Free: Tarot (Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg, 2024) & Paid: Scotoe (Jamel Aattache, 2024)

Based on the novel Horrorscope (1992) by Nicholas Adams, Tarot is a horror movie for absolute beginners. But it does have a concept that could be useful if it becomes a franchise.

Released at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t too high on my watchlist, but since it popped up on Netflix Europe recently, I’d decided to give it a spin.

It’s about a group of friends who go to college in Boston, who spend the weekend at a remote estate in the Catskills to celebrate the birthday of Elise (Larsen Thompson).

When they run out of beer too soon, they search the place and stumble upon an old, hand painted tarot deck.

As Haley (Harriet Slater) has been reading the cards since she was a child, she is basically forced by the rest of the group to read their (and her own) horoscope, thereby violating the golden rule of Tarot readings: never use someone else's deck.

This is, of course, a bad idea and pretty soon after they get back to the city where they go to college, horrible things start happening and the Tarot readings of the various characters start coming to life (and death).

The most notable character is Paxton (Jacob Batalon), who is most notable for his role as Ned in the recent Spider-Man films, who can’t stop talking and gets on everyone’s nerves, even though everyone still loves him.

Nice guy Grant (Adain Bradley) just split up with Haley, while Paige (Avantika), Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz) and Madeline (Humberly González) are so thinly sketched that they are more or less defined by their appearance.

Still, when the shit hit the fan, I did care about the fates of these harmless teens and it must be said, some of the deaths are pretty gruesome. (I know, even though I survived Terrifier 3, at heart I’m still a scaredy cat.)

There is also a striking supporting turn from character actress Olwen Fouéré (The Watchers) as Alma, a person who might shed some light on what’s really going on behind it all.

And yes, the whole Tarot-concept gives the movie some mileage as it propels proceedings along from the start to its nicely timed finish at the ninety minutes mark.

I’m not gonna give Tarot more than two stars, but since the movie was a success (almost fifty million dollars on an eight million budget) there could easily be a sequel.

If filmmakers Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg elaborate on the Tarot readings with a bigger budget - like Parker Finn did with the second Smile movie - I can predict a future where the second Tarot movie could be (a lot) better than the first one.

Note: Apart from being on Netflix in Europe, Tarot is available to stream through various platforms like Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV.

For Paid Subscribers there is also a review of Dutch comedy Scotoe by Jamel Aattache.