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Tarot had a good trailer, and it intrigued me, a bit of a Final Destination vibe, and while it isn't the most original story ever, I went into this movie expecting to enjoy some mindless simple horror, but maybe that was my downfall, as it unfortunately really wasn't, and ends up being one of the worst horror movies of 2024.
The film is about a group of friends that attend a birthday at a country house, where they find an old deck of Tarot cards.
Haley, one of the friends, gives everyone a Tarot reading, and when they return to school, they start to die, with similar fates to that were shown in the tarot readings.
Lets start with some little positives though.
The performances by the main cast are pretty decent, even though as characters they aren't the best, and the direction by Spenser Cohen and Anna Helberg is also pretty decent, and the visuals deserve some praise as well.
Oh, and the soundtrack is quite good too, Joseph Bishara, who composed The Conjuring and Insidious themes, does another good job with this one.
But, the main problem is, as a horror movie, it's just not very good, and as I said above, while it is isn't very original, it could have been fun, but it wasn't.
Some parts in particular just don't work, such as when the students investigate it all and find a tarot card expert named Alma Astryn, it could have gotten interesting, but it doesn't, and her scenes in particular are a big missed opportunity within the movie, due to some quite bad dialogue and comical angles of her face!
The film also uses quick cuts to show the supernatural monsters, but the editing leaves a lot to be desired, and the movie just isn't scary at all in any way, which is a big thing.
Now, that doesn't mean they have to loads of jump scares to be scary, The Shining is one of the best horror movies of all time, but the horror is psychological, while Tarot on the other hand, doesn't really have anything going for it in that regard, every time the movie tried to be scary, it came across as just a bit dumb and cheesy.
I appreciate these type of films aren't really meant to be taken too seriously, but even then, Tarot is just an incredibly simple and predictable movie and just not fun at all.
Chances are, when you have watched this one, you will wonder why it was made at all.
Give this one a miss and watch Final Destination instead, you aren't going to be gaining anything by giving Tarot a watch.
It's one of the worst horror movies of 2024 along with Night Swim, among a few others.
I would rate this film 36% on my horror movie nerd-o-meter.
What did you think of the movie? Let me know your thoughts on the movie in the comments or connect with me on my horror twitter and horror Instagram pages.
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