Tarot

Tarot is the latest teen horror to hit the big screen, but the film is completely undeserving of a cinematic release.

I could tell from the trailer that the film wouldn't be great, but I was unprepared for just how bad it actually was. It feels a lot like something from well over twenty years ago: the 'teenagers unable to escape fate' story line is highly reminiscent of Final Destination while its variety of creepy killers reminded me of Thir13en Ghosts - only it isn't anywhere near as good as either of those films.

Directors Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg take the easy route by delivering predictable jump scares accompanied by very loud noises, and it soon gets very tiresome and repetitive. Unlike Final Destination and Thir13en Ghosts, Tarot doesn't even provide viewers with gory death scenes - all of the kills are extremely tame and most are off screen. The teal and orange colour scheme adds to the dated feel, and there is an over-reliance on CGI.

A more unoriginal and forgettable horror movie it is hard to imagine - this is a serious contender for worst horror release of the year so far (and that's saying something).

This is a really good example of why so many people don't like horror.

A group of pretty teens unwittingly get themselves caught up in some supernatural shenanigans and become canon fodder for some demonic entity.

There's a raft of jump scares (though I use to word 'scare' lightly) and each of those is accompanied by jarring sound effects almost as if the director doesn't trust that he can even make you jump. There's a bit of middle of the road CGI and a personal bug bear of mine, an accessible expert on hand who can explain in great detail exactly what is going on. Then dies.

It's just a really shallow, cursed object, jump scare marathon with cliche characters and annoying exposition and there are loads of movies just like this.

Just a typical teen horror film that follows the same bad formula that's getting stale and old. A group of college friends are together, play a game of reading from a mysterious and forbidden tarot deck... they're then cursed and picked off one by one in cheesy death scenes.

The movie is full of bad dialogue, corny humor, stupid characters that make idiotic decisions, cheesy jump scares, and a boring story full of cliche twists. Everything is so predictable that I called most of the deaths and the ending was extremely bad.

This is just another example of a studio tossing money at a bad idea knowing it'll still make some profit. I do not recommend wasting your money on this movie.

This movie is just ok and its another movie about college kids dying in strange ways. It is pretty predictable movie plot and especially after the girl does the tarot reading you basically know what is going to happen to each of them.

It has a few jump scares and the tarot card lady is creepy looking and over all product value wasn't too bad.

Jacob Batalon provides a few laughs but a lot of laughs do not land and are pretty cringed but then again I think that how his character was written.

Most of the college kids are throw away character and don't really get much back story on them.

Pacing is good and has a tried a true run time of hour and half which works well for most horror movies.

I would recommend this movie if you like horror movies.

A group of twenty-somethings have rented a "literal" mansion (I wish writers would find out what that word means and use it properly!) and are having a few fireside beers outside it whilst subjecting us to their dull relationship issues. Needless to say the gang are a politically correct assemblage that tick just about every box and are frankly all pretty well deserving of what's to come. On that front, the clue's in the title. Exploring the house looking to top up their supply of booze, they find a locked room full of all things occult and that includes an unique set of tarot cards. Rather foolishly, but typically disparagingly, they demand that "Haley" (Harriet Slater) read their fortunes. Next thing they are dropping like flies - all in a manner they gradually realise is akin to the results of the tarot reading. As they gruesomely dwindle, they realise that they are going to need some help and so thanks to Google spook, they find a woman (Olwen Fouéré) who informs them of the bleak history of their toxic tarot and tells them that the cards' destruction might be their only road to salvation. Thing is, can they survive long enough to get back to the house? There's nothing at all original here, sorry. We've seen it loads of times before and the uninteresting dynamic between the characters is even more predictable than the denouement. To be fair, the candle-lit visual effects are quite effective at times, but the acting is pretty dreadful and the whole frat-like presentation left me looking at the clock after half an hour. It's a shame. The whole astrology and mythology surrounding the tarot could have offered us a rich vein to tap into and exploit, but here we simply get a rather lazy and formulaic light-horror enterprise that's really devoid of much imagination. Literally.