Devil's Knot
Dir: Atom Egoyan
2013
**
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Atom Egoyan's adaption of the Devil's Knot, the story of the West Memphis Three. The casting, direction and turn of events are all well thought-out and thorough. The real people depicted are honestly portrayed, as are events and reactions. One of the points I liked about this dramatization the most was the fact that the film recognizes and features Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky and their Paradise Lost film crew (I was worried they'd been left out and ignored) but this leads me to the big Elephant in the room; Devil's Knot brings nothing new to the story. The Paradise Lost films and Amy Berg's West of Memphis documentary cover everything you could possibly want to know about the case and every person involved has their screen time and story told. Chris Morgan's story gets more time as does the bloody/muddy man seen in the local restaurant's toilet on the night of the murders, but this is where dramatization takes over unnecessarily. Both issues are analysed over four separate documentaries, as is everything else regarding the case. I'm not sure what Devil's Knot's purpose is, other than for people who don't watch documentaries, but then why should people not interested be catered for? If you're going to do a dramatization of the story that is worthy then you'd need to make a miniseries, which might not be a bad idea, this made for TV film doesn't do the story justice.