‘Them That Follow’ Film Review: Talented Cast Exposes the Venom in Old-Time Religion

Anchored by an enviable cast that includes Oscar winner Olivia Colman, “Them That Follows” sinks its teeth into religious fanaticism in an isolated Appalachian mountain community, where an animal’s instinctual reactions are interpreted as a test of faith. This tense, slow-burning drama, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, marks the feature debut of directors Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage. Oppressively restrained, actress Alice Englert (“Beautiful Creatures”) stuns in the role of Mara, a young woman who acts as a quiet conduit for insight into the Pentecostal snake-handling church that her father runs. We meet her at a point in her life when steadfast, solid devotion has started to show cracks of doubt, as an explosive secret consumes her. Torn between Augie (Thomas Mann, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) and her soon-to-be husband Garret (Lewis Pullman, “Bad Times at the El Royale”), Mara feels confused while surrounded by men and women who only deal in absolutes and certainties. Atop the food chain in this expectedly misogynistic, patriarchal microcosm is Pastor Lemuel (an excellent Walton Goggins). Multitasking not only as spiritual leader, but also as snake catcher and charmer, the unconsciously deranged figure willingly endangers his followers...