Tarot is a 2024 horror movie directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg. It deals with a bunch of kids playing a Tarot game that ends up killing them one by one. That is as exciting as I can make it. Below is my Tarot (2024) movie review
Just want to say I will SPOIL this movie big time in my review below.
Anyway, this movie is as cliche as it gets when it comes to recent horror movies. Below is just some of the things found in the movie that are also found in cheap horror movie:
Young dumb teens/college students ✔
Somebody does something stupid and unleashes evil entity ✔
Creepy house ✔
Death stalks them ✔
Old person know how to survive it ✔
No violence on screen due to PG-13 rating ✔
Cookie cutout characters (skeptic, jock, hot girl, comedic relief, etc) ✔
Jumpscares (a lot of them) ✔
Bland dialogue ✔
Boring and very formulaic story ✔
Very corny humor ✔
Trailer ruins most of the “scares” ✔
Predictable ending ✔
Anyway, I can keep going but you get the point. A bunch of kids enter the basement of a creepy house and find creepy objects. One of them finds cards and one of the group people just so happens to know how to use and read other people’s futures. After what seemed like very little convincing, the person does read other people’s astrological signs. The scene goes on for a while and each person is given a special card that has a unique character/monster on it. Obviously these are the characters they would encounter and/or get killed by.
Up to this point the movie was fine. It is corny but not necessarily bad. However, it all goes downhill from here. As they split and encounter their monsters, we get formulaic death scenes. These scenes have no gore, just splashes of blood on windows or phones or any other dark surface. The MPAA rule is that the blood can’t be red. If it is green or blue or dark red, then the rating still can be maintained at PG-13.
From this point on, each one of them gets killed, they turn to police, the police are skeptical, they are skeptic and don’t want to believe what is hunting them, and they eventually accept it. This is a formula for any cheap horror movie. We know very well how the movie will play out and end. For casual horror movie fan, this will be fine. However, for horror movie folks like myself, this was extremely predictable and boring. I was bored most of the time as I was in a dark room and still not sure why the movie is so damn dark.
The characters in this movie are so boring, especially the comedic relief. Even the characters in the movie told him he talks too much. I did not for a second believe he would be friends with these folks.
Finally, the monsters. Overall I actually do like them. They are somewhat unique and cool looking. They act creepy but they are all followed up with jump scares which ruins the scenes they are in for me. Some are better than others, but all show some form of effort put into it. If the movie was more bloody, the monsters would have been more memorable. I want to see what makes them unique in their personality and killing methods. Sadly, in this movie they are all left to be used as jumpscares and we barely see them in full.
Overall this movie was really boring. Besides being formulaic, the characters sucked, the dialogue is bad, and the story is not good or memorable. Do yourself a favor and watch something like Final Destination if you want a decent story and gory kills. The movie is available on Netflix (US).
Thanks for reading my Tarot (2024) movie review
