Devil's Knot is a 2013 American biographicalcrime drama film directed by Atom Egoyan and adapted from Mara Leveritt's 2002 book of the same name. The film is about the true story of three murdered children and three teenagers, known as the West Memphis Three, who were convicted of killing the three children during the Satanic panic. The teenagers were subsequently sentenced to death (Echols) and life imprisonment (Baldwin and Misskelley), before all were released after eighteen years.[6]
In 1993, in the working class and deeply religious community of West Memphis, Arkansas, three eight-year-old boys – Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore – go missing from their neighborhood. After an extensive search, their bound and beaten bodies are found the next day. The community and the police department are convinced that the murders are the work of a satanic cult, due to the violent and sexual nature of the crime. A month later, three teenagers – Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. – are arrested after Misskelley confesses to the murders following 12 hours of interrogation. They are taken to trial, where Baldwin and Misskelley are sentenced to life in prison, and Echols to death, all the while proclaiming their innocence.
In real life, August 2011, after nearly 20 years in prison, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were given a new trial and released after entering an Alford plea, under which they remain convicted felons;[12] the boy and his mother, who testified against the defendants recanted; Lax discovered a hair sample from the crime scene that resembled Terry Hobbs's DNA[13] who was the step-father of one of the victims. The wife of John Mark Byers was found dead under "unsolved" circumstances;[13] and Pam Hobbs continued to look for the truth about her son's murder.
Colin Firth was confirmed to have joined the cast on May 21, 2012.[14] More casting announcements were made on June 27, 2012.[15] The film was produced by Elizabeth Fowler, Richard Saperstein, Clark Peterson, Christopher Woodrow, and Paul Harris Boardman, and the screenplay was written by Boardman and Scott Derrickson.[6] The first image from the set was revealed on June 26, 2012.[16]
Devil's Knot holds a 25% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The general consensus states: "Devil's Knot covers fact-based ground that's already been well-traveled with multiple (and far more compelling) documentaries."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a 42/100 rating based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21]
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