Movies
[BD Review] West Memphis Three Drama ‘Devil’s Knot’ Is Completely Unnecessary
The entire case against them was based on a forced confession, and their love of horror movies, Slayer, and Stephen King. Their story resonated with a lot of people all over the world. Anyone who’s ever been called a “freak” or any other misguided insult because of their taste in music, movies, and clothes could relate to them. Especially Echols, their supposed ring leader who allegedly coerced them into committing human sacrifice. He always seemed a little too smart for his own good. In the courtroom, he showed surprising defiance in the face of authority, even with his life on the line.
The 20 years of injustice wrought upon these three men was extensively chronicled in the Paradise Lost trilogy of documentaries – three compelling films that kept Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley in the public consciousness and, according to some, had a lot to do with their release in August 2011. In 2012, a comprehensive documentary called West of Memphis was released, which covered everything from the initial trial to their release following a controversial “Alford Plea.”
Those four films covered every angle of the case through its two decade history, so is there any need for a dramatization of it? Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot attempts to argues that there is, but the film provides no new insight or weight to the saga of the West Memphis 3. There’s just no reason this film should exist.
Devil’s Knot features a cast of big names, including Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, but wastes their talents on what can be considered a standard courtroom drama. It has the vibe of a television movie and does a lackluster job capturing the hysteria that consumed that small town of fanatics. The four documentaries do a far better job evoking the drama and frustration of the trial while exhaustively covering the angles. Devil’s Knot fails to do pretty much anything except cover ground already combed before. The various trials and appeals of the West Memphis 3 is one of the most vexing and obscene cases of injustices in recent history, yet none of this is captured in Egoyan’s film.
Even viewed as a primer on the West Memphis 3 for folks who aren’t familiar with the case, Devil’s Knot works poorly. When instances of “lost” evidence and flawed witnesses appear, they feel very haphazard and may be confusing for the unacquainted. For example, the information concerning the woman who made a deal with the cops if she’d have her son deliver a false confession was a major blemish during the first trial, but here it’s presented in a manner out of step with the rest of the film.
The bits of fiction thrown in for emotional effect are cheap and laughable. In one scene, Witherspoon, who plays Pam Hobbs, the mother of one of the murdered boys, is hugged by a group of schoolchildren. Gimme a break. Firth plays a legal aide attempting to clear the teens’ names and while his character lacks depth, we are told by his ex-wife that “he becomes obsessed with his cases” and that he has to defend them because “no one else will.” It’s some of the most cliche lawyer “characterizations” ever.
It’s a damn shame the cast isn’t given some ripe material to work with, especially the supporting cast that boasts the likes of Elias Koteas and Bruce Greenwood. The mighty Kevin Durand (Lost) is perfectly cast as John Mark Byers, the bible thumping looney tune who gifted a knife to the Paradise Lost documentary crew. So what if there was some human blood on the knife, he doesn’t know how it got there!
Devil’s Knot is simply an unnecessary movie that rehashes material that’s been extensively covered before in films, books, and television. It closes on title cards that explain the direction the appeals and investigation went in after the initial trial, teasing the audience with material far more interesting then what they just sat through.
Despite Devil’s Knot being completely useless, it does reinforce the saddest thing about the whole saga: the real killer is still out there.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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