Alisa Winthrop

I thought this was a beautifully crafted film that took the audience into a bizarre reality in the world that is rarely given our attention. Them That Follow is about a lovely young daughter of a preacher that heads a very small and extremely isolated cult up in the Appalachian Mountains. Although she is devoted to her father, she secretly is in love with and became pregnant by a boy that’s become disillusioned by the church and leaving town. When he finds out about her pregnancy by a bizarre ritual performed by his own mother he sacrifices his ultimate safety for her. It’s really a movie about spiritual crisis, loyalty, and the real meaning of love and courage. At first, I felt the movie moved slowly. After I left the movie theater I realized it’s pacing was perfect; it didn’t need to speed up, I needed to slow down. There was so much emotion packed into such a shallow deliverance, in both the characters and the dialogue. It was the perfect metaphor to me of the power of cultism and it’s ability to subtly destroy human rationality. Absolutely loved it. Wish so much there were more movies done like this.

The trailers got me excited to see the film, as I’m a bit of a Beatles fan. But it ended up being flat, lack luster, and corny. I wanted to abandon it the entire second half, but stayed hoping it’d get better. It never did. Lily James’ character felt like an overload of sugar rammed down your throat, while at the same time being way out of the main character’s league. Ed Sheerin, who did a terrible job with his part, being somehow rated as a song writing god in a movie built on the credits of one of the greatest bands of all time was completely ridiculous (Lennon has to be turning in his grave). But the biggest disappointment of all was how this movie was creatively marketed toward Beatles fans, yet played almost none of their songs fully through, or destroyed a few (Help! was screamed, not sung). Huge waste of time.