Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000)

Directed by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars: Jessie Misskelly Jr, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, John Mark Byers, Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, Brent Turvey

After the events of the first film, the story of the West Memphis Three has made international news. The way that the first film unfolds it is revealed that the boys did not receive a fair trail when they were convicted of murdering Chris Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore in 1993.

A group has formed to free the three who are now in the their twenties lead by Burk Sauls who has gathered people from across the nation in order to stomp for the cause of freeing them.

This movie does not have the same impartiality as the first film. It seems to take a very pointed look at the stepfather of one of the victims named John Mark Byers. He is a man that has very heated threates against the WM3. he is shown to have has a violent past. There was the mystery behind his wife's death. Damien Echols himself pointed the finger at Byers saying that he was the one who killed those boys.

There were experts for the defense that were not used during the first that dissemable the porsectuiong notions that the boys were killed in a different place and they bodies were dumped in the creek bed that faithful May day. An expert named Brent Turvey was shown the crime scene photo that suggested that one of the boys has a bite mark on his face that did not match anybody of the convicted men.

During the course of the film, it was suggested that the WMPD have covered up potential evidence that would have exonerated the teens, but either it was destroyed or simply lost.

The major misstep with this movie was the pointed way that the filmmakers accused John Mark Byers as the  killer without any evidence of his guilt or innocence. After a while, I had grown tired of looking at Byers face all the time if he was burning the graves of the killers with gasoline, him pulling out his dentures or his constant presence at the numerous appeals that the men have filed. It grew tiresome.

My Rating: