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From hiking the desert to child slave labor, this Steve. Cartisano guy was a real psychopath who preyed on distraught families once their kids started acted out. This man had a real evil about him that seemed obvious to most the kids but not the dumb parents who were paying outrageous fees just for their children to be bullied into behaving better, a method which always works. Steve is the real POS here no doubt about it but the documentary would have been better if we heard less from his wife who made him sound like a pioneer and almost heroic. Her along with their daughter keep trying to say he had nothing do with the bad things that happened, not only at 1 but 3 of his camps since he was never there. Not really a great argument for a man preaching how much he cares.

A deluded unpleasant person called Steve Cartisano who is basically a fraudster and criminal with no proper qualifications or training runs a Wilderness Camp for teens who need proper help. Instead of giving the children help and guidance his camps are awful places which generally abuses the children at the same time getting big fees from the parents who ought to know better.

Cartisano's family and associates are interviewed, and they came across as deluded and devious as he is.

Shocking how kids can be badly mistreated when it take so long for the authorities to try to take action,. We also learn that Cartisano also committed sexual abuse on at least one of the victims.

He had his own children who were addicts etc.

The producers ought to have been more severe on showing this was totally a criminal enterprise masquerading as doing good:

6/10.

I think the piece grants more screen time than required to cover the muddled opinions of Steve Cartisano's family (who sound so full of themselves) and much less on the victims and the tragedies they faced. That could either be an error in judgment on the filmmaker's part or, most likely, a Netflix decision to try to soften the emotional blow until the closing moments. Institutionalized abuse and the resulting trauma are discussed in all their somber detail, in what feels like American parents trying to run behind quick fixes for habitual (and often psychological) issues of their teenagers.

While I'm not surprised that wilderness therapy camps continue to exist in the States, given there are people who willingly sign up for haunted experiences and get tormented (oh, watch that documentary too if you must), what bothers me is how some folks still believe in the ideology of putting teenagers through clearly abusive methods to "teach them a lesson" and "turn them into good people". And if you're you're gonna say "Stuff like this would never happen in 2023", then I guess you're the one living under a rock. Worse things happens today.

I get showing the full perspective and including every voice, but maybe 3/4ths of the people interviewed in this documentary defend the camps and Steve Cartisano's actions instead of talking about what went on and interviewing more victims. It's honestly disheartening,- the ex-wife, daughter, and ex-camp counselor don't show much (or any) empathy. When they talk about how a teen died at the camp, the wife mentions how upset it made Steve and then starts complaining about the court-case, and the daughter complains about the news coverage while coming across as very arrogant.

It felt like a lot of this was intended to diminish the degree of the abuse that went on and excuse or justify what Cartisano did. It did well when telling the stories of the survivors, but unfortunately falls short otherwise.

This documentary tells the story of the youth therapy programs that were founded by the now late Steve Cartisano. Really it doesn't take a genius to figure out these things will end up most of the time very badly, you're mixing rebellious teens with the wilderness, with figures of authority that rely on corporal punishment and abuse their power and you've got a recipe for disaster.

The doc was okay but I felt it could've had more of an impact, I would've maybe done less screen time from Steve's family, since they weren't in the camps and what I believe the viewer is looking for was more first person accounts of what happened. I think we could've seen more stories that never made it to the screen. And the ones that did I felt were very rushed. They should've made this into a mini series and divided the stories so that we could've gotten more information and details with that format.

Maybe Steve had good intentions at the beginning but like a famous quote says "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and these kids marched down that road far too many times before anybody put a stop to it.

I was in the last group to run-in in Utah before the state of Utah shut them down. I still have scars on my body the whole time I was there. I had sores that I'd have to walk on for four months. I was 13..never did drugs, never drank alcohol, never partied, never had a run-in with the , and was still a virgin, just a normal teenager who didn't pick up her room. My mom thought this would be a way to get me to "be a good girl". The description of "out of control teenagers" is wrong... there were a lot of normal kids there. Kids with parents that just didn't want to be a parent.. or in my case just wanted someone to teach me a lesson.

Started as something good, then turned into something gross. The ex and the daughter are in disgusting denial. They enjoyed the luxury lifestyle this produced. The lack of empathy from the family and "horse" dude is gross. No one was held accountable. These kids, now adults, will never be the same. His own kids were a mess! That's says something... this guy may have had good intentions at first, but greed and selfishness took over and he was a POS. The ex and kid need to wake up and see how absolutely stupid they look and sound. Take responsibility for your part in it all. Especially the wife. Her plastic surgery shows she's benefited from it all. SMH.

It's clear the director just wanted to simply get the story out, which can be perfectly adequate, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

They had the opportunity to ask some difficult and challenging questions to the aggressors and defendants of this story, but they didn't. They even use a clip from another interview where someone does ask those questions, which stuck out to me.

Without spoilers, Steve Cartisano, starts this abusive camp for kids and his entire family defend him vehemently, and not once were they asked any challenging questions. Maybe the director didn't want to scare them off, but you need to do these things if you want to make something that truly sticks out. But instead they took the easy route. They don't even mention the Mormon half of the story which you'll only learn about if you research this more after you watch the documentary.

The average score for this documentary is 6/10. The story itself is very interesting and it's doing all the work. I still recommend this though since it's an interesting story, but anyone could have directed this.

Not to mention it's SO DARK! Even day shots are dark! What is wrong with cinematographers these days?

Pretty average documentary on an important, shocking subject.

Unbelievable that it is legal in the US for parents to consent to strangers pulling their children out of bed, kidnapping them and taking them to a place where they will be abused, humiliated and starved.

What I found very annoying about the doc was the amount of attention paid to the daughter and ex-wife. Very narcissistic and superficial people.

At the hands of their father/husband, a child died, others were subjected to extreme conditions and there was even sexual abuse. None of them said anything about the pain and suffering of the victims. The daughter almost burst into tears when she talked about that scary news helicopter that flew over their house. Really??

And then having the courage to say that her father was not to blame because he was almost never there.... Are you then just stupid, or do you have a disgusting mentality, or is it both?

As another reviewer said, this may be intentional from the doc makers. They show the stark contrast between people who are scarred for life on the one hand and those two who whine about losing money on the other.

In the late-1980s Steve Cartisano ran a series of "therapy" camps for delinquent teens. The camps were largely survival exercises, pushing the kids to the extreme, the kids were (unwittingly) signed up by their parents (for a large fee) and were generally forcefully removed from their homes and transported to the camps.

I watched this by accident, thinking it was a drama rather than a documentary. I stuck with it though as it held some intrigue. The telling of the story was initially quite even as you could see both perspectives.

From a point though it is clear who is in wrong and from then it is a fairly linear, join-the-dots exercise. This, combined with a non-profound ending, making it overall an okay, but not great, documentary.

First off, I respect various organizations who legitimately assist with youth programs for "troubled" kids, I think we all do. At the same time, the finger can be pointed at the parents who don't fully understand where and what they are sending their child to because they haven't done their due diligence. Sounds like they are failing on both fronts, failing their kids and failing themselves.

Secondly, The absolute most satisfying part of this, and I don't mean this harshly, is the kids this man was trying to "save" were the exact same as his own kids who he did basically nothing for. So, you have this man taking thousands of dollars from other parents to "save" their children, and this person is also a parent who is actually failing his own! It's funny how that works out isn't it? The timeless classic of people not practicing what they preach, like this child abuser did. Publicly announcing himself as a saint, but just another wolf in sheep's clothing..an absolute Hypocrite!!

Nevertheless, if you want to watch some unfortunate children being pushed to near death experiences to "make them a better person" then this is for you.

Or If you like seeing hypocrisy exposed, then this is for you as well.

Camp Hell it's called, well there's a special spot for this man in the afterlife version.

The overall story was compelling but one thing that I have found is important for documentaries is displaying labels for the different story tellers more than the first time they are introduced. There's so many people involved in this documentary, but you only see their introduction once. How am I supposed to remember who Larry was?!? They all look the same over and over again. Even the subtitles don't help understand the character build up. There's a lot you might need to google while watching this documentary too. It's like the show needs a precursor to know who's who and whats the context of the show.

I might have been living under a rock but I had no idea what a wilderness therapy camp was. I was very intrigued and the story reeled me in, but was left disappointed. This documentary is basically a beloved story of how one man managed to escape the justice system. It felt like the majority of the doc was in defense of this manipulator who is the reason that so many troubled teens either died or were left genuinely traumatised for life. It brushes over victims' story so quick that it's downright disrespectful.

I. E: No 50/50 perspective in the slightest.

This topic is super important and I believe more people should know about these horrible wildness therapy camps, so hopefully someone else will go out and make a better film.

I think the poor reviews are due to the perpetrator's family and children's parents being featured. But this tactic is not uncommon - that does not mean the documentary makers agree with their perspectives. If anything, including them highlights their hypocrisy and evil.

The accounts of the children - because they are children (the label 'teens' diminishes this) - sent to wilderness camps was genuinely devastating and moving. This camp might have reformed behavior for some kids, but torture is not an acceptable method of reforming behavior.

I feel almost no empathy for the parents. At minimum, they knew they were approving a staged kidnapping for their children. The kidnapping in itself can be traumatizing. Knowing that your parents signed off on your torture is even more traumatizing.

This documentary should have also included the names of all the children who have died in wilderness camps inspired by Steve's. This man's evil should not be minimized in any way. A lot of people need to be in jail right now.

Parents need to PARENT their children. Period.

This docu was rough. What can parents do when their child uses drugs, alcohol, and/or is completely rebellious and uncontrollable?

A - have child's behavior improved through some type of program that will actually change the child's attitude and behavior b - hope for the best until child leaves home - do nothing - the child then continues until most likely ends up in prison Lack of parental guidance is a number one reason for the prisons in America to be currently full/overcrowded. Lack of parental guidance creates a child that has no boundaries, no concept of morals, consequences for behavior. The child then becomes of adult age but is still an underdeveloped child mentally, psychologically, and then simply continues the bad behavior, poor decisions until ending up in prison.

The FOCUS should not be on Cartisano but on the PROBLEM - a completely uncontrollable child.

The FOCUS is the problem child.

I was shocked as Cartisano's own children succumbed to the same problems as Cartisano's program - wow - how did that happen?? Shock.

A problem child is a tough problem. The attitude and behavior must be changed, but this is extremely difficult to accomplish. So how can this be successfully accomplished without abuse, etc.? The cure from Cartisano is practically worse than the disease, even with good intentions. Rough.