Failed documentarian roams the New Mexico mountain hunting a story until he stumbles onto a cult of women crucifying drug dealers to purge sin. He believes he’s found the story of a lifetime if he can live to tell it. Breaking Bad meets The Lottery.

It seems to me his initial?objective goal?should be?to find and document the cult -- he shouldn't just discover the women accidently. It doesn't make sense that he would be roaming a desolate, rugged?landscape hoping to stumble upon a story, any story.

Rather he's been lured into the wilderness by rumors of?the cult, and he thinks it would make a "killer"? subject for a documentary, one that will bring him critical acclaim and financial reward.

Well, it turns out to be a" killer"?subject -- but not in the way he had expected.

fwiw

It seems to me his initial?objective goal?should be?to find and document the cult -- he shouldn't just discover the women accidently. It doesn't make sense that he would be roaming a desolate, rugged?landscape hoping to stumble upon a story, any story.

Rather he's been lured into the wilderness by rumors of?the cult, and he thinks it would make a "killer"? subject for a documentary, one that will bring him critical acclaim and financial reward.

Well, it turns out to be a" killer"?subject -- but not in the way he had expected.

fwiw

Find another descriptor for your MC.
"Failed documentarian" could do with some tender loving care. Desperate documentarian perhaps? Lowly?