Tarot

Dear fellow readers,

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

If you're interested in supernatural horror movies like me, you'd like tarot. I'm sure you all know the superstitions, the hocus pocus behind tarot reading. It's not everyone's cup of tea. Some people are curious enough to get their future read. Usually, these cards are used for divination but in this movie, they were combined with divination and astrology. And that's a dark combination.

A group of friends - Haley, Grant, Paxton, Paige, Madeline, Lucas, and Elise - rent a mansion in the Catskills for Elise's birthday. With tension in the group following Haley and Grant's recent breakup, they decide to distract themselves by having Haley read their horoscopes with a box of strange tarot cards discovered in the basement. Although Haley states that using someone else's deck is against an unspoken rule in Tarot, they decide to proceed, as Elise urges.

Elise receives the reading first and gets The High Priestess as her final outcome along with the fact that she will "climb the ladder of success". Lucas, read as the rule-breaker, gets The Hermit, where Haley also mentions that the Hermit's light may take him to the wrong track. Madeline gets The Hanged Man and is advised to not run when in a problematic situation, while Paige and Paxton are read The Magician and The Fool respectively and warns them of implications and how to avoid them. When Haley reveals Grant has The Tower in his fourth house of The Divination Board and his relationship is being ruined and he is destroying it himself as he also received The Devil, the two argue and Grant angrily suggests to her that she get her own reading. Finally, Haley reads her own horoscope and gets the Death card and mentions that she always gets that "love is gonna be the death of" her. In the meantime, Paxton goes to the washroom alone and notices a figure in the dark on the balcony, but there's nothing there with the lights on.

The next day, the group returns to campus, where Elise is staying in her dorm alone. That night, Elise investigates strange noises in the attic and is attacked by a monstrous version of The High Priestess, who bludgeons her to death with the ladder leading to the attic. Her death is considered an accident, shocking the others. Haley stays the night with Paige and reveals to her she began Tarot reading while her mother was fighting illness, but the cards always foretold her death. Thus, there was nothing Paige could do to amend fates.

Lucas is later attacked by The Hermit in a train station and is killed by a speeding train while attempting to flee. Haley notices each death corresponds to the tarot readings and the group suspects something is amiss with the deck, though Grant is openly skeptical.

The group decides to visit Alma Astron, an expert on the occult and tarot readings they found online. She identifies the cards as belonging to an astrologer who, in the late 18th century, served a Hungarian Count and would predict the future for him. After a reading that predicted his pregnant wife and child would die in childbirth came true, the grief-stricken Count ordered his men to kill the Astrologer's daughter. The astrologer, enraged with grief, did a reading on the Count and his close friends, dooming them to death, then killed herself and cursed the deck to kill anyone who used the cards. Alma reveals the cards are responsible for several tarot reading group massacres, including an incident in London that she narrowly survived. Alma urges the group to destroy the deck if they want a chance at survival, which is still at the mansion.

While driving there, their car breaks down and they are attacked by The Hanged Man, who kills Madeline, while she is trying to run, making Haley's prediction come true. Terrified, Paxton leaves the others and returns to campus, but is stalked by The Fool and eventually cornered in an elevator. Meanwhile, Haley, Grant, and Paige return to the mansion, but are unable to burn the cards and request Alma's assistance. She attempts to contact the astrologer's spirit.

Despite successfully summoning her, the astrologer is able to do a reading on Alma and she is killed by the Six of Swords as the astrologer does Alma's reading. During their escape, Paige accidentally breaks off from Grant and Haley and is lured into the basement, in the voice of Haley wanting help, where she is sawed in half by The Magician. Upstairs, Grant and Haley talk about how to undo the curse and Haley decides that if she reads the astrologer's horoscope, this all might end. Just then they get attacked by The Devil and Death, respectively.

As Grant is dragged away by The Devil, Haley gives the astrologer a reading with her deck, giving her Death. Haley sees that all her cards are in reverse and she's in a lot of pain. Eventually, she lets go of her mother's grief and the astrologer's spirit, consequently, is burnt alongside the deck. Haley and Grant reconcile over their survival and relationship and start to make their way home. On the way, they reunite with Paxton, who had survived his ordeal after his roommate, Todd, opened the elevator door at the last second, which made The Fool disappear.

I enjoyed the movie. It was really scary. The cards coming alive certainly spooked me the most. What did you think? Until next read... ciao!