Death Valley offers 97 minutes of taut, tense thrills.
Fed up with their mundane, all too ordinary lives, four wannabe thrill-seekers get more than they bargained for when they attend a rave in the desert. Josh (Eric Christian Olsen) and his pals are up for some sex, drugs and rock & roll - not necessarily in that order. But these burning sands, it turns out, are home to "The Scorpions," a biker gang led by sadistic, machete-wielding Dom (Dash Mihok). Soon, without warning, what began as a spirited road trip turns into an agonizing battle for survival as the gang kidnaps one of their friends and rapes the woman they met at the rave (Genevieve Cortese).
Death Valley delivers a plot that you may already recognize as sharing some parallels with the 1972 classic "Deliverance." In spite of drawing comparison and inevitably not measuring up with the John Boorman-directed film, Death Valley is able to succeed on its own terms.
The film succeeds because of writer-directors David Kebo and Rudi Liden's ability to turn a premise that has been done before into something tense and exciting. Aside from the aforementioned "Deliverance," the likes of the 2006 "The Hills Have Eyes" remake explored the idea of cityfolk and the more primitive (in this case a hillbilly-ish biker gang) clashing with deadly results. Their use of a mostly instrumental score heightens the dread as it is so sparingly used that when it is heard, we know something bad is about to happen. Even so, this technique doesn't lead to predictability because the filmmakers have actually made the protagonists a fairly smart group of people. They are a far cry from the sort of dolts that populate many horror-thrillers. You know the kind: the ones that have you yelling at the screen, "Don't go in there, you idiot!" They are also likable, at least for the most part. Sure, they have their moments where they come across as somewhat petty or immature but this too actually works to the film's benefit because it makes them feel more real. In real life, no one is nice all the time so to see them act with selfishness and such makes them more identifiably believable.
It helps that the cast gives solid performances, led by Rider Strong ("Cabin Fever") as the most outspoken of the friends. Also notable is Genevieve Cortese (TV's "Wildfire"). As the film's lone female character, she brings heart and a much-needed vulnerability to the film without devolving into the constantly-screaming caricature sometimes seen in films like this.
Destined to become a sleeper once word gets out just how superbly-crafted it is, Death Valley is a sharp little thriller.
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