Tarot (2024)

“Tarot” stars Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika Vandanapu, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly González, Larsen Thompson, and Jacob Batalon. Released on May 3, 2024, the film follows a group of college friends as they uncover a deadly mystery surrounding the tarot cards.

The film featured the directorial debut of Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg. Cohen is known for writing and directing the 2022 short film “Blink” and writing scripts for “Extinction” and “Moonfall”. It is based on the 1992 novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams. Many people are either brave or dumb enough to mess with the supernatural, mostly the latter. So, it’s unsurprising that they still haven’t learned that lesson when they decided to put their faith in the heart of the cards literally. Considering the film’s concept, I couldn’t resist making that Yu-Gi-Oh pun. This weekend showcased there’s more than one way to start the summer movie season. While audiences are commencing theirs with Ryan Gosling performing stunts, others would instead start with a scare-your-pants-off experience. This latest horror film seeks to deliver that expectation by giving audiences another reason not to provoke the spiritual realm. Does this one have the right cards to continue the trend of solid horror films, or are we better off playing regular card games instead? Let’s find out.

The story centers on a group of college friends: Haley (Slater), Grant (Bradley), Paxton (Batalon), Paige (Vandanapu), Madeline (González), Lucas (Novogratz), and Elise (Thompson). They rent out a mansion in the Catskill Mountains to celebrate Elise’s birthday. There, the friends decide to have their horoscopes read when they discover a box of tarot cards in the basement. After returning to campus, Haley discovers that her readings are starting to become a reality, but not in the way she imagined. They unintentionally unleash a monstrous spirit from their tarot cards, which begins to murder them based on their horoscopes. Haley must find a way to subdue this supernatural curse before her own horoscope is sealed.

2024 has been a hit-and-miss year for horror movies in general. After “Night Swim” started the year poorly, the remaining ones have been ranging from surprisingly good to average at best. So far, I’ve only seen three horror movies that are actually better than most of the films we got: “Late Night with the Devil”, “Abigail”, and “The First Omen”, to my shock. There’s also “Immaculate”, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to see it when it was in theaters, so that’s one movie I’ll check out when it releases on a streaming service. This brings us to the next contestant on our list, which didn’t have much promise to begin with.  From the marketing, it looked like another generic supernatural film whose seemingly violent concept is affected by its teen rating. I wasn’t very ecstatic about this film when I first saw its trailer and discovered it wasn’t R-rated. But I decided to watch it anyway on Star Wars Day because why not? That's when I realized it was another regretful decision I’ll never forget anytime soon.

"Tarot" is a derivative supernatural horror movie that relies heavily on overused tropes from similar films. It fails to offer fresh perspectives or intriguing twists, leaving me with a predictable and unexciting viewing experience. Granted, it did deliver what the trailer suggested: a teen-centered scary film about a demonic curse killing dumb teenagers in gruesome ways. Sadly, you can’t see the deaths because they also got to profit from the younger audiences. Unfortunately, without something fun or terrifying to maintain the concept’s freshness, it immediately foretold its own demise before the title card appeared. The only element I can credit “Tarot” for is that the darkly lit atmosphere provides some nightmarish scenarios. It wasn’t effective 100% of the time, but for a couple of scenes, it’s able to keep me from putting my cards down too soon. The only scene that came to mind was when Paxton encountered The Fool in a campus elevator. Combined with the CGI effects reflecting The Fool’s creepy appearance and jittery movements, the sequence was a harrowing treat that would surely make younger kids run for the exit.

It’s too bad that most of the film wasn’t as horrifying as the creepy jester. This is mainly due to the direction and screenplay, both of which wasted the talents of its cast with its dull and formulaic appeal. Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg received success with their horror short film, “Blink”, back in 2022, so I can see why they were chosen to helm a movie about cursed tarot cards. While the duo has a commendable approach to its atmosphere, they struggled to accompany it with its scares and uninspired kills. Yes, there are jump scares in the film, much to our dismay, but they lacked a specific impact that would make my skin crawl. Plus, they’re pretty predictable. It also tried to combine the essence of a fun, scary experience with a bleak and terrifying depiction of fate, but it ended up fumbling the ball on both aspects. It comes across as irredeemably soulless, and it’s actually headache-inducing.

It doesn’t help that the screenplay is chock full of genre cliches we’ve seen multiple times before. It offers a message about fate regarding Haley’s character arc but surrounds itself with charmless characters and subpar dialogue that render the theme meaningless. As usual, Haley is another horror protagonist whose backstory trumps the supporting one-dimensional characters who make plenty of irritatingly stupid decisions. Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised at how dumb these characters are because that’s their gig in a horror movie. However, “Tarot” is one of the films that made me wish they had common sense or charisma. On the plus side, the cast did what they could with what they were given regarding their performances, even though they didn’t stand out as much as others. Jacob Batalon seemed to be making the most effort regarding his role of Paxton, but his jokes falter in providing levity to its grim tone. Harriet Slater also did all right with her performance as Haley, whose grief comes from her experience with Tarot reading.

Overall, “Tarot” fails to escape its fate of being another bland, run-of-the-mill piece of supernatural humdrum. Its atmospheric dread offered some glimmers of creepiness to keep me slightly engaged.  Plus, the young cast didn’t do too badly with the script they were given. Unfortunately, everything else has a sense of “been there, done that” that they didn’t bother hiding, resulting in a mundanely formulaic and tedious horoscope that predicts its death on arrival. With its cliched script, one-dimensional characters, uninspiring scares, and bland direction, this supernatural horror dud gets the Death card.

D-