2024 / Spencer Cohen, Anna Halberg / Netflix / PG-13
"Fuck fate."
Plot
A handful of college students rent a mansion for a birthday celebration, but upon getting together it's obvious that there is tension amongst the group. Our protagonist, Haley, succumbs to peer pressure and gives everyone a tarot reading despite knowing that using another psychics deck is forbidden. Seven cards are drawn, thus seven fates are sealed. The young adults return to campus. As the plot drives forward we're encouraged to keep track of which character drew which card, and their death will correlate to said card.
Creators
Having met while attending college in 2006, directorial team Spencer Cohen and Anna Halberg have worked on a number of projects together, including 2018's Netflix film Extinction. The duo were approached by Sony to direct a film based off of a 1992 novel called Horrorscope, which is more of a slasher in formula, they decided to go their own direction but with a similar premise. In 2022 the two crated a short film, about seven and a half minutes long, called Blink. Blink is interesting, and I do believe that so many short films are more effective than a full feature length. The scares and atmosphere in Blink work, but my biggest gripe is the sound design, which is unsettling, but also so unnecessarily over done.
The lead of Tarot is Harriet Slater who plays Haley. She does fine, but I'm completely unfamiliar with her. Haley's love interest is Grant, played by Aidan Bradley who is establishing himself as a Gen Z horror staple, featuring in films like Wrong Turn (2021) and Riverdale (2017). The star of this film is Jacob Batalon, also known to the marvel crowd as Ned Leeds of the Spider-Man films. He's most definitely a character actor, and once you see his face you know what you're going to get. The last actress I'd like to mention is Olwen Fouere, who plays Alma, the fortune-teller. Olwen has taken on the mantle of badass old lady as of late. She most recently played Madeline in The Watchers, and Sally Hardesty in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Jake's Take
I couldn't for the life of me remember what happened in this film. It looks and sounds so much like 2019's Polaroid, which is another PG-13 horror film featuring a cast of Gen-Z stars, but I actually would prefer that film over this. Polaroid's creature design is creepy as hell, and the characters have more development, making it a better film. Tarot's characters had me rolling my eyes. I read an article about the director putting his own pain into the script, i.e. Haley's sick mother who passed away. I wish that I'd felt more rawness when it comes to these emotional beats. It felt more like an after-thought.
The cards predicting the deaths of the characters is a fun concept, but I couldn't get over how dumb the protagonist is to do the readings in the first place. There wasn't enough there to make me feel like she was ever really that into Tarot, or that the circumstances were dire enough that she just HAD to do the readings. This film felt more to me like a super natural Final Destination, but also completely missing what makes Final Destination cool. We don't see death in that film, we experience its presence, and loath it, which is all the more effective. Scary faces in scary places, that's what Tarot does, and it's fine.
We all have that family member or friend who is into astrology, tarot, and crystals. Is this a fitting film for those who are invested into these beliefs?
Dude, they're not watching horror films.
Give me a reading and slap on Tarot all day.
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