Review of Devil's Knot (2013) by Zachary S — 09 Dec 2014

The case of the West Memphis 3 has fascinated me for years, and the documentaries filmed about it are all fantastic and gripping to watch. They will make you furious, sad, confused and fearful for the state of humanity in light of the injustice of what's happening. This movie on the other hand, a dramatized version of what the documentaries already covered...not so much. This movie really is a missed opportunity, because the cast is for the most part good and seem to be giving it everything they've got. The problem is everything else.

The script is messy and jumbled, the cinematography is atrocious (with half the movie being completely blown out - as if they didn't know what an F-Stop was), and the editing is confusing, with some scenes ending abruptly and others featuring unnecessary music over scenes that didn't need them. Putting Slayer music over a 20 second scene where the 3 boys are being led to police cars was not only pointless and hindered the scene, it was borderline offensive, as if heavy metal was the only thing noticable about them.

The movie gets better as it goes, but when it ends it ends like they just gave up and frankly they missed a lot of things that could've gone to making it a more dramatic retelling of these horrible true events. So in conclusion, despite the decent cast, stay away from this one and stick to the documentaries. They tell the story WAY better.