All of which makes Berg’s skillful and scrupulous examination that much more essential, especially in light of its chilling implication that Jeffs continues to wield enormous authority over his flock, which numbers about 6,000 to 10,000 members across the U.S.īerg begins with a brief animated overview of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proper, whose renunciation of polygamy in 1890 led to the emergence of the FLDS movement, the seat of which was until recently located in Short Creek, Ariz., on the border with Utah. Nor have Jeffs’ abuses generated as many headlines as the rampant cycles of abuse uncovered within the Catholic Church (which Berg tackled in “Deliver Us From Evil” and Gibney documented in “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”). Premiered at Sundance in advance of its Showtime airdate, Berg’s film didn’t kick up quite the same fuss as Alex Gibney’s “Going Clear,” the festival’s other incendiary takedown of a dangerous cult “Prey’s” commercial impact looks to be slim by comparison, not least because the FLDS Church lacks the Church of Scientology’s worldwide reach and explosive cultural profile. Berg’s interviews with past members of the polygamy-practicing Mormon denomination make for damning testimony, but the lasting power of “Prey” is its grim insight into the mentality of the deceived, and its despairing recognition that spiritual and psychological bondage doesn’t end simply by putting a monster behind bars. She does it again to deeply disturbing effect in “Prophet’s Prey,” a gripping, authoritative account of the myriad abuses of Warren Jeffs, the currently incarcerated leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Prophet’s Prey” is a sobering reminder that tyrannical monsters who hide behind religion can be homegrown too.In her devastating 2006 documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” and last year’s controversial Hollywood expose “An Open Secret,” director Amy Berg brilliantly uncovered the face of sexual deviance in corridors of power. At one point, we see the FBI most-wanted poster that first included Jeffs, his gaunt, deceptively meek-looking mug at No. Jeffs, whose sonorous, apocalyptic sermons occasionally act as eerie voice-over, continues to run his followers from prison too. The surroundings seem to stare right back, which only bolsters the film’s dispiriting message that for all that’s done to hunt down and bring someone like Jeffs to justice, this subculture of unchecked power and subjugation survives. Threaded throughout is footage taken by Berg’s camera on drives through the dusty streets and along the walled compounds that mark FLDS-run towns on the Utah-Arizona border. Berg’s film also tells the gripping story behind Jeffs’ capture, trial and incarceration. We learn of Jeffs’ beginnings as the scheming heir to self-proclaimed prophet Rulon Jeffs and the autocratic methods he used to control his flock and sanction the rape of young girls.
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