Beware any sinister party game pilfered from a dusty hiding place by smirking teens who couldn’t be less concerned with following “rules” that might protect them from supernatural harm. Many a horror movie has launched with that premise—and Tarot, which dropped its first trailer today, is the latest.
Jacob Batalon (Ned in Marvel’s Spider-Man movies) is the biggest name in the cast, and the film—written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg—was previously known as Horrorscope but is probably more accurately, if less titillatingly, titled Tarot. That trailer definitely sets the scene without any confusion, but here’s the plot description anyway: “When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings—never use someone else’s deck—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 to escape the future foretold in their readings.”
Tarot joins recent films like Talk to Me, Ouija, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Hulu Into the Dark episode Uncanny Annie—and cult classics like Witchboard (which has a remake on the way)—in spotlighting exactly why bored youths should steer clear of any sort of otherworldly dabbling, especially when it’s tied into some kind of game-playing scenario. You never know what you might awaken; just look what happened when Regan started spirit-boarding with Captain Howdy in The Exorcist. We’re still waiting for fresh updates on that Magic 8 Ball movie—which is indeed in the works—but in the meantime, Tarot arrives in May.
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