Them That Follow

Faith stems from three words: “He Is Risen.” Not tempting fate, but according to the community of Appalachian snake handlers led by the fire-and-brimstone preacher (played by Walton Goggins from Justified), per The Book of Luke, the power to tread on serpents is God’s way of cleansing the spirit to prove oneself before the Almighty.  Daddy’s devout concordance with scripture extends to his intention to have his daughter Mara (Alice Englert) marry a parishioner, Garret (Lewis Pullman), even though she prefers Augie (Thomas Mann), a non-believer. Directors Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage have taken a gothic tale about conflicted faith and turned out a horror picture with a forbidding fog-shrouded forest and mutilation in the search for what it is that separates man from his better nature.

[R]