Billing himself as a “survivor” of The Room, Greg Sestero both embraces his role in the famously inept movie even as he has moved beyond it, as evident in his new movie, Miracle Valley.

Sestero wrote the screenplay for Miracle Valley, and he also directed and stars in the horror thriller. Filmed around the southeastern Arizona area, Sestero recently premiered the film in Arizona.

Sestero told the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast that he wrote the movie after stumbling onto the ruins of an old church in Arizona’s Miracle Valley.

That lead to him finding out that the church was once home to a notorious cult, one of Sestero’s many interests, and the story for the movie, which is reminiscent of great 70s horror films like The Hills Have Eyes and Race with the Devil, came from there.

Sestero plays David in the film, a photographer and birdwatcher looking to shoot a picture of an elusive silver hawk, the photo that would make him both famous and rich. He is invited, along with his girlfriend Sarah (Angela Mariano, in her acting debut), to a luxuriously-appointed ranch in the middle of the Arizona desert by an unknown benfactor. (This is never a good sign in a horror movie.)

Sarah and David’s relationship is circling the drain, and David is just waiting for Sarah’s mother to get out of the hospital so he can break up with her. Against her wishes, he has invited some of their friends to join them at the ranch.

On his way down, David had a road rage incident when a couple bikers play chicken with David and Sarah. One of the bikers tracks him to the ranch, and calls him out for almost causing him to crash. The biker is better known as Father Jake (Rick Edwards), and his tough demeanor disappears when he meets Sarah. he invites everyone at the ranch to attend one of his “Great Awakening” services at the nearby chapel.

David and Sarah attend, and use the service to work through some of their relationship issues. The church, set in a beautiful location, has all the trappings of a cult, including two women cosplaying as the twins from The Shining, and a call for blood donations after the service.

David and Sarah have dinner with Father Jake afterwards, where Jake tells David he knows where he’ll find his silver hawk, and offers to take them to the island where the hawk resides – on a deserted island outside of Lake Powell.

While David is off chasing his bird, Father Jake convinces Sarah to be a part of his services (which he means very literally.) Sarah is charmed by the charismatic Father Jake (the two have a natural chemistry together that’s one of the most believable elements of the movie.)

While Sarah is off finding out about Father Jake’s unusual philosophy, things start to go wrong for everyone else in the movie. David is attacked, and Father Jake’s Manson-family cult members menace David’s friends back at the ranch. Sarah is safe though – Father Jake has plans for her, or at least for her blood.

Things get scary fast from here on out, which helps gloss over some of the holes in the plot. They are forgivable though, as this is a very entertaining movie.

Sestero wrote the book that is the basis of the movie The Disaster Artist, which tells the story of how inept director/actor Tommy Wiseau made one of the worst movies ever made. As good as the movie is, the book is better, so Sestero has the writing chops. The movie’s setting is gorgeous; it was shot in Bisbee, Lowell, Lake Powell and other scenic Arizona locations. Sestero’s crew was even the first to film at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water home in Pennsylvania.

This is Sestero’s directing debut, and he used a lot of locals as cast and crew in the production, so there aren’t any big names in the cast. Edwards is very good in his role, as is Mariano, and the rest of the cast performs admirably on the small-budgeted film. At the Tucson premiere, the cast was in attendance, and it was obvious there and on the screen that they all enjoyed working together on the production.

Yes, the film gets a little silly at times (as do many horror movies) but it’s truly fun to watch. You can definitely see how Sestero has grown as an artist. He says his next film will explore UFO abduction stories, another topic he’s fascinated with. We can’t wait to see where he goes with that. Miracle Valley doesn’t have widespread distribution yet, but when it does, go enjoy it in a full theater, as films like this are meant to be enjoyed. You won’t regret it.