| “ | Welcome to the circle. One more at the heart. With this final card, your meeting will start. Follow one rule to stay out of danger. You're never to deal with the deck of a stranger. The Hermit. Magician. High Priestess or Death? Whose face will you see, when you take your last breath? | „ |
| ― Tarot trailer |
Tarot is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg (in their feature film directorial debuts) and co-written by Nicholas Adams. It is based on a 1992 novel, Horrorscope, by Nicholas Adams. The film stars Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika Vandanapu, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly González, Larsen Thompson, Olwen Fouéré, and Jacob Batalon. The story follows after a group of college students use a strange Tarot deck, they begin to gruesomely die one-by-one and must uncover the deck’s mystery before time runs out.
Tarot was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on May 3, 2024. The film received negative reviews from critics and has grossed $30 million worldwide.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings, they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death.
Plot[]
A group of friends - Haley, Grant, Paxton, Paige, Madeline, Lucas, and Elise - rent a mansion in the Catskills for Elise's birthday. With tension in the group following Haley and Grant's recent breakup, they decide to distract themselves by having Haley read their horoscopes with a box of strange tarot cards discovered in the basement. Although Haley states that using someone else's deck is against the rules in Tarot, they decide to proceed. Elise receives The High Priestess, and Lucas gets The Hermit. Madeline gets The Hanged Man while Paige and Paxton are read The Magician and The Fool respectively. When Haley reveals Grant has The Devil card, the two argue. Finally, Haley reads her own horoscope and gets the Death card.
The next day, the group returns to campus, where Elise is staying in her dorm alone. That night, Elise investigates strange noises in the attic and is attacked by a monstrous version of The High Priestess, who bludgeons her to death with the ladder leading to the attic. Her death is considered an accident, shocking the others. Haley reveals she began Tarot reading while her mother was fighting illness, but the cards always foretold her death. Lucas is later attacked by The Hermit in a train station and is killed by a speeding train while attempting to flee. Haley notices each death corresponds to the tarot readings and the group suspects something is amiss with the deck, though Grant is openly skeptical.
The group decides to visit Alma Astryn, an expert on the occult and tarot readings. She identifies the cards as belonging to an astrologer who, in the late 18th century, served a Hungarian Baron and would predict the future for him. After a reading that predicted the Baron's pregnant wife would die in childbirth came true, the grief-stricken Baron ordered his men to kill the Astrologer's daughter. The astrologer, enraged with grief, did a reading on the Baron and his close friends, dooming them to death, then killed herself and cursed the deck to kill anyone who used the cards. Alma reveals the cards are responsible for several tarot reading group massacres, including an incident in London that she narrowly survived. Alma urges the group to destroy the deck by fire, which is still at the mansion.
While driving there, their car breaks down and they are attacked by The Hanged Man, who kills Madeline. Terrified, Paxton leaves the others and returns to campus, but is stalked by The Fool and eventually cornered in an elevator. Meanwhile, Haley, Grant, and Paige return to the mansion, but are unable to burn the cards and request Alma's assistance. She attempts to contact the astrologer's spirit. Despite successfully summoning her, the astrologer is able to do a reading on Alma and she is killed by the Six of Swords. During their escape, Paige accidentally breaks off from Grant and Haley and is lured into the basement, where she is sawed in half by The Magician. Upstairs, Grant and Haley are attacked by The Devil and Death respectively.
As Grant is dragged away by The Devil, Haley gives the astrologer a reading with her deck, giving her Death. Haley lets go of her mother's grief and the astrologer's spirit, consequently, is burnt alongside the deck. Haley and Grant reconcile over their survival and relationship and start to make their way home. On the way, they reunite with Paxton, who had survived his ordeal after his roommate, Todd, opened the elevator door at the last second, which made The Fool disappear.
List of Deaths[]
| Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elise | Crushed by a ladder | High Priestess | Yes | |
| Lucas | Hit by a speeding train | The Hermit | Yes | Accidentally hit after running scared |
| Madeline | Asphyxiation by hanging | The Hanged Man | Yes | |
| Alma | Stabbed in the back | Six of Swords | No | |
| Paige | Sawed in half | Magician | Yes | |
| Astrologer | Burned/Cursed | Death | Yes |
Cast[]
- Harriet Slater as Haley
- Jacob Batalon as Paxton
- Avantika as Paige
- Adain Bradley as Grant
- Humberly González as Madeline
- Wolfgang Novogratz as Lucas
- Larsen Thompson as Elise
- Olwen Fouéré as Alma Astryn
- Sunčica Milanović as The Astrologer
Production[]
Deadline Hollywood reported the production of Horrorscope in June 2022, with Jacob Batalon, Alana Boden, Avantika Vandanapu, Adain Bradley joining the cast. The film was directed and written by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, based on Nicholas Adams's 1992 novel of the same name. Ground Control's Scott Glassgold produced through Alloy Entertainment, together with Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton. Halberg and Cohen served as executive producers. Screen Gems also produced the film. In July 2022, Humberly González joined the cast. In October 2022, Harriet Slater joined the cast. Filming took place in Belgrade, Serbia.
In January 2024, the film was renamed to Tarot.
Release[]
Tarot was originally scheduled to be released on June 28, 2024, before being moved up to May 10, 2024. It was later moved down a week to May 3, 2024.
Reception[]
Box office[]
As of August 2, 2024, Tarot has grossed $18.8 million in the United States and Canada and $30.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $49.1 million.
In the United States and Canada, Tarot was released alongside The Fall Guy, and was projected to gross $5–6 million from 3,104 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.5 million on its first day, including $715,000 from preview screenings. It went on to debut at $6.3 million, finishing in fourth. The film made $3.4 million in its second weekend (a drop of 47.7%) and $2 million in its third, finishing in fourth and seventh place, respectively. The film is considered a box office success.
Critical response[]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 17% of 63 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.20/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 36 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 59% overall positive score.
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, writing, "Flashes of competence are not enough to distract from a sense of crushing pointlessness, more watery slop served up lukewarm for undemanding Friday night horror fans, who really ought to be demanding so much more." Variety's Todd Gilchrist said the film "repeatedly leverages the genre's laziest mood-setting and suspense-building devices to keep its audience on the edge of their seats." IGN's Jesse Hassenger gave it 2/10 stars, saying, "Tarot seems perpetually uncertain about whether it should play its thinly conceived premise for laughs, or actually pursue real scares. It winds up with neither, stumbling around in the dark and turning its small ensemble into a crude means of timekeeping for its surprisingly sluggish 90-minute runtime."
Alison Foreman of IndieWire gave the film a B grade, writing, "Cohen and Halberg manage an admirable faith in their own movie -- delivering consistently delightful kills in a soapy story that doesn't seem insecure until the very end."
External links[]
Tarot (2024) at the Internet Movie Database- Tarot (2024) at AllMovie
- Tarot (2024) at Rotten Tomatoes
- Tarot (2024 American film) at Wikipedia
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