A sinister blood-worshiping cult, strained relationships, an angry biker, remote desert setting, and a rare hawk all play a part in Greg Sestero’s directorial debut. Greg’s the guy who wrote The Disaster Artist so we can only assume Miracle Valley is a homage to the Tommy Wiseau school of filmmaking.
David (Sestero) is so convinced that snapping a photo of an ultra-rare silver hawk is going to make him his fortune that he takes his girlfriend Sarah (Angela Mariano) both out of hospital and away from her dying mother. While on the road to the desert hideaway, David annoys a biker who was travelling a little too close behind him. He later confronts David, but on seeing Sarah, Father Jake (Rick Edwards) swiftly changes his tone and invites the pair and their friends to an ‘awakening’ being hosted nearby. It’s at this meeting they realise Jake is the leader of a cult, with Sarah opening up more than she should.
There are so many shifts in tone in Miracle Valley that it might be hard to keep up. It gets to a certain point and you just give up and enjoy the insanity for what it is – OTT fun. The dialogue and preposterous choices the characters make aren’t going to impress, the gore level increases in the last half-hour, which certainly picks up the entertainment value. For all its flaws, Greg Sestero has clearly thrown himself into the project, writing, directing, and playing the lead. While it isn’t particularly successful as a straight horror-thriller, there’s definitely a camp value to be gleaned from the madness.
