Whether you’ve never heard of the 1993 West Memphis Three case or have followed HBO’s documentaries on it (“Paradise Lost,” Parts 1 to 3), this is a compelling and comprehensive guide to one of the most Kafkaesque crime stories in American history.
The film’s co-produced by Damien Echols, one of three recently exonerated men wrongly jailed for 18 years for the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Ark. As Amy Berg’s (“Deliver Us From Evil”) jam-packed documentary shows, the teen boys’ initial convictions — largely based on “Satanic cult” scare tactics and with no demonstrable evidence — were increasingly called into question by witnesses who recanted testimony, DNA experts and even parents of the dead children, though the state steadfastly refused to revisit the case.
Berg begins at the scene of the crime and takes us all the way through the confounding innocent-but-guilty plea that liberated the three last year, then rolls out disturbing new evidence, uncovered with the help of deep-pocketed WM3 supporters like co-producer Peter Jackson, implicating a different murder suspect.
Given Jackson’s involvement, it’s perhaps not surprising “West of Memphis” runs to rather extreme lengths for a feature documentary, clocking in at 2 1/2 hours. Unlike “The Hobbit,” you won’t find yourself checking your watch.