You could find enough good horror movies on HBO Max to fill every night between now and Halloween. I don’t want to sound like I’m writing ad copy, but they have a healthy library of classics and lesser-known favorites. There are so many horror movies on Max that it’s shocking to see how many people chose to watch Tarot. That’s not to say that it flopped at the box office, because it didn’t. All it takes a few decent monster designs and a jump scare or two to push a horror film into relative success.
Tarot Plays its Horror Cards Right On HBO Max
Tarot cards are pretty cool, right? Persona used the Major Arcana to create a selection of character archetypes and their subsequent superpowers. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure named its first few stands after the same 22 cards. First-time directors Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg took that cultural fascination and asked a question. What if the pictures on the Major Arcana cards became scary monsters and tried to kill you? The result is Tarot, in which eight familiar faces become twisted into abominations. I wasn’t belittling the monster design when I mentioned it earlier. They’re easily the best part of the film. Internet horror fixture Trevor Henderson, of Siren Head and Cartoon Cat fame, created the killers, and they stand out. The problem is that Cohen and Halberg’s most notable previous experience includes the decent short film Blink and garbage like Moonfall or Expend4bles. Trevor’s work was not in good hands.
Tarot made most of its money overseas. It earned $18.8 million in the US and Canada, but it made $30.3 million elsewhere. The questionable horror hit is a success on HBO Max through the same helpful influence of Latin America. Mexico was the film’s second-biggest audience, adding just under $3 million to that total. The film’s success on HBO Max is more of a team effort, as nearly every Latin American country found countless people to watch it. Maybe the material just plays better in Spanish, or maybe the Latin American audience finds something more poignant about tarot cards. The grim truth of Tarot is that it lacks an ounce of originality. It’s the kind of thing that you’ve probably already seen a hundred times. If you’re not sick of that, then it’s a perfectly serviceable ride.
Tarot blends into the background without an ounce of originality, but that doesn’t make it worthless. I think it’s a bit boring to simply write off the project for its lack of quality, but looking deeper is hard. Trevor Henderson remains the only person especially deserving of praise. It’s worth noting that the film was originally an adaptation of Nicholas Adams’ Horrorscope. The new script lacks the original work’s intelligence, but the film needed some excuse to shove in monsters. Anyone looking for what Tarot provides can find it elsewhere, but there are worse game-based horror movies. I’d certainly pick it over Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare.
