In Tarot, a group of friends gather together and rent a mansion for a couple of days to throw a birthday celebration. A short while into the festivities, they run out of alcohol, so decide to explore the building in the hope they will find some booze.
After they take a trip down to the basement, they stumble across a deck of old tarot cards. Deciding to ditch the hunt for drink and instead switch their focus to the cards, the friends head back upstairs to conduct a tarot reading.
But what starts off as a simple bit of fun, soon turns sour. Shortly after leaving the house, members of the group start to die, with their deaths seemingly foretold by the cards.
Written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, and based on Nicholas Adams’ novel, Horrorscope, Tarot is a supernatural horror movie which stars Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, and Avantika Vandanapu. The movie is currently on general release in UK and US cinemas, and if you have time on your hands, more money than sense, and a deep desire to watch a fairly bland horror this could be the film for you.
As for everyone else? Tarot is probably best avoided.
While Tarot is certainly not the worst horror film in the world, it isn’t particularly great either. The movie is generic stuff, with a plot that has been done to death, and there is no real flare on display anywhere in the film.
The whole thing plays out like a direct-to-video offering from the 1990s. It kind of works as a bit of late night fluff, but don’t expect to be scared, and certainly don’t expect to care about any of the characters or anything that happens in the story.
On the plus side, Tarot dives into its central premise fairly quickly, and it clocks in at a bum-friendly 90-minutes. As such, even if it is rubbish, Tarot is brief rubbish, which at least doesn’t faff around during the initial set-up.
Within the first 15 minutes you know what you’re getting with this film. If you like what’s on offer you’ll stick around, and if you don’t, well, at least you’ll be 15 minutes in and you’ll only have 75 minutes to go.
Although, all the way through those remaining 75 minutes you’ll still wonder why the friends decided it was a good idea to mess around with some dusty old tarot cards in the first place. After all, they’ve all got phones, so it’s never quite clear why they don’t just download an App and order an alcohol delivery like normal people would?
In terms of the cast, there’s no stand-out performances on offer I’m afraid, and even Spider-Man star, Jacob Batalon fails to make much of an impact. That said, no one is bad, and the film’s failings have nothing to do with the actors.
The issues largely fall in the script department, as well as the direction. Both areas need work in order to move this film out of the doldrums, and into the realm of something worthwhile, and this is where blame lies.
Unless you have a strong desire to watch Tarot, I really don’t see this film in your future. It’s bland, it’s dull, and worst of all, it’s forgettable.
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