Tarot (2024)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- During Elise’s (Larsen Thompson) birthday party, Haley (Harriet Slater) reluctantly does tarot card readings for Elise, Paxton (Jacob Batalon), Paige (Avantika Vandanapu), Madeline (Humberly Gonzalez), Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz), and her ex-boyfriend, Grant (Adain Bradley). Haley’s concerns are justified after a series of strange occurrences and attacks directly connected to the tarot cards, sparking a panic amongst the group.

After a failed meeting with police detectives, Haley seeks out Alma (Olwen Fouere), a veteran tarot card reader and a specialist on dark forces. Haley is determined to save her friends from certain death, and Alma is willing to help. Will Haley succeed in cheating fate before it’s too late?

My Thoughts- Harriet Slater delivers a solid performance as the voice of reason and the leader in the group. Jacob Batalon, playing the paranoid goofball, who’s obsessed with true crime podcasts, provides most of the laughs as the entertaining comedic relief character. 

Olwen Fouere perfectly fills the role of the old and wise storyteller, the harbinger of doom in a horror film, who’s also willing to lend a helping hand. It’s a big turning point, when Alma is introduced, because she stresses the seriousness and the seemingly inescapable dangers surrounding the curse. Alma is haunted and broken from the curse that killed her friends, but she still has a fighting spirit. A good performance from Fouere, bringing the essential presence of a veteran actress, who’s also a crucial lynchpin for the story. 

One of my bigger problems with Tarot is, they felt the need to shackle Haley’s friends with their zodiac signs. Yeah, I get it. Everyone’s astrological sign is supposed to be directly tied into their fates. That’s a big theme in Tarot, and they actually did a good job connecting the horoscope readings with the deaths throughout the movie. 

But on the flip side of that, you’re severely limiting the other performances to stay within the confines of their zodiac signs. Too many thin characters to round out the cast. Alma, Hayley, and Paxton were really the only ones, who had anything resembling unique personalities that truly stood out. On top of that, there’s some noticeable effort for Alma and Hayley’s backstories, including Hayley turning to tarot cards to help her cope with her mother’s illness. You can’t say that for the rest of the cast.

One too many stupid decisions throughout Tarot. You probably shouldn’t ignore a sign that says keep out, leading to the basement full of creepy items that includes the tarot cards. Hayley knows something isn’t right before she does the reading, but she still decides to do the reading, basically ignoring clear warning signs to please Elise, because it’s her birthday. Madeline, ignoring the warnings from her friends, runs out of the car, and guess what happens? The Hanged Man demon kills her. I know everything goes back to each character’s zodiac sign playing a role in their motivations and the decisions they make, but there’s no denying Madeline would’ve had a better chance to survive, if she stayed in the car. 

Why are the police detectives so useless here? The group meets with the detectives, and their response to the situation is to basically tell everyone, well, we’re sorry your friends are dead, but there’s nothing we can do, so just go home and sleep it off? The police wouldn’t have been able to stop the supernatural forces. I get that, but at least put more effort into the detectives trying to do something, ANYTHING to help. Instead, the detectives only appear in one scene and they’re gone after that. 

Tarot makes a noticeable push to slightly step over the line for what you might expect from the usual tamed PG-13 horror film. Haley drops an F- bomb (“f*** fate!”) towards the end. The brutal, creative, and ironic death scenes connected to the zodiac signs and the tarot cards, complete with splatters of blood for Elise and Lucas’ deaths caught me off guard a little bit, especially Elise’s death. 

Paige’s death at the hands of The Magician is savage and cruel. The crowd of ghoulish spectators gleefully watching as Paige suffers, while she’s literally cut in half inside the box is something else. Just watching everything happen is a slow and agonizing experience, including the The Magician’s sadistic enthusiasm and shots of the blood stained saw.

Tarot delivers a tense and suspenseful finale, with Haley and Grant trying to escape Death and The Devil. Haley, turning the tables on the evil Hungarian astrologer by doing a tarot card reading for her, ends the curse and Haley defeats the astrologer. A mostly happy ending for the surviving trio of Haley, Grant, and Paxton, while Haley finally finds closure for her mother’s death. 

Tarot had a lot of potential. The sequence where The Fool stalks and toys with Paxton is excellent, and Tarot features some spooky moments and scenes. The dark backstory for the Hungarian astrologer and the reasons behind her decision to seek vengeance by placing a curse on the cards was terrific. An emotional story about the Hungarian Count refusing to accept the fate of his wife and unborn child, leading to The Count sending a lynch mob to search for the astrologer, which resulted in her daughter’s death. 

Tarot had a solid foundation to work with, a story about the fears of not being able to escape the inevitability of death and fate, mixed with plausible supernatural elements involving tarot cards and zodiac signs. The big problem is, Tarot is hampered by referring to the mainstream horror movie playbook too much. A lot of familiar horror movie cliches, and too many unnecessary and forced jump scares. The ominous figures standing in the shadows or the background scare tactic was repetitive, because they relied on it too much. And it’s a close call at the end, but I never truly believed Haley was in any real danger, or that she wouldn’t survive the attacks.

Rating- 4/10