Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare

2023

Action / Crime / Documentary

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50%
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 4704 4.7K

child abuse utah reeducation camp 1980s 1990s island camp

Plot summary

Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.

Director

Liza Williams Photo
Liza Williams

Top cast

Nancy Reagan Photo
Nancy Reagan as Self
Geraldo Rivera Photo
Geraldo Rivera as Self
Ronald Reagan Photo
Ronald Reagan as Self
Paris Hilton Photo
Paris Hilton as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
832.82 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   ar   cz   dk   de   gr   es   fi   fr   il   hr   hu   id   it   ja   kr   ms   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv   th   tr   uk   vi   cn  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds ...
1.67 GB
1920*816
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   ar   cz   dk   de   gr   es   fi   fr   il   hr   hu   id   it   ja   kr   ms   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv   th   tr   uk   vi   cn  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by DVK1234 7 / 10

So Much

At beginning of doc, I think "this is a great idea! Kids need some discipline. They are unbearable to live with, using drugs, getting in trouble at school and with the law." Let them have some consequences by being out in the wilderness. I felt for the parents. I have raised teenagers and at times, I really felt helpless and completely disrespected. A prisoner in my own home and treated like a criminal by my own children.But then, a poor girl dies...of course from the extreme weather conditions she endured in this camp. Not close to any medical help. And Steve Cartisano says he is not responsible. His wife says he is not responsible. How could he be? He wasn't there? At this point I'm screaming at the television. How obtuse? How stupid? How entitled?Somehow, with a high profile attorney, he beats the charges of negligence causing death. Instead of sailing off into the sunset, he opens another camp "on the water." He doesn't have permission to dock on the islands that he sails to, and again, he should not be held accountable because "he is never there". It starts to look like " Lord of the Flies". His wife is very sad because there is no more money coming in. His children are also sad because the authorities shut the camp down.But then this Steve Cartisano tries his hand one last time, opening a camp in Samoa, and sends his drug addicted son there. There are reports of sexual abuse. And physical abuse. A video tape is proof. The camp is shut down. The US embassy rescues the remaining kids. Steve Cartisano faces no charges.At the end of the movie, one of the kids in the Utah camp, I believe, accuses Steve Cartisano of fondling her breasts. She was only a teenager. Her mother does not pursue legal action against Cartisano, thinking it will stop him from helping kids. So sick.I couldn't help but think that karma came for Cartisano. He died very young of colon cancer, his son who was a drug addict is currently in jail, and his clueless daughter ( she couldn't understand why the authorities were coming after her dad....) also had a rough time on drugs. What goes around comes around.
Reviewed by atleverton 8 / 10

How avoiding Criminal Justice works

This film is a good example of when the American justice system fails. As an idea to market a harsh wilderness expedition as a way to tame troubled youth. He has no experience with counseling, is not a psychologist, nor is he an expert in desert survival. But he goes on television and his message resonates so much that his business is wildly successful. Parents would pay up to $10,000 to have their child kidnapped and sent to this camp. It was so successful that he could not properly train his employees, and one of the kids sent to the camp died. Obviously, he and his company were then charged, but after a two-year tial he was acquitted of all charges and her death was ruled accidental. Any reasonable person at this point would say to themselves I tried this idea, I failed, let me do something else with my life. He did not, he tried this strategy again in two different locations, and they both ended up in disaster. In the last case, the victims of this Camp needed to be rescued by staff members from the American embassy. The most idiotic thing about this entire situation is his family's insistence that this man did nothing wrong because he wasn't there when the worst abuses took place. This is mind-boggling. If I created a company and it ended up devolving into a slave labor camp, nothing about that and in fact benefited from the slave labor camp I think I bear some kind of responsibility. It is incredible to me that this man escaped any form of criminal justice.
Reviewed by J0ESUFF 6 / 10

The Whole Family's Crazy

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.
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