In the backwoods of Appalachia, Mara’s father is the preacher of a Pentecostal church where members handle venomous snakes and speak in tongues. It’s an extreme and illegal kind of worship on the fringe of Christianity. To those who handle the snakes, it is an emotional and sometimes euphoric experience of perfect obedience and assurance of the Holy Spirit. Even bites and death are proof of obedience and a holy life. Handling a serpent is also a way to judge if someone is ready to repent. If a serpent strikes, it‘s up to God to save those who have sinned.
Mara (Alice Engler) is hiding a secret that has the potential to tear her small community apart and incur the wrath of her father. To avoid discovery and appease her preacher father (played magnificently by Walton Goggins), Mara agrees to marry Garret (Lewis Pullman), a faithful member of the congregation and pillar of the community. But when the truth is revealed Mara's world unravels, and she stands to lose her family, her friends, and Augie (Thomas Mann), the man she truly loves.
The Pentecostal community is extremely private. Outsiders are rarely, if ever, allowed in, so this film offers a unique perspective of people we don’t normally get to see and whose strong beliefs run counter to those in our modern society like treating women as the inferior and servile sex, and rejecting modern medicine in favor of prayer and faith healing. Members earnestly believe in miracles and claim to have seen the devil pass out of people. If a congregant who has been struck by a venomous snake goes to the hospital for help, it creates all sorts of problems - both spiritually for the bitten because of their lack of faith; and practically for the community because doing so will raise suspicion and alert the police who most likely will raid the church, confiscate the snakes, and jail the preacher.
"Them That Follow" is a film that creeps and slithers menacingly forward until we near the end when, quite literally, the serpent strikes and Mara is forced to take action and control of her own destiny. Co-writer and director Dan Madison Savage said at the talk back that this was intentional because he and co-writer Britt Poulton wanted the pacing of the film to match the pace of this community that doesn’t have access to the outside world, modern conveniences, and constant contact with media and technology. In its climax, the film features an extremely gruesome scene as Augie's parents, played stoicly by Olivia Spencer and tenderly by Jim Gaffigan, try to save their son, physically and from his inner demons.
Strong performances from the stellar ensemble cast is ultimately what makes this film compelling. Jim Gaffigan seems to be making a shift in his career away from comedy, and he's showcased some nice work in all three films he's featured in this year at Sundance, including this one. Walton Goggins has made a career of playing unconventional scoundrels and misfits and, with his portrayal of this Pentacostal preacher, he does not disappoint in creating another fascinating character we love to hate. In the making of this film, Goggins actually was bitten by a snake and lived to tell the tale. You can see him talk about it by clicking here.
At times I really felt like "Them That Follow" was too slow and, like many Sundance films this year, needed to be trimmed down a bit. But for the most part, it was suspenseful and riveting. My husband actually spent several years living in the hills of Tennessee where he met a lot of Pentecostal worshipers. He said this was his favorite film of the festival this year because he felt it was a fairly accurate and sympathetic portrayal of a largely misunderstood group of people who have a sincere belief in God.
"Them That Follow" Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Tuesday, January 28
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