Rock Springs: A family haunted by the 1885 massacre of Chinese miners

Vera Miao's debut ties a ghost story to the Rock Springs massacre of 1885, when Chinese miners were murdered in Wyoming. This history lives in the present through three generations of women. The film doesn't treat the massacre as background. It insists we reckon with what happened and was buried.

The central performance belongs to Kelly Marie Tran, who carries the contemporary story. There's something held back in her—pain she hasn't fully named. Benedict Wong and Jimmy O. Yang ground her in real relationships. The film moves across decades, showing how trauma moves through families.

Cinematographer Heyjin Jun shoots in cool tones. Wyoming's landscape is spare, restrained. The coldness comes from the place itself—not emptiness but emotional holding. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's score sits between ambient and traditional music. It makes the familiar uncanny.

The horror works best when it serves the history. When Miao focuses on what was done and hidden, the film finds solid ground. She understands that ghost stories can articulate what documentaries cannot. David Marks' editing gives scenes space to breathe. He doesn't rush.

The problem: the supernatural elements sometimes compete with the family drama rather than serve it. Genre mechanics threaten to soften what should feel dangerous. The film reaches for something conventional narrative structures don't quite fit. Not every moment finds balance.

But this is a film that commits to strangeness. Miao understands that the margins of American history hold the most urgent stories. She insists on excavating what other mediums have left buried. The film doesn't offer comfort or neat closure—only the commitment to let ghosts speak before they rest.