and outside the film. This is not the case with Paradise Lost, the Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky doco about three young guys accused of the murder of three children in West Memphis. It’s as frightening as the worst horror film you ever saw and the ‘bad guy’ is more insane than any character any director has ever dreamt up, but it’s way more scary because everything you see actually happened.
When Joe and Bruce (who have since made the Metallica doco Some Kind Of Monster) began filming Paradise Lost, they believed they were going to be making a film about disaffected youth and the rise in the number of child murderers—something like a real life River’s Edge. As it turns out, what they caught on film was an outrageously bungled trial which put three kids in jail—one of them on death row—based on practically no evidence. In a town full of Christian fundamentalists, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who admitted to dabbling in Wicca, didn’t stand a chance.
VICE: Since your documentary came out, support for the West Memphis 3 has spread like wildfire. Henry Rollins is now even donating money from his gigs to the cause. What is likely to happen from here?
Joe: They have been in jail for ten years already and the only chance for them now is if the case is heard at a Federal level. There is a chance that the police may actually carry out some DNA testing and if that doesn’t match that of any of the accused, they may get the trial. It has taken five years to even get to this point. The guys are rotting away in there and because child murderers are at the bottom of the prison ladder, it isn’t pretty.
Mark Byers (the step father of one of the murdered children) is a total nutcase. You couldn’t have scripted a more ridiculous character and he comes across as totally guilty.
I’m not going to say that he was the killer but a much stronger case should have been made against him. The police should have investigated him much further.
Apart from the fact that it’s likely there are three innocent kids in jail while the real killers are roaming free, what scared you most about making this film?
I guess the scariest thing really is that we happened to stumble upon just one miscarriage of justice and it’s only for that reason these guys stand a chance. What scares me most are all the cases that nobody hears about.
BRIONY WRIGHT
Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations are available now as a box set through Inertia.
