Science and Tech

Eddie Munson from ‘Stranger Things’ existed: these documentaries on HBO Max tell his story and shape the true crime style

At this point, who else who least knows that the events described in the last season of ‘Stranger Things’ have a real basis. The entire persecution of Club Fuego Infernal and the atmosphere of panic that is unleashed in the town are inspired by the anti-video game and metal music paranoia that would become known as Satanic Panic. and andAt the core of it all is Eddie Munson, arguably this season’s most beloved character.and which has a very clear inspiration: Damien Echols, one of the Memphis Three.

This is how the group of three kids is known (Echols is joined by Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin) who were arrested in West Memphis for the murder of some children. Accused of practicing satanic rituals, a process full of irregularities was initiated against them and was portrayed in a documentary shot over ten months,’Paradise Lost‘. The process was so long and complex that it spawned two sequels that continued to follow the case: all three parts are available on HBO Max.

Titled after a Metallica song (Echols was a fan of the thrash band, which further stigmatized him), the three documentaries describe the prejudices that led the boys to plead guilty even though they were not, after false confessions were extracted from them in a chilling process. The first documentary is from 1996, the second from 2000 and the third from 2011, where a resolution for the case is finally reached.

The directors of the trilogy (who won an Emmy with the first installment and were nominated for an Oscar with the third) are Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Together they have carried out other projects, such as the amazing documentary about Metallica ‘Some kind of Monster’. Berlinger has shot documentaries for Netflix alone true crime such as ‘Conversations with Murderers’ or ‘A Forger Among Mormons’. His ascription to the genre is logical, since ‘Paradise Lost’ helped define, with its narrative inherited from thrillers and its constant use of suspense, the style of true crimes just as they are today.

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