West Of Memphis
Directed by Amy Berg; starring: Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin; Universal Sony, 2012, 147 mins, DVD $19.99
Nothing causes public hysteria and outrage like the murder of a young child. When three 8-year-old boys mysteriously disappear from the small town of West Memphis in 1993, and their naked bodies are later found in an irrigation ditch, the town’s residents demand quick and severe punishment for those responsible. Further details emerge during the rushed investigation, such as marks on the boy’s bodies (including their genitals) which look like knife wounds. Rumours circulate in the town that the deaths were part of a satanic ritual involving the drinking of human blood.