Attending Sundance for the first time on the ground and as a horror fan, I had a personal mission to attend at least one World Premiere of a Midnight Section film. Rock Springs the writing and directorial debut of Vera Miao was the film I chose.
Set in the titular town, the film centers on Gracie (Aria Kim), who arrives with her mother, Emily (Kelly Marie Tran), and grandmother (Fiona Fu) after her father’s death, gradually revealing uneasy links between the community and the woods that surround it.
There are two things that moviegoers should know about Rock Springs before going in the has a non-linear format and uses the real life “Rock Springs massacre” as a narrative device. Using real life events for a horror film is not new but Vera Miao has crafted something unsettling and thought provoking with her debut.
Kelly Marie Tran, who has truly come into her own after she was under-utilized in the Star Wars franchise fully commits to the role of Emily as she tries to be strong for her daughter while dealing with her own grief. Further complicating matters to an extent is Her mother-in-law (Fiona Fu) is a first-generation Chinese immigrant who does not speak English, a reality that underscores the deeper cultural distance between her and Emily, who was born to Vietnamese parents but adopted and raised by a white family.
That plot angle alone is enough for its own film, but Miao makes the wise choice not to focus on it too much and instead let the spooky atmosphere speak for itself while giving audience a history lesson.
The film’s second act shifts into the past, centering on a group of Chinese immigrants led by Ah Tseng (Benedict Wong), a migrant laborer working in the Rock Springs coal mines alongside his young nephews—including a standout Jimmy O. Yang—first introduced during a rare day of rest in their makeshift camp.
What impressed in the second act was I had no idea where the film was going as I had an initial assumption that Miao would tap into a generational curse angle, but when it shifts to the actual massacre and history I was fully invested. Wong and Yang are both great in their roles showing impeccable dramatic range.
However, when the film shifts back to the present in the third act is my minor issue with the film. Non-linear storytelling is tricky to pull off as it can confuse some moviegoers and personally, I just felt that cohesively the narrative did not flow. Had Miao started the film in the past my overall rating would be higher.
Nevertheless, though with a strong cast and a few jump scares, Rock Springs is an impressive debut that validates how hard it is to escape the ghosts of the past.
