This is rote, paint-by-numbers studio garbage that benefits from some interesting monster design, but disappoints in almost every other aspect. Given the potential in the subject matter, one might hope for a bit of creativity in the script, but this is as generic and bland as they come, wholesale ripping off ideas and sequences from far superior films. The characters are one-dimensional and the acting is atrocious, with the potential thrill of seeing horrible things happen to them robbed of grotesque potential by a PG-13 rating. There are a lot of jump scares, but few exhibiting any actual creativity or uniqueness. There is one sequence that is surprisingly inspired, only tangentially related to the Tarot arcana represented, but for a moment gives a glimmer of what potential this film might have had in development. There’s a strange tonal shift to humor in the last moments, that somewhat plays like everyone having the sudden revelation: this is genuinely a bad movie, and the only recourse is to laugh.
Tarot (2024)