#68. Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot
Gist: What will certainly be served up by Egoyan as atmospherically cold, in 1993, in the small town and religious community of West Memphis, Arkansas, three eight-year-old boys – Stevie Branch (Jurgensmeyer), Christopher Byers (Spink), and Michael Moore (Boardman Jr.) – 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 natures of the crime. A month later, three teenagers – Damien Echols (Hamrick), Jason Baldwin (Meriwether), and Jessie Misskelley Jr. (Higgins) – are arrested after Misskelley confesses after several hours of interrogation. They are taken to trial where Baldwin and Misskelley are sentenced to life and Echols to death all while still claiming they’re innocent.
Prediction: Completed quite a while back, all signs point towards another visit to the Croisette – Egoyan would be making his ninth trip to the festival (not including his short in To Each His Own Cinema) he has been coming since 1989’s Speaking Parts. Though this isn’t Midnight Screening material in comparison to what has recently played at the fest, this is where we’re slotting the pic.
