Tarot is a 2024 supernatural horror film based on the 1992 novel, Horrorscope, by Nicholas Adams. The story revolves around a group of friends who find an old tarot deck and decide to do personal readings based on both the tarot cards and their astrology signs. The following day, things take a turn for the worse when each reading starts coming true.
As expected from the supernatural sub-genre of horror, most of the main characters get picked off one by one. This is an expected outcome for the classic group of friends who get cursed or haunted set-up. What makes these types of movies stand out is how creative the curse is, how gruesome the kills are, and how the movie ends. A few other elements, like the ghost or monster’s design, the rules of the curse, and the performances of the actors, help or hinder the film. That said, it’s usually the ending that makes or breaks these kinds of movies.
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- Tarot was released on May 3, 2024, and it is in theaters now
- This supernatural horror is rated PG-13 and has a run time of 1 hour and 32 minutes
- Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen directed the movie and wrote the screenplay
- Nicholas Adams, the Horrorscope author, co-wrote the screenplay with Halberg and Cohen
Tarot follows a group of seven friends to a remote mansion being used as a short-term vacation rental. The group consists of college students Haley, Grant, Paxton, Paige, Madeline, Lucas, and Elise. The purpose of their trip to the Catskills mansion is to celebrate Elise’s birthday. As expected from a group of college students taking a holiday, most of their activities revolve around drinking. The movie starts with all seven young adults sitting around a bonfire, playing games, and drinking their weight in beer. Unfortunately, they run out of alcohol fast. Desperate for more liquor in the middle of the night, the group decides to explore the massive house for a hidden stash.
The friends check closets, cabinets, and anywhere they can think of that might be hiding some aged wine or brandy. While their search runs dry, they do come across a locked door with a “KEEP OUT” sign on it. Drunk and celebrating, they decide to disregard the sign and break into the secret chamber. The door leads them down into a dark basement where they find many strange antiques. Whoever lived in the house seemed to be a collector of astrology items and other occult relics that could help them potentially predict the future. This is where the group finds an old deck of tarot cards. Haley notes that the cards are likely hand-painted. She takes an immediate interest in the deck because she taught herself to read tarot and astrology charts.
Without alcohol, the group decides to occupy themselves with tarot readings. Haley says she doesn’t want to, and she warns the rest of the group that it’s an unspoken rule not to use someone else’s deck. Elise pulls out the birthday card, which convinces Haley to do a reading for each one, including herself. The following day, some parts of the readings begin coming true. On the way back to campus, Lucas buys a lottery ticket from a gas station and wins $700. His reading said his financial situation would change. Little incidents like this occur for a few of them, indicating that Haley’s readings were going to come true. Unfortunately, once the reading gets to the final card, Haley’s predictions turn fatal.
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- Harriet Slater plays Haley, the friend who does all the readings
- Olwen Fouéré plays Alma Astryn, an occult expert
- Suncica Milanovic plays the Astrologer, the main antagonist
Elise is the first person in the friend group to die. Shortly after Elise’s untimely demise, Lucas gets hit by a train in a restricted area of the subway station. Needless to say, the rest of the group freaks out. Yes, they’re mourning the loss of their friends, but they’re also putting two and two together. If both Elise and Lucas died less than a day apart, they are all potential victims. Haley suggests their readings are coming true, meaning any of them could go at any time. In a panic, they take to Google to find any answers. Their search leads them to Alma Astryn, a woman who claims her friends experienced the same horrors after she gave them all a reading.
Alma explains that the deck originally belonged to a woman known as the Astrologer. The Astrologer lived in the late 18th century, and she provided tarot readings to a powerful baron. One day, she predicted that the baron’s wife and child would die during childbirth. Displeased, the baron demanded she give him a new reading. Every time she did, she came up with the same results. The Astrologer’s predictions came true, which caused the baron to turn against her. In a fit of rage, the baron had the Astrologer’s daughter hanged. The Astrologer went to great lengths to get her revenge, which included a ritual that forced her to kill herself. This ritual bound her soul to the tarot cards, which allowed her to harness the power of each one.
Before taking her own life, the Astrologer used her deck to read the baron and his friends. Once her soul was bound to the cards, she had the power to forcibly make the predictions come true. The Astrologer gained the ability to shape-shift into each card. The final card of the reading would be the form she took to kill her victims. Unfortunately, killing the baron and his colleagues wasn’t enough for the Astrologer. Her soul remained bound to the deck and anyone who received a reading from her cards would suffer the same horrible fate as the baron. Since Elise’s (Larsen Thompson) final card was the High Priestess, the Astrologer took the High Priestess’ form and killed Elise. Lucas’s (Wolfgang Novogratz) final card was the Hermit, so the Astrologer shape-shifted into the Hermit to kill Lucas. This cycle would continue until they were all dead.
Haley Turns The Astrologer’s Cards Against Her
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- Jacob Batalon plays Paxton, the Fool’s victim
- Humberly González plays Madeline, the Hanged Man’s victim
- Avantika plays Paige, the Magician’s victim
- Adain Bradley plays Grant, the Devil’s victim
Alma Astryn urges Haley and her friends to destroy the tarot deck and its box. Alma believes that destroying the cards will finally release the Astrologer’s soul and cease the killings. Unfortunately, when Haley, Paige, and Grant attempt to burn the cards, the fire does not affect them. They deduce that the Astrologer’s soul is somehow protecting the cards, so Alma attempts to separate the Astrologer’s soul from the deck. While performing a ritual to accomplish this, the Astrologer forcibly reads Alma’s cards, which gives her the power to kill Alma. Haley has no idea how to pull the Astrologer’s soul out of the cards alone. Alma’s death seems to be the final nail in the coffin for Haley, Paige, and Grant. Unfortunately for Paige, she gets separated from her friends and suffers the consequences.
While hiding from her card, Death, Haley realizes that if the Astrologer kills anyone who has a reading done with her deck, all she needs to do is give the Astrologer a reading. Haley has to evade Death through the mansion to return to the tarot deck. The Astrologer, in the form of the Death card, does not make this journey easy for Haley, but she eventually manages to get back to the cards. The Astrologer’s attention is split between taking the form of Death and the Devil because she still needs to deal with Grant. This helps give Haley an opening to properly read the Astrologer. Like her reading, the Astrologer’s final card is also Death. The Astrologer is bound by her spell, which dictates that anyone who has their cards read by her deck will die.
Since Haley successfully reads her cards, the Astrologer is unable to deny the outcome and it destroys her. The Astrologer’s death is an epic whirlwind of black smoke and flames, which burns her soul out of her cards. With the Astrologer’s soul gone, the cards also ignite and burn. Haley and Grant survive their attackers and manage to walk out of the mansion alive. While walking back to town, a car approaches them, and Paxton steps out, saying he’s there to save them. Paxton parted ways with the group early, and they all assumed the Fool killed him. Fortunately, Paxton survived his encounter long enough to drive out to the mansion. He fulfilled his reading that he would come through for his friends in an unexpected way.
Tarot’s Premise Is Phenomenal
Unfortunately, since Tarot’s premiere, critics have had little love for it. Currently, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 12% Tomatometer. The Audience Score is significantly higher, at 55%, but the reviews are still mixed at best. IMDb also gave it a 5 out of 10. Google users were a bit kinder about the movie. About 72% of Google users who weighed in on the movie claimed to like it.
While Tarot may have missed the mark for critics, likely due to some cheesy script writing and a few lackluster performances, Tarot’s core premise is solid. It is a story about revenge, devastation, and being stuck in an impossible situation. The Astrologer’s motivation made sense without demonizing the overall practice of tarot and astrology. The tarot cards that came to life were incredible monster designs. Despite the negative reviews, Tarot is a fun entry into the supernatural horror subgenre.
Tarot (2024)
A group of college friends decide to have their fortunes read for fun, but little do they know, the tarot cards will reveal deadly truths. Soon, they start dying in gruesome ways, each death eerily mirroring the predictions from their reading. As the body count rises, the surviving friends must race against time to decipher the cards’ symbols and break the curse before it claims them all.
- Director
- Spenser Cohen , Anna Halberg
- Release Date
- May 10, 2024
- Cast
- Avantika , Olwen Fouéré , Harriet Slater
- Writers
- Nicholas Adams , Spenser Cohen , Anna Halberg
