Hell Camp: Le cauchemar des colos de redressement

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.

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.

Parents that had no idea of how to deal with their children, decide it's a good idea to send them out to the middle of the desert, in extreme temperatures, run by a man named Steve Cartisano. This is not a movie, people, I kid you not, this is a true story.

I've said it before, and I'll say again, as a Brit, I find some of the thought processes over in The States, Alien, who on Earth with half a brain cell would think this was a good idea, let's be honest, this happened in recent memory, not the 1800's.

I honestly couldn't believe what I was watching, that said it's a very well made and interesting documentary, although you may find it hard to understand the actions of many people.

Whilst the theory of teaching young people discipline, isn't exactly outrageous, what did they honestly think was going to happen under the circumstances, no law enforcement......there's the red flag right there.

'A gift working with kids,' well clearly not, these occurrences happened on his watch.

That mother?????? I have no words, that poor girl.

Why do people have kids if they don't know how to parent them.

8/10.

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.

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.