The biggest struggle that Tarot-based horror films suffer from, apart from the fact that none of them seem to understand how Tarot works, is how to translate prophetic doom into a compelling story. Inevitably these films take a page from Final Destination: an omnipotent threat that can’t be seen or touched picks off a group of friends until they finally get wise and confront the individual who dealt the cards. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Alas, Tarot Curse writers Dean Loftis and Mary O’Neil do very little to shake up the formula and the result is a frustrating 90-minute film that plays it far too safe.
Much like last summer’s theatrical release Tarot, this film features a loosely connected group of friends who have their fortunes read and then are systematically killed according to the cards. Here it’s students attending Robson, a private high school, and includes social outcast Preston (Kamarion Miller), competitive swimmer Chloe (Selena Turner), kindly drug dealer Jordan (Tristan Dye), and his “secret” love interest, cheerleader Quinn (Evelyn Kim). The disparate friends, who have all gone their separate ways, reunite to celebrate the birthday of Tara (Lauren Chanel), the aspiring HS reporter who has been struggling since the death of her father the previous year.
Tara drives the group to New Orleans for a weekend getaway where they are enticed by Bone Daddy (Mikhail Keize) to visit the underground store of a Tarot Reader (Anna Talakkottur). Here each teen verbally acknowledges their greatest wish and a corresponding card is drawn. The experience ends abruptly, however, when Tara receives the Death card and the Reader marks the girl’s arm in blood.
The rest of the film finds each individual’s desire coming true, followed swiftly by their death – usually in some kind of freak Rube Goldberg accident.
Director Jason Winn does a perfunctory job, though the film’s miniscule budget requires that nearly all of the action and set-pieces be strategically shot. As a result, objects fly or fall, followed by a cut to reveal a character has been impaled and killed. Thankfully the special effects makeup by Alex Petty is excellent, with several practical crushed skulls and flayed hands.
This includes the promising opening sequence, which follows a man investigating a noise in his basement before meeting an untimely (and surprisingly graphic) death. It’s a solid introduction, though the way the freak accident plays out is far too reminiscent of Ms. Lewton’s death from Final Destination.
Audiences would be forgiven for imbuing this sequence with more importance than it deserves since the next scene introduces Tara and her patriarchal trauma. Considering the way the scenes are structured and edited, it seems as though the film’s introductory death is her father…but, in actuality, the first scene is simply there to establish the lethal properties of the Tarot cards.
The uneven storytelling proves to be a persistent issue in Tarot Curse, which struggles to flesh out its characters, establish the world, and, most vitally, maintain interest. Arguably one of the biggest frustrations is that the characters take forever to realize (and act on) what is happening. Preston figures things out reasonably early, but the others tend to ignore him in favour of pushing on with their lives.
It’s especially aggravating that no one ever considers going back to New Orleans to confront the Reader until the climax. Even then, this development occurs principally when a previously unseen character, Maeve (Shazia Pascal), appears out of nowhere in order to drop a bunch of exposition. It’s awkward storytelling, but, even more importantly, it makes all of the surviving characters look extremely dumb, renders them passive, or both.
Thankfully Tarot Curse does have one bright light: Quinn. The vacuous cheerleader is introduced sparring (for no reasons) with Tara in the first act, but she becomes more complex and multi-faceted as the film progresses. This come to a head when she admits that she’s shallow and performative, breaking off her socially acceptable relationship with asshole Kyle (Eric Brody) in favor of a relationship with Jordan.
Intriguingly, Loftis and O’Neil seem to realize Quinn is the most interesting character in the film, too. While other characters, including Tara, are thinly sketched, Quinn has a whole extended scene wherein she connects with an elderly female patient (Gail Cronauer) at the hospital that is simultaneously emotionally vulnerable and completely sells the character’s arc. In the process Quinn becomes Tarot Curse’s stealth MVP.
Alas Quinn is not the Final Girl; Tara is. While Chanel is fine, there’s nothing particularly compelling about her performance or the character. Tara’s grief subplot feels tacked on and shallow; so, too, does her relationship with Deacon Ron (Kwame Feaster), the school’s authority/father figure who typically shows up to awkwardly recite dialogue about God’s plan at each subsequent funeral.
Ultimately Tarot Curse is predictable, underwritten, and, worst of all, a little dull. It’s not simply that the characters are thinly drawn and don’t have any kind of agency, but rather that the film appears content to simply go through the motions. Solid gore and one memorable character isn’t enough to justify recommending this one.
Tarot Curse is now streaming only on Tubi.
The post Tubi’s Latest Original ‘Tarot Curse’ Doesn’t Cast a Spell [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
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