Jesus Camp

Forget Children of the Corn and get ready to meet a group of kids that are genuinely scary. Jesus Camp documents a brainwashing of sorts by right-wing evangelicals who use their kids to spread the word of God at all costs. Normally, who cares? Just a bunch of freaks, right? Well, these folks not only heavily influence politics, but actually envy Muslim radicals and pray that their kids would have the same dedication as a suicide bomber. Unlike most Michael Moore–esque documentaries, there's no voice-over trying to prove a point. It's just cameras following these people and giving 'em enough rope to hang themselves. As a bonus, they have a sermon from recently disgraced president of the evangelical movement Ted Haggard (read a newspaper, dudes), who comes across as a huge dick. The really disappointing part of the DVD is the lack of updates regarding what's happened since this was released. (Example: We had to do a search to find out that the camp's been shut down due to vandals.) In the commentary, filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady talk a bit about Haggard, but the deleted scenes are mostly more of the craziness we've already seen. Granted, the directors showed a lot of restraint by keeping this at an hour-and-a-half, because it becomes so angering you just want to reach into the screen and kick the crap out of all these pathetic adults who seem more like pedophiles willing to take advantage of naive kids than soldiers of God.