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Prophet’s Prey begins with an interesting animated recap of the Mormon church narrated by Nick Cave (who also co-scored the film with Warren Ellis), but once the film gets started, it becomes a pretty standard talking-head documentary. Often her interviews with various people involved with the church aren’t in any sort of order, sometimes jumping ahead to events not yet seen or not syncing with the overall account.
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Yet by intercutting the efforts of Krakauer and Brower with the sordid lowdown on the FLDS, Berg clutters the story she is trying to tell. These layers of his persona and the unusual choices we see him make when not in the church create a monster that is impossible to unravel. Cameras catch a jailed Jeffs standing in one spot for hours, just staring at his reflection, reminiscent of Paranormal Activity. Despite preaching an absolute belief in the church, Jeffs is arrested on a trip to Las Vegas-on a vacation from his religion and his position in it, while for the first time dressed like just a normal guy. Both men detail their inquiries and attempts to get Jeffs arrested for his atrocities, while Berg chronicles the FLDS concurrently.īerg rarely gives us any footage of Jeffs outside of his “voice of god” mode, yet when she does, it’s almost as strangely disturbing as the bile he speaks to his followers. Guiding Berg through this cult are two authors and experts on the subject: Jon Krakauer, who wrote Under the Banner of Heaven, and private detective Sam Brower, whose Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints provides the basis for the film. After decades of leadership, Jeffs was arrested for the sexual abuse of many boys and girls in his church, including marrying a 12-year-old and impregnating underage children. Jeffs’ position of power allows him to indeed act like a god, earning millions of dollars from the companies that give them all of their profits, controlling the media on his little world and monitoring the town’s actions by cameras. The leader of this group, Warren Jeffs, has dozens of wives and rules his compound on the Arizona-Utah border with the belief he is a prophet who will one day become the leader of the world. Prophet’s Prey presents the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the FLDS, who splintered from the Mormon Church due to their change in stance on polygamy. In a year when The Jinx and Going Clear have dominated the world of docs with stories of deceptive monsters and the dangers of belief, Berg presents both along with an intriguing subject, but the scattered approach and muddled progression never quite do the topic justice. Berg’s return to religious abuse in Prophet’s Prey comes perfectly timed. After her 2006 documentary feature debut Devil Us From Evil-about a Catholic priest who escaped arrest even after admitting his pedophilic desires-Amy J.