Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Byers was the Forrest Gump of this series so much I fully expected him to unintentionally stumble upon solving the case in the third entry. "Have you found Jesus yet, Byers?" John Mark Byers: "I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir."

Starved of the unprecedented access allowed to the first documentary and saddled with inevitable (and understandable) bias, this lacks the impact or insight of the original. Some moments of interest, but most of these can be gleaned from a quick read of the cases aftermath. Focusing too much on the walking sideshow that is Byers also gives this a more sensationalist feel, however unintentional.

The John Mark Byers show

In "Revalations", Berlinger and Sinofsky discover the full 'observer effect' of their filmmaking. On the one hand, the first film had inspired a public movement to free the West Memphis 3; on the other hand, they're no longer welcome to film the retrial among other things. The defense casts further suspicion on John Mark Byers, and personally I grew to hate investigator Gary Gitchell and judge David Burnett even more. It's an upsetting but really great show.

I'm sick of people complaining about a lack of "objectivity" in a documentary that is clearly trying to argue a position. There is no rule which forbids a documentary from taking a stance on an issue. Concerning objectivity: If one is objective, one looks strictly at the reality of the situation without prejudice. Notice how this doesn't exclude an objective judgment from forming a conclusion. If being objective is sucking your thumb and saying "I don't know", then what the hell is the point?

Mark Byers is 100% guilty...of being a melodramatic douche. I'm happy for his wife for getting out of that relationship.

Wow, just wow. Mark Byers is one big freak. Watch the first part before you watch this. Crazy charachter development. And it's all in real life.

The questions concerning this infuriatingly poorly tried case remain equally compelling. The long-windedness of this sequel combined with the tragedy of the many horrific events (re-)referenced makes it a rather tough watch, however.

Not as well done nor as gripping as the original.

An excellent follow-up documentary to the first Paradise Lost and it's utterly terrible to watch knowing that, even now, the West Memphis 3 have been in jail since their teen years for a crime that more and more evidence suggests they didn't do. One point I believe it does raise is that the father of one of the children, John Mark Byers, is often thought of as a killer due to how "weird" he comes across, which is the same reason the West Memphis 3 were placed in jail. Great documentary overall.