Directed By Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Starring – Humberly Gonzalez, Avantika, Olwen Fourere

The Plot – When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings, never use someone else’s deck, they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.

Rated PG-13 for horror violence, terror, bloody images, some strong adult language and drug content.

TAROT – Official Trailer (HD) (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Acting as both a benefit and a curse to the movie’s prominence, the film clocks in at 87 brief minutes, and while my investment to it weathered throughout a gauntlet of grievances that continuously tested my patience, the pacing of the script constantly kept moving, offering very little lag time between the key developments that always materialized with urgency. This does come at the hinderance of overstepped characterization, which I will chronicle soon enough, but I’ve always appreciated a film that can simplistically set the movements in motion of the opening act, allowing us to live all the longer in the depths of the curse that plagues our seven protagonists, but beyond that experiencing more moments with my single favorite aspect of this entire movie: the killers. Designed mostly with a surprisingly element of practicality, these gimmicked characters include everything from a jolting jester, to a mad magician, to even the devil himself, inscribing a mythical ambiance to their rendering that feels like the only key element properly realized throughout, as well as ones who imbed a noticeable jolt to its prominence, each time they’re on-screen. It becomes so dependable that they attain a “Thirteen Ghosts” kind of merit where these lethal forces steal the attention of the audience for the better part of the movie’s second and third acts, where the mystique of their designs and origins are left to interpretation, leveraging a little bit of meaning for the film’s integrity that feels like the sole instance where an idea from the creators earned impact to the production’s favor.

NEGATIVES

Like most horror movies, “Tarot” begins with teenagers doing something illogically stupid, only in the case here the introduction to them sparks an unintelligible precedent that rubs off on the rest of the film, cementing what is easily one of my least favorite engagements in 2024. The problems begin with the characters, who with the exception of one exposition dump scene at the very beginning of the film, are as blandly written and underdeveloped to the point that they feel interchangeable with one another, creating a preconceived disconnect to the film that completely undercut the magnitude of the movie’s stakes, which should feel ominously plaguing, but instead fall flat in my absence of interest towards a single one of them. Beyond this, the movie’s fright factor is laughable, especially in the depths of the direction from Cohen and Halberg, who each feel like they conjure something entirely opposing to what the other is attempting. Sometimes the movie feels campy, with a hip kind of self-awareness towards its personality that attempts “Scream”, but instead ends up with “Blair Witch: Book of Shadows”, where the characters come across as so much more annoying than endearing, and other times the tonal capacities take themselves far too seriously, with corresponding pay-offs that never properly materialize as a result of this imbalance that continuously cuts into what little momentum that it’s able to gauge for itself. If this isn’t enough, “Tarot” is another dreaded example of cheaply manufactured and predictably timely jump scares being preferred over foreboding atmosphere, in turn attaining no merit of artistic vision to the proceedings. This forces us through dozens of watered down jolts that grow old as quickly as the film’s ten minute mark, but beyond that results in disappointing pay-offs to the various death sequences, which are marred by an unfortunate PG-13 rating that feels echoed throughout, as well as intrusive editing that continuously looks away from the gruesome devastation. While I can understand that this is a PG-13 rating with its own series of limitations to that stamping, the framing and editing leave even far too much to the imagination of the audience, resulting in physical conflicts that show us a weapon or jolt jump, then completely cut away from sequence. One such instance involves a girl in a magician’s box, where the magician is attempting the knives trick through it, and its sequencing shows a blade going into it, the girl screaming, and then a transition to another character somewhere in the environment. These are TV broadcast levels of sanitation, and without those opportunities to express themselves, leaves the aforementioned colorful characters a bit stunted by a presentation that never has their best interests in mind. Then there’s the mind-numbing obviousness of the dialogue, with all of its astrology lingo that often echoes a previously-established reality about a character that we literally just experienced in the same scene it narrated. This could possibly create a very dangerous drinking game each time you hear lines like “Virgo’s are known for their clumsiness”, or “Capricorn’s are always careless”, and while it’s only used as a device to remind audiences of every step of their horoscope that was initially established in the first act set-up, for people who will inevitably forget about it only a scene later, I couldn’t help but constantly yell aloud “SO WHAT??” each time the script chose to go there to further test my investment. While all of these unfortunate aspects are integral to the film’s finished product, its framing device in astrology reading gimmick is most compromising to the experience, with prophetic insights at various character’s futures that not only eviscerates the element of surprise from the engagement, but also is also audibly echoed with overhead narration in sound clips that constantly materialize each time one of these predictions materialize prophetically. While I like the established history and world building of the cards themselves, stretching as far back as the 18th century, too much insight absolves tension or suspense from the concept, and like movies like “Final Destination” or “Truth or Dare”, we know what to expect, so there’s little to no rewarding pay-off to that spoiling, disappointing the only things to a horror movie that should come natural to even its limited success. Finally, “Tarot” makes no reservations about reaching for the same limitless list of horror movie tropes and endless cliches that condemn any semblance of originality for the movie’s benefit, surmising a virtual checklist of familiar instances that I frequently checked off to give me some kind of toxic satisfaction to being forced to endure it. While instances involving characters separating, or constantly walking towards the curious noise echoing in the dark distance gave me reassurance towards interpreting these characters as mindless drones, the ages old favorite of an impossibly knowledgeable figure being hunted down to give the group insight on how to defeat it, was my personal favorite, especially considering her dreaded disposition makes no sense the longer you think about it. Surprisingly, this character is portrayed by Fouere, who only two years ago starred in one of that year’s worst horror movies, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, where she once more played a knowledgeable character, and while rare opportunities require eager initiative, I think Fouere would be best suited to exercise her option of declining, so as to not star in a film two years from now that is somehow worse than this one.

OVERALL
“Tarot” fails as both a blood-splattering horror and campy comedy, while wasting away a unique gimmick that results in a thrill-less and scare-less engagement. With ratings limitations resulting in a complete absence of colorful expression, as well as paper-thin characters so dully uninteresting that we don’t even attain remote satisfaction when they’re continuously killed off, the film’s fortune feels anything but favorable, proving once more that the cards don’t lie, especially in a film with two directors and three screenwriters scrambling for anything that could work.

My Grade: 2/10 or F-