Tarot - Can You Change Fate?

Oh look, another horror movie!

What? I love them. So, what are my thoughts on this one?

A quick note...when it comes to movies I take things as they are. I'm not going to compare something like "Dumb and Dumber" with "Shawshank Redemption". They're made for different audiences. I just require a couple things to enjoy a movie: have a good story and someone I can root for.

This movie was a mixed bag of those. The story idea itself was decent. College kids gathered for a friends birthday in a mansion they probably could never afford even if renting for a night. They find a creepy room and inside along with other mysterious items...cursed tarot cards. They do readings and one by one they die based on their cards.

While I believe in the imporobable: ghosts, aliens, certain cryptids. I don't really buy into astrology. I don't think that the day I was born has anything to do with my personality. That has to do with how I was raised, my interests, and social circles. If I read horoscope or have a tarot reading, its all in fun. Don't take much stock in it beyond that. But lets dive into the movie itself...

The biggest problem I had was the characters. In a group of seven, we only really get to know backstory and motivations of one character. Aside from that, I know next to nothing about the other ones. So when they died, I didn't really care or feel anything.

And of course, it being a horror movie, they made dumb choices. After figuring out they have to follow their fortunes and they might live. Girl was told not to run from her problems, her death is coming and she runs. Her friends shout not to, but she's in flight mode, keeps running, and dies.

The movie wasn't a slow burn. It moved at a fairly quick pace, which helped. You go from the night at the mansion, to the first and second deaths, to figuring out the backstory and how to survive in about half the screen time.

The story of the cursed cards was interesting. The creatures of the hand-drawn cards that came to life to kill looked freaky in the best way possible. The deaths, given the fortune given and card, were somewhat clever.

The pacing and the story just wasn't enough for me to enjoy this. It was barely ok. It gets points for the creepy monsters and a decent story. But it failed in characters which are the heart of movies. The people who the story is happening to. I just didn't care enough about them. But unlike when I saw Rob Zombies "Halloween 2" I wasn't ACTIVELY rooting for their quick deaths.

2.5/5