Call me something of a romantic, but when I find a horror movie I like—especially one I really like—I have a hard time letting go. This is especially true of 2000s-coded slumber party fare, which is exactly the kind of horror movie I grew up on. Every generation is different, of course, but my video rental days were epitomized by the glossy, digital blue horrors of the new millennium. Final Destination, Darkness Falls, a slate of J-horror remakes (The Ring, The Grudge). I was still reaching back and checking out the classics, but on a Friday night, it was strictly the English-language remake of One Missed Call territory. That’s where Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg’s Tarot, now streaming on Netflix, comes in.
Per Netflix: When a group of friends discovers tarot cards in the basement of their vacation rental, their deadly predictions come to life and terrorize them.
PG-13 horror has always had a polarizing connotation. I think there’s merit to both sides. For the pro-PG-13 crowd, I can rattle off dozens and dozens of earnestly frightening movies that are rated that or even lower (and I don’t even have to go to the early days of the MPA to do it). Nightbooks, No One Will Save You, Tarot (obvi), Lights Out, I Saw the TV Glow, the list goes on. For the anti-PG-13 crowd, I get the frustration, largely when a property clearly intended to be rated otherwise is incredulously cut to a PG-13 rating. 2004’s Alien vs. Predator was tough on everyone, okay?
Tarot is the sweet spot between those two worlds. It’s an intentionally PG-13 teen scream and an earnestly good movie to boot. There’s bias in my admiration for Tarot, principally because it’s exactly the kind of late-night, TV static movie I grew up with. VHS in the basement, falling asleep just after midnight, and DVD menus of pinging dolphins I desperately wished would hit the corner of the screen exactly right. Tarot is horror of a bygone era, a high-concept, monster-driven shocker that exists simply to torment its cast until the inevitable, sequel-teasing conclusion.
Movies like Tarot don’t exist anymore because the audience for movies like Tarot doesn’t exist anymore. While the film managed a pretty impressive $49 million haul worldwide, the domestic gross was considerably less than that. In an era of A24 (and now Neon) horror properties dominating the zeitgeist, and at a time where Blumhouse has the market cornered on IP-driven PG-13 horror, something like Tarot needs an incredible pitch simply to stand out. While I mean this with no judgment, Tarot doesn’t really have that kind of hook.
While famed illustrator Trevor Henderson’s tarot illustrations and monster designs (in a perfect world, at least) should be enough to get audiences lined up outside the cinema, the early aughts horror of a cursed tarot deck just doesn’t have the efficacy it once would have in the Blockbuster rental days. There are no big, hot teen stars, no recognizable, meme-worthy villains (M3GAN), and no third-act twist that gets everyone talking. Tarot’s deck yields few narrative surprises, though that never stops it from being a propulsive, frequently scary good time.
I scare easier than most, I’ll admit that, but Tarot regularly had me jumping. Cohen and Halberg, who also wrote the script based on Nicholas Adams’ novel Horrorscope, have a great deal of fun with the cursed deck’s temporal and proximal distortion. Doors open into abandoned subway stations and elevator cars never seem to arrive at the correct floor. The rules aren’t tethered to any kind of logic—look too closely and see the holes—but a movie about haunted tarot cards doesn’t really need sharp logic. What it needs is mysticism and fun, and Tarot’s deck is stacked with both.
The kills are surprisingly brutal given the PG-13 rating, and there’s an earnest sense of both desperation and unpredictability as to who dies and when. Elise’s (Larsen Thompson) introductory death via attic ladder—teased prominently in the marketing material—is a genuinely spectacular set piece. It’s got everything: some blood, some tension, and a solid jump to tie it all together. Cohen and Halberg don’t rest on the laurels of just one gangbuster scare, however, as every subsequent demise is just as creative and chilling in its randomness.
And, sure, Tarot isn’t quite as profound (or moving) as something like The Monkey, or even the long-running Final Destination franchise. The core conceit is the same—death happens to us all, and try as we might, it’s in the cards, and we can’t escape fate—though the rhythm is considerably more teeny-bopper scares. And that’s a good thing. Not every horror fan is in a space to see The Monkey. Horror audiences are as diverse as they’ve ever been, and while Tarot may not be exactly what your niche interests align with, there are persons out there for whom it does. One of them is me!
I first watched Tarot when it arrived on premium video-on-demand, and there were few movie experiences where I had quite so much fun. Granted, at first, I was in firm snark mode. The central group of teens spends the opening minutes drinking to excess, though when the titular tarot reading starts, not one of them appears to be drunk.
I even tweeted about it:
It’s inconsequential and it doesn’t matter, but I hate when movie characters are supposed to be drunk but aren’t. ‘Tarot’ opens with an overflowing bag of cans/bottles but every character is straight sober? More damning because the inciting incident is looking for *more booze.
— Chad Collins (@chadiscollins) June 17, 2024
I was ready to roll my eyes, but when Haley (Harriet Slater) started reading the cards and—surprisingly adhered to pretty solid tarot logic—I was impressed. No, the movie is not a tarot gospel—it’s a horror movie, after all—but scary movies love reworking mythic iconography to suit narrative needs. When the death card was pulled, Haley didn’t panic, nor should she have—it simply signals change.
‘Tarot’ is exactly my kind of early-aughts teen slaughter heaven. Funny, a little grim, and bolstered by consistently inspired baddies and set pieces. It delivers exactly what it sets out to. Leagues better than the general reception led me to believe.
— Chad Collins (@chadiscollins) June 17, 2024
Tarot is a gem that feels like it belongs to a bygone era. And maybe that’s the start of a trend. Festival release Witchboard was similarly swimming in 1990s and early aughts vibes. Horror is often cyclical, so if the cards suggest a return to horrors past, I think I’d be more than okay with that.
Tarot is now streaming on Netflix.
Categorized:Editorials
