Director(s) – Spenser Cohen (Blink, Classified) and Anna Halberg (Classified)
Starring – Harriet Slater (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Pennyworth), Adian Bradley (Wrong Turn, Fantasy Island), Avantika (Mean Girls, Senior Year)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 2.5/5
For most of my reviewing career I would dodge theatrical releases and focus more on the indie horror scene. A good portion of the big budget theatrical releases around the time I started writing reviews were extremely lackluster for the most part. This was one of the many reasons I spent all my time covering indie releases. However, several big budget pop horror releases have seriously impressed me over the last few years with movies like X, Black Phone, and Late Night with the Devil.
When I started receiving news for Tarot I was very interested in it. I have been more open to these films by this point and thought I would give it a chance but I wasn’t able to check it out in theaters. When the blu release was about to hit store shelves I reached out and was able to secure a copy for review.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a group of college students who rented an old house to celebrate a birthday in. They discover an old deck of handmade tarot cards that could be decades, if not centuries old, and decided to do a reading for everyone there with them. This unwillingly unleashes the evil creator of the deck who starts killing them one by one in accordance to their readings. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into Tarot with an open mind looking for a bit of pop horror fun. What I found was a film that left me rolling my eyes more than it did entertaining me. While it wasn’t as bad as many genre fans have lead me to believe, I will say that it is painfully mediocre and easily forgettable. I seriously wanted to love it but I found myself questioning why anyone would make the decisions they did.
The acting in this one is easily the highlight of the film. When I saw that Jacob Batalon was in the film I was afraid he would be used in every scene and capitalize in on his Spider-Man fame. Luckily, they did not and he is only in the film a fraction of the time as the remaining cast. The character are cliched and written clearly to serve the story but the acting is fairly well done. I enjoyed their chemistry and how natural they all were in front of the camera.
The story for this one is one we have seen before in dozens, if not hundreds, of films before. We follow a group of teenagers, twenty-somethings, college students and so on who discover something old and cursed. They then do something foolish and unleash the evil. As played out as this story is I still find horror films that use it to be pretty fun especially if they have a rich back story about the ancient/antique item. Tarot which is why is scored so high with me. Honestly, I think a prequel film about the original owner of the deck would be phenomenal.
Finally, the film has some horrible CGI with a little blood splatter here and there. Most, if not all, of the kills take place off screen but they could have been a lot of fun if they were shown with decent practical effects. The supernatural presence looks goofy and is quick to remind viewers of The Nun from the Conjuring series. Overall, Tarot is a missed opportunity but it’s not as bad as others make it out to be. I really wanted to like it but it wasn’t for me.
