SummaryDeep in Appalachia, Pastor Lemuel Childs (Walton Goggins) presides over an isolated community of serpent handlers, an obscure sect of Pentecostals who willingly take up venomous snakes to prove themselves before God. As his devoted daughter, Mara (Alice Englert) prepares for her wedding day, under the watchful eye of Hope Slaughter (Academy Award... Read More
Directed By:Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage
Written By:Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage
Them That Follow
Metascore
Mixed or Average
57
User score
Mixed or Average
5.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
57
52% Positive
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
48% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Aug 15, 2019
88
Them That Follow is a harrowing and chilling deep dive into an isolated community in the Appalachian mountains.
Aug 2, 2019
75
The acting and filmmaking are so much more imaginative than the script (which also falls into the rookie trap of mistaking a lack of humor for seriousness) that in the end, this feels like a dry run for something deeper and more daring.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.8
36% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
43% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
21% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Jan 11, 2021
8
Intense, somber, visceral and entertaining. Them That Follow is an interesting film that follows life centered around a group of backwoods religious zealots
Aug 13, 2019
8
A harrowing film that was truly an American rural horror story. For me the riveting suspense came from the way the younger characters reacted to and were trapped in their stultifying environment, complete with its warped live-poisonous-snake-centered religion, because their elders continued to believe that venomous snake bites provided a “cleansing.” But bad things kept happening – and tragically seemed destined to continue except for those with the courage to flee their fatally poisonous traditional beliefs.
Aug 1, 2019
70
A film as atmospheric as its title, Them That Follow is an ambitious and impressive independent production, where the creation of mood and place is so convincing it enables us to buy into a richly melodramatic plot about a taboo romance.
Aug 7, 2019
63
The snake stuff is riveting — how could it not be? But Poulton and Madison Savage’s treatment of the rural community tilts toward the anthropological: A few corny bits of dialogue can make the parishioners feel like types instead of characters.
Aug 7, 2019
50
Olivia Colman, Kaitlyn Dever and Jim Gaffigan round out a talented yet crowded ensemble cast, which has so many principal characters — all flawed in a different way — that the filmmakers are unable at times to devote the attention that each one deserves.
Jun 20, 2019
45
While the film tries to be a shocking window into another world, it plays more like an agog piece of tourism.
Feb 2, 2019
40
It’s competently made but utterly vacant, a forgettable indie fading fast.
Feb 5, 2021
4
The monotony of its tone and rhythm are too troublesome, and frankly the film is never able to cope with it. The premise is of course quite intriguing but despite the potential, it struggles too much to find a constant cadence, and mostly a relevant dramatic intensity. The result is poor and discouraging.
Oct 14, 2021
3
(Mauro Lanari)
It is cowardly to set the conflict between faith and religion, or rather the overlap between the limits of both, in the wild lands of a rural community in Appalachia. This type of problem still exists today, in 2021, in our supposedly highly evolved civilization. Waiting for some more courageous director who dares to recover the broken thread of the best French filmmakers of the 2nd post-war period.
Production Company:
- Amasia Entertainment
- G-BASE
Release Date:Aug 2, 2019
Duration:1 h 38 m
Rating:R
Tagline:We All Have Our Sins
Awards
Newport Beach Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Cleveland International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
