Finding a Tarot deck in the basement of their holiday rental home, a group of friends ignore their better instincts (clearly, no one here has seen The Evil Dead) and settle down to have their fortunes read by hippy Haley (Harriet Slater). But in doing so, they break the sacred rule of Tarot – don’t fuck with cursed card games.
One by one, the group’s fortunes come true as they are stalked by a sinister entity determined to punish them for their transgressions. Can Haley and her friends figure out how to undo the curse before it comes for them all?
Based on the 1992 novel by Nicholas Adams, this supernatural horror film follows in the footsteps of the Final Destination series, setting up a series of gnarly scenarios with which to whittle its cast down to the final few. This number includes Avantika (the Mean Girls musical) and Spider-Man’s friend, Jacob Batalon, alongside former Sally Hardesty, Olwen Fouéré (the sole adult in this thing, and bringing a much-needed touch of class).
While Batalon and Avantika’s star power shines through, they’re forced to play second fiddle to leaden former lovers Haley and Grant (Adain Bradley), whose weak performances are made even more unfortunate in that they’re expected to do all of the emotional and thematic heavy lifting.
In its tone and none-too-gory action, Tarot feels like a throwback to early 2000s horror, featuring a cast of pretty young college students snappily bickering their way through a Scooby-Doo mystery. Writer and director team Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg structure the film well, and the visuals look good, too – including a number of unsettling monster designs and a beautifully designed Tarot deck. The scares are all much of a muchness (eerie silence followed by loud noise, followed by something terrifying jumping at the camera at great speed), but there is some fun to be had in predicting where the next horrific death is going to come from. They’re heavily telegraphed, sure, but slickly done – and scenes featuring Jacob Batalon in an elevator and Avantika in a box are a chilling highlight.
Haven’t been paying attention? That’s not a problem either, as the dumbed-down script handily recaps each character’s fortune prior to every big set piece while characters speak in concentrated exposition, ensuring that there are few surprises to be had.
Tarot is too well-constructed to be a complete waste of time, but also too tame and predictable to live up to whatever potential the idea may have had. It’s a functional spook ’em up but isn’t playing with the full deck.
TAROT is out in UK cinemas now.
