Twenty one years ago, three teenagers by the names of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were arrested and accused of murdering three young children in some sort of satanic ritual. While there was no DNA evidence to link them to the murder, they were sent to prison mostly because they listened to heavy metal music. They were freed three years ago, after spending 18 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. You can read more about the trial in our original coverage.
The story, which gets much more intense than that is the subject of a new film, featuring two Academy Award winners performing in it: that'd be Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon. The film is called Devil’s Knot and it's written and directed by Atom Egoyan. The movie comes out May 9th and there is a trailer that was just released:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzwfyASKPWU[/youtube]
The trailer only mentions that the three boys were "freakish" but made no mention of their metal ways. The film seems to focus on the mother of the murdered child and the lawyer, Firth, trying to save these innocent three metalheads. It will be interesting to see how this film portrays metal and the kids who like it, and the takeaway from mainstream American audiences of our genre. This certainly seems like a film to watch.
[via MetalSucks]
