TAROT (2025)

Being an old fart means it is always with great trepidation that I approach a new horror movie! I have been fooled before by Conjurings, Insidiousness, Annabelles and Ouijas, but I am forever optimistic! Occasionally, a Sinister slips out from under the veil of utter tripe, and maybe, just maybe, Tarot will slide out with it.

Let us have a look see, shall we?

Tarot was written and directed by Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen, and is based on the novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adam’s, and tells the tale of a group of friend who have run out of alcohol whilst away for one of their birthdays. In searching the home they are staying at, they find a basement full of weird astrological stuff, amongst which they find a tarot deck packaged in a wooden box.

One of their crew, Hayley ( Harriet Slater) knows how to read peoples horoscopes with tarot cards and even though she should not do it, as it is not her deck, she proceeds to offer a fortune to all her friends.

After they return home, they start to be picked off one by one in horrific ways, and so they search out advice from Alma (Olsen Fouéré) who had a similar thing happen to her years ago and has been searching for the cursed deck, the same one these friends have used, to destroy it.

Will they destroy it before it kills them all?

I have mixed feeling about this film. On one hand I am extraordinarily happy to see a new movie based on a book that doesn’t have the names ‘Stephen King’ next to it, and honestly I am not quite sure how closely the movie follows the plot of the book, but it does feel VERY generic as it riffs on several other horror movies. The ‘cursed thing’ in the basement like Evil Dead, the ‘something is trying to kill us’ like Final Destination, and even the design of the ‘things’ is a little Th13teen Ghosts’ for my liking… but somehow it works and doesn’t sufficiently entertain.

I think the thing that wins this over is the majority of the cast are quite likeable and over and above some silly dialogue moments, it seems to work quite well except for the presence of Spider-Man’s Jacob Batalon whose appearance does not sit well amongst the others, and he feels like a desperate ring-in to get views. Films have been doing this sort of thing for years so I appreciate why he would be employed in this film, but it almost feels like he is trying to hard. You know that guy who know who desperately wants to be part of the group and overcompensates? That guy.

I know this all sounds like I did not actually like the film but in actual fact I found it perfectly enjoyable and a nice little horror palate cleanser. Easy to watch and not to hard on the brain matter.

Extras: There are three extras on this disc each just going for a few minutes:

A Twist of Fate Making the Film is a very brief making of, just discussing the origins of the story.

A Circle of Friends looks at the cast and how they got on during the making of the film.

Killer Outtakes, like most outtakes, are probably funnier if you were a part of the team making the film.

Film: 6/10

Extras: 4/10

Rewatchability: 6/10

This film was purchased from JB Hifi.