The most frightening film of the year has nothing to do with blood-sucking beasts or ax-wielding serial killers.

The scariest movie of the year is "Jesus Camp," a documentary about children being brainwashed into religious warriors.

As the title implies, these aren't Muslim kids from families whose lives have been ravaged by war. These are American kids who go bowling, eat fast food and play videogames.

They also speak in tongues, fall to the ground weeping at the notion of their own sinfulness, protest abortion and think Harry Potter is the devil. Or at least they're supposed to think that.

Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady build their film around the woman who inspires these children to such actions, one Becky Fischer, a middle-aged, seriously obese dynamo who is absolutely sure she is doing the work of Jesus.

She runs a Christian fundamentalist summer camp in which kids are indoctrinated into her take on the Almighty. They are taught to preach; they are taught that those who live other lifestyles are doomed to hell; they are taught not to question anything Becky Fischer says is truth.

It's all perfectly orchestrated and thoroughly heartbreaking. We watch children weeping as their psyches are crushed, flailing at their own intelligence when it causes them to question the word of Becky.

We see them pray to a cardboard cutout of George Bush (talk about idolatry!); we see them trotted out as innocents at anti-abortion protests. We watch them home-schooled, taught that global warming doesn't exist and that mankind is a mere 6,000 years old.

We see them separated from the rest of the world, shaped into small martyrs. At an age when their minds should be opening up, they are being closed down.

It's sad, depressing stuff, and the amazing thing is Becky Fischer is quite upfront about the process. It's important to grab kids while they're young and make them into Christian warriors. They can't be allowed to think for themselves. You have to shape them and force them onto the battlefield.

It's impossible to watch this movie without imagining one of these damaged tykes marching into a mosque or a government building or a doctor's office in the near future with a bomb strapped to their bodies. One small girl beams with glee at the idea of martyrdom.

"Jesus Camp" is far from a perfect movie. At 87 minutes, it feels both long and incomplete. No context is given about Fischer -- Is she married? Does she have kids? -- or her aides. They are what they are. And the film dates itself too easily with discussions of Bush's Supreme Court nominations, while a more moderate Christian viewpoint is represented by a lone talk radio DJ.

Still, the central material Ewing and Grady have gathered is stunning, sad and monumentally depressing. Most people will feel like they're watching large-scale child abuse.

But then others might see the movie and feel they're watching a prophet at work, an instrument of God doing his work.

Frightening. Truly frightening.

You can reach Tom Long at (313) 222-8879 or tlong@detnews.com