For horror fans, the past couple of years have been pretty great with the amount of quality films we’ve been getting. Now, for the amount of good films we’ve gotten, there should be no surprise that there have been some duds along the way. This year I’m feeling like Night Swim is the worst of the bunch. As for Tarot, I have to admit I went into this one with pretty low expectations, but the trailer had enough in it for me to want to still give it a try. While I missed it in theaters, this weekend I caught it on Netflix, and I’ve got to say, it’s better than I expected, but still it left me wanting more. The film opens up with a group of friends renting a mansion in the middle of nowhere to celebrate their friend’s birthday. When they run out of beer, they search the home looking for more to drink but end up finding more than they bargained for when they find a door telling them to Keep Out … but this is a horror movie, so of course they open the door that leads to a creepy basement filled with creepy artifacts. When they find a deck of tarot cards, Haley (Harriet Slater), the tarot expert of the group, volunteers to give everyone a reading, and of course curses them all in the process. It is a very simple setup, and it is effective for this kind of horror film. Sure, it is a twist on the Final Destination franchise, as we see them each die how their tarot reading told. I was totally on board for this direction … but the directors got in the way of themselves by showing us (the audience) too much and too soon.
What makes the Final Destination films work so well is that the villain is death itself, and it is something we don’t get to see; instead we see the environments of the characters turned into deathtraps. In Tarot death for these kids takes the form of their final card drawn, whether it is a magician, a jester, or whatever character is on the card. To make it worse, I hated the look of all these “death” characters brought to life. Then there is of course the character that is there to explain why the cards are cursed and who is behind it all, and that is fine, but again, this just felt like a wasted character.
While the film carries a PG-13 rating, I don’t think that hurts the film in any way. Most effective paranormal films don’t have an R rating, because they don’t rely on gore but instead try and pull off their scares through atmosphere. The first half of this film has a fun creepy vibe to it, though it honestly reminded me of a 90s film (I’m still trying to decide if that is good or bad). Once this film started relying more on the FX building to the kills it very much lost what it had going for it. The staple jump scares were not needed. Instead this film should have focused on a better score to build the tension.
At the end of the day I wouldn’t recommend this to the hardcore horror fans. This is simply fluff compared to films like Talk to Me and Late Night With the Devil. Tarot is a film I’d point to those who are curious about dipping their toes into the genre but don’t want anything too intense. The film isn’t great, but it isn’t the worst way to waste 90 minutes. This is definitely a simple gateway horror film that you can use to show someone that horror doesn’t have to be crazy gore or too art house. It’s safe enough for the kids with absolutely nothing offensive in it. But that’s also why I doubt I’ll ever watch this again, because there really isn’t anything to remember. I’d probably be more content watching the Final Destination franchise all over again for the umpteenth time. At least that had the genre great Tony Todd and Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Seann William Scott, and Kerr Smith to carry to the first film. Oh, and it was based on a script that was originally going to be an episode of The X-Files. So maybe just skip Tarot and watch Final Destination instead. Perhaps the only way to know for sure what to do is to find a deck of tarot cards and let the cards decide your fate.
