It requires a confident directorial hand to tell stories
about little-understood subcultures with beliefs far outside the comfort zone
of the average person. Say you’re making a film set in the world of
snake-handling churches: It can be tricky to find the right tone for such a
tale, where it’s already a struggle for most viewers to understand a group of
people whose faith leads them to test their devotion by getting handsy with live, venomous reptiles.
There’s a
fine line between making an attempt to truly understand what drives this
behavior, and simply using it as an excuse to gawk in horror. There’s a natural
instinct to veer toward the exploitation for effect. And while “Them That
Follow” — the moody debut feature from filmmaking team Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage — doesn’t always keep to the
right side of that line, it remains a compelling story about the clash between
spirituality and the messiness of life.
The film
centers on a poor, isolated community of evangelical snake handlers deep in the
Appalachian Mountains. This particularly sect is led by pastor Lemuel Childs
(the always great Walton Goggins). His daughter, Mara
(Alice Englert) has been raised in the church, but is
facing a crisis as her heart begins to lead her down a path that runs counter
to her faith.
Mara is
engaged to be married to Garret (Lewis Pullman), a fellow member of the church
and a religious true believer. But when we see Mara shoplift a pregnancy test
from the local convenience store, we surmise their impending marriage may face
some complications.
Especially
when we learn of her closeness to her childhood sweetheart Augie (Thomas Mann),
who’s begun to distance himself from the church and is already on thin ice with
the community.
Augie’s
parents Hope (Olivia Colman) — who also goes by the name Sister Slaughter — and
Zeke (Jim Gaffigan) struggle to accept that their son has become a nonbeliever.
Lemuel, for his part, is quick to blame the work of Satan for any cracks that
may develop within his congregation.
We learn
that if one does get bit during a service, it’s God’s way of testing you, and
only the power of prayer can heal you. A trip to the hospital is the coward’s
way out; a sign your faith isn’t strong enough to trust that God will spare
your life. More practically, it’s also a side effect of the church’s rules
against fraternizing with outsiders and a fear that any interaction might tip
off the authorities — a problem for a church whose practices aren’t, strictly
speaking, legal.
The plot
machinations can verge on melodramatic, but Poulton
and Savage’s filmmaking maintains a steady hand on the emotion of their plot.
At its heart this is a story about how young people raised within a religious
group react when they no longer feel they fit in with the doctrine that’s been
ingrained in them their entire lives. Here, snake-handling functions as a
stand-in for any system of radical beliefs we have a hard time wrapping our
heads around.
Poulton and Savage’s script doesn’t demonize its
characters; it genuinely trusts in the sincerity of their beliefs. Still, I
couldn’t help wishing for a bit more insight into why an occasionally
headstrong young woman like Mara would adhere to such patriarchal and
misogynistic culture. Mara remains a closed off character for much of the film,
and it gets frustrating when characters stubbornly refuse to say the things
they need to.
The film
gets a lot of mileage out of a phenomenal cast, including newly-minted Oscar
winner Olivia Colman as the devout Hope, a convert to the faith who affirms
that religion has saved her life. And Kaitlyn Dever,
fresh off of her winning turn in “Booksmart,” plays
Mara’s lonely best friend Dilly, who’s living on her own after being abandoned
by her mother.
“Them That
Follow” remains a slow burn for most of its running time, only for the last act
to ratchet up the tension to near unbearable levels. Much of the film’s
considerable suspense comes from the realization that it’s only a matter of
time before one of these characters ends up on the wrong end of a pair of fangs
— call it Chekov’s rattler.
Shot by
cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz, the film takes on
the brown and yellow tones of the fall foliage of its perpetually gloomy forest
setting. The densely wooded surroundings only further emphasizes the claustrophobia
of this insular community and its people trapped in often impossible
circumstances. As it peers into this unusual subculture, the film ultimately
offers a potent look at the ways fanaticism can poison the actions of even
inherently decent people.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2019.
