Hell Camp: inferno per teenager

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?