Tarot

Summary: A group of friends break an unwritten rule of Tarot readings in a careless manner and in doing so, unknowingly release a terrifying evil that had been confined to the cursed cards. One by one, they make their own fates and go against death in a sport.

Is the horror movie genre dead? If fun and tiresome, Abigail has been the only entertaining horror film fair so far, the rest of the mainstream horror films have continued to be just prolonged jumpscare festives this particular year. I could not even pose with The First Omen which if I may add was a spin off of far superious works (this includes Zulawski’s Possession) and filled the entire frame with countless jumpscares.

And as I have said on many other occasions, the only interesting thing that happens on screen that this Quiet Place and The Nun come courtesy of loud sounds for two seconds followed by a faceless creepy ghoul. yes, the pulse goes high but once you are aware of what’s going to happen then it is hard to feel attachment to what is going on screen.

And whaddaya know? It’s summer now and there’s another one to kick off the movie season along with David Leitch’s The Fall Guy, prepares audiences for Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg’s Tarot: oh yes, there’s another jumpscare fest in theaters right now.

The reason why the film has not been screened for the press may be very indicative of its quality, yet some commercially promising pictures that eventually turned out to be good in critics’ opinions (where I live, they did NOT show them to the press) are never shown at all. Which means it skipped the market or its good review is hindered by something that the studio thinks is the reason it is a flop.

That my friend, while not the worst movie one would ever see, is perhaps notable in the fact that it is also one of the most absolutely inconsequential studio pictures that such an individual would waste their time on in the entire year. There is no who is this movie for.

Who is likely to enjoy this movie? Strangely, a deadly tarot deck sounds like a premise of a potential something great especially when figuring out that each of the main characters gets stalked by the astrologer one after the other Final Destination style.

That is a recipe for at least something watchable especially in the horror genre. However, the film begins to make two cardinal mistakes immediately and these mistakes have made sure that the film will neither rejuvenate nor grow better as the film moves towards the end.

Mistake number one – The film is a PG 13 movie. There are some movies that show an appropriate use of this rating, killing off protagonists through one excessive set piece after another via a Tarot card of doom which has a killing task, demands a proper hard R rating.

Cohen and Halberg as filmmakers make sure that they use violence to an extreme and therefore do not add any additional content that would be engaging whenever interesting events occur such as one set in a ‘magician’s box’. Paige (Avantika) gets abducted by a box and demonic magician as she tries to help him, and before he performs the trick of sawing her in half he gets ready.

No doubt this is pretty gruesome, but just when his saw comes close to entering the box, the scene is totally cut and the next scene is started with the audience having an idea that something bad was about to go down.

A complete frustration of such an aspect in Channelling’s execution is the film’s pacing and visual style, which is surprisingly more evocative than I would’ve thought. Diacraft contributed some genuinely good compositions, especially during this brave setpiece occurring on a commuter train – our closest R-rating for a killing – where shadows were most effectively used as Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz) saw a vision of the approaching astrologer.

However, it is not enough to help every important shot from being a glamorous screenshot as most of the sequences are not as intense in their images, be it in blood or the poorly exaggerated creatures that the filmmakers decide to introduce.

Mistake Number Two: The protagonists the audience spends time with are deplorably simple and mentally wounded and make stupid actions that not even the most imbecile people would even if it is their predicament. Literally. Every person who has seen at least one horror film understands very well the lack of clarity that most protagonists have, however, Tarot makes it exceedingly better.

Hayley (Harriet Slater), a Tarot card reader among them, tells Madeline (Humberly Gonzalez) that there may come a time when she wishes to escape. She needs to remember all the times when the opportunity presents itself. While the astrologer is stalking her, there is a drawing of a stick figure of her hanged on a foggy car window with “RUN” at the bottom.

However, some smart audience members are aware of the fact that this is the only instance, where she normally should and does not run away. Such films are literal, as a horror film. She opens the door and steps out of the passenger seat only to (surprise, surprise) rush in the opposite direction, to a place she probably never wanted to go, most likely out of the car.

The film is filled with illogical and irrational character actions to lead to set pieces filled with cheap jump scares and gotcha! At all the parts where the film ought to develop its characters and go beyond the fake thrills infesting almost all mainstream horror movies currently made, be devoid of any imagination and soul.

True, no one says this as you put it; still all those trashy B horror films only last very short spans in the cinema halls and for this reason, we have all these such pieces as Tarot. However, let’s dictate more appropriate standards to ourselves as a society.

There were very few people in my audience, who, except for the joke with Jacob Batalon’s character, incidentally the only time the audience seemed to be enjoying the film, would react in any way emphatically to any of the film’s scenes.

Most of it after the credits rolled was very self-explanatory. People hunger for something which is different in the genre of a horror film. They are ready to be horrified and amazed beset with the kind of pictures that will leave even a soldier anxious for sleep a long time after the credits end.

Tarot is said to be based on Nicholas Adams’ Horrorscope. However the actual presentation of it on screen can hardly be similar. The point of how Cohen and Halberg both set about it from the very start is incredibly useless and unimaginative that there is no amount of skill and talent by any of the cast of actors (Olwen Fouéré is particularly wasted here) who will save it.

As an audience member, you can have the option to have fun playing with the deck and help propagate this more of such mindless and baseless films, or you can have the option not to use it and make sure that when horror films return, they will have some worth to the society. I would want to order the latter. But then again, all characters are absolute dimwits in this film and thus one can expect a sequel in a couple of days from now. sigh

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