Secrets, serpents in searing drama
There’s a smothering claustrophobia at work in the absorbing, slowbuild “Them That Follow,” a character study set in an isolated pocket of the Appalachians, that lends the film from directors/writers Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage an undergirding of tension — and that’s before anyone hauls out the venomous snakes that are at the heart of the community’s religious rituals.
Alice Englert (“Ginger & Rosa,” “Beautiful Creatures”) is Mara, a young woman coming of age as a true believer in a Pentecostal society that uses serpents as symbols of its devotion. But she’s not just any young woman. She’s the daughter of the snakehandling pastor, Lemuel, played by a perfectly cast Walton Goggins (“Vice Principals,” “The Shield”). He and his followers take Mark 16:18 literally: “They shall take up serpents. … They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”
On top of that, Mara is set to marry the very upstanding, unquestioning and daddyapproved Garret (Lewis Pullman from the “Catch22” miniseries). Her life of Bibles and babies seems set.
But Mara has a dirty little secret. She’s really in love with Augie (Thomas Mann, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) who is the one person in the area who doesn’t buy into what Lemuel is selling, much to the chagrin of his devout mother (Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”) and father (comedian Jim Gaffigan in a decidedly serious role).
Needless to say, Mara makes a choice that upends her future as well as all of those around her, leading to what could be a lifedestroying tragedy. It’s a fairly simple story, but this is a case where execution is key.
The film is exquisitely acted, with Englert making Mara’s emotional pain real. It’s reminiscent of Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role in “Winter’s Bone,” which was set in a similar geographic area.
Throw in equally strong performances from Goggins, Colman and especially Mann, and the lean, stark “Them That Follow” ends up packing quite a punch.
Poulton and Savage have created a window into a world that may strike many as dangerously retrograde, but they never make fun of it. Instead, they focus on the fault line between the old and the new, the believer and the unbeliever, and how the resulting emotional earthquake can shake everyone to the core. As this is the first narrative feature for both, it’s a film that’s an impressive and sometimes haunting work.
The snakes aren’t the only things that leave a mark.