Co-stars Alice Englert and Thomas Mann tell us about snake-handling, cycles of fear and shame, and their new film Them That Follow.
“I do this for the absurdity.” —Alice Englert
Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage’s moody new film Them That Follow (which they wrote and directed together) takes place in a world rarely glimpsed in cinema—that of a serpent-worshipping religious community deep in the Appalachian mountains.
In certain Pentecostal off-shoots, worshippers bring venomous snakes into their churches, and prove their faith by handling them during services, relying upon God to ensure they won’t get bitten.The great Walton Goggins (Beautiful Creatures) co-stars as his daughter Mara, who is torn between her familial religious obligations and the lure of the outside world.
They are surrounded by a heavyweight ing cast that includes Oscar-winner Olivia Colman (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), who plays Mara’s best friend/romantic interest Augie, someone who rejects his community’s snake-handling.
urges viewers to look past the slow initial build-up “because the second half is near perfect. Amazing performances from literally everyone (protect Olivia Colman at all costs) and just some great-looking cinematography”.
The snakes might prove difficult for some film lovers to get around, as agrees that the snake content is “horrifying, but that’s not the main focus. The focus is on characters…”.
Following the film’s screening at SXSW earlier this year, Letterboxd had a quick catch-up with actors Alice Englert and Thomas Mann.
When did you first hear about snake-handling?
Alice Englert: For me it was this film. I hadn’t heard about it before I read the script. It made a dramatic and poetic sense to me in some way.
Thomas Mann: I think I saw like, a Dateline thing at one point. Just like ing through the channels and I saw it. When I saw the script I was like “I feel like I’ve heard about this”, but nothing more than that. I researched it once I read the script.
What did Britt and Dan say to you about how they wanted to approach this pretty obscure topic?
AE: I think they wanted to try and create a portrait that felt respectful and as unbiased as possible, and definitely to tell a story that was about the humanity of it. And the connection.
TM: It’s so easy to [say], “Oh it’s the snake movie” but it’s not really about that. It could be about anything or any strong belief that you don’t agree with. So I think it’s kind of a placeholder for a lot of different things that are going on in people’s lives right now. Snakes are just an example…
AE: …of extremity.
TM: Yeah. Or of the definitive yes or no, black or white, a snake bites you or it doesn’t. You’re either with God or you’re not. There’s no nuance to the whole thing. And I think that’s a problem.
Did you have any exposure to this world in prepping for the film?
TM: We drove to a Pentecostal church one weekend.
AE: We went on Pastor Appreciation Day. They were apologizing because it wasn’t a usual day.
TM: This wasn’t a snake-handling church.
AE: It’s illegal everywhere in America, except for West Virginia. You can handle snakes in West Virginia. It’s really hard to go to those churches. Also it’s really hard for a film production to be okay about letting their actors go.
TM: We thought about going to one, but our producer told us we couldn’t.
AE: I also read about it in a book called Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington, which is a fantastic book and everyone should read it. It’s really interesting. It’s a journal, so it’s a non-fiction of his time that he spent with these snake-handling communities.
Do you feel like you’ve come to understand what people might get from this ritual?
TM: That’s like step one when you read a script like this. It’s like, okay, why the fuck are they doing this? And that’s what you try to get to the bottom of. And it’s something that’s ingrained in you.
AE: Humanity wanting to test itself is very universal and I get that totally, that wanting to kind of face what you fear is the most primal journey that you have, so I absolutely get their perspective. But I’m not gonna do it.
TM: Same here. I understand that they feel they have no choice, they feel like this is the only way.
AE: I also understand that this isn’t how I feel and want to live my life, but there are a lot of people who feel as though you have to be certain, and that being uncertain hides the truth in you. Certainty in faith allows you to journey to your place of realization and I don’t agree with that. I think you should be able to question everything as much as you possibly want. I don’t think nature is made with the rules that we imagined.
Was it challenging to get past the inherent ridiculousness of snake-handling while acting in this film?
TM: Yeah and that’s what was kind of the fun part. Like, you go up to the snake and you look at the snake, like the snake holds all the power and you’re subordinate to it.
AE: Yeah of course. We’re actors, we’ve done fantasy films. Letting go of the absurdity, we have to do it.
TM: To see Jim [Gaffigan] and Olivia [Colman] together, the opening church scenes. You just need people to commit or otherwise the audience is not gonna believe it. And you have to make it make sense for you too.
AE: I do this for the absurdity.
TM: Same here, the absurd stuff in this movie was really absurd and that’s always better for me.
Mara is torn between her various obligations. Alice, could you relate to that?
AE: I related to the pressure that I felt to perform as a good girl or a nice girl or as a human being that’s presentable and the realization that that’s not the journey I want to go on anymore: how to be appropriate for other people. I don’t want to go on that journey anymore, I don’t think it leads anywhere that is deep or wise I think it just leads in circles and into a fear/shame cycle and I’m sick of it. I’m sick of the abyss of fitting in and I definitely relate to that for Mara, the stress of it.
‘Them That Follow’ is playing in select US cinemas from August 2. Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
