Tarot is the topic of a new movie in 2024, but it’s been a popular topic of movies for decades! Yet a new Tarot movie promises to keep the stereotype alive. Lawyers love to watch courtroom dramas that grossly misrepresent the legal system and how it works; it’s fun to heckle from the position of the expert.
Here’s a plot summary of the Tarot 2024 movie, from IMDb: “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.”
Uhhhh…When did that rule become Tarot law? It’s truly uncool to use someone’s tarot deck without their permission. We do leave our energy on the objects we touch and many people just don’t like having other people’s hands on their decks.
Personally, we have invited people to shuffle the cards before we read for them. And we clear our decks before each reading, sometimes with sage or palo santo, or a long shuffle.
One Reddit user summed up a common concern when Tarot is portrayed as evil for the masses: “Just saw the trailer on Instagram and it sort of looks like they’re going to be demonizing the practice. Which, of course, in my opinion is disappointing. It does look like some of the antagonists are based off the Major Arcana, which is cool creatively. Don’t love the idea they’re going to be demonic (or ghosts?), though.
Read also: Heartbreak and the Three of Swords
Same, Reddit user. Below is the official Tarot 2024 movie trailer from Sony so you can decide for yourself.
So maybe we don’t love the plot of Tarot movie 2024, but there is precedent for horror movies launching some famous celebrity careers. This cannot be denied!
Famous Celebrities Launched by Horror Movies
- Brad Pitt: Made his debut in 1989’s teen slasher, Cutting Class.
- Leonardo DiCaprio: Starred in the horror movie Critters 3 in 1991.
- Johnny Depp: Made his debut in the first A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.
- Kevin Bacon: Made his debut in the 1980 quintessential horror movie, Friday the 13th.
- Tom Hanks: Debuted his acting chops in a He Knows You’re Alone, also in 1980.
- Jamie Lee Curtis: Got her start in Halloween.
Perhaps the Tarot movie 2024 will launch a career of its fairly unknown cast into the same household-name category of those listed above?
Other Movies Titled "Tarot"
- Tarot (2009): “Fortune telling…ghosts… doomsday cult…evil curses…and romance."
- Tarot (2015): “Two lovers who are about to get married, hope to get a beautiful card reading, but they end up receiving an awful reading from a Tarot card reader."
- Tarot (2024): “When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards."
- Zodiac (2007): Not a Tarot movie, but this is a Team Astrostyle favorite, and we’re an Astrology company, so on the list it goes! Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Chloë Sevigny, Brian Cox!
No birth times are available for the Tarot 2024 movie celebrities. Pro tip: When birth times are unknown, we use noon to generate birth charts. Without a birth time, you can’t accurately know a person’s Rising sign, but there are still A LOT of birth chart details you can learn by knowing birth date and location.
Happy Tarot 2024 movie watching and birth charting! And remember, Tarot isn’t scary, it’s self-empowering. Love celebrity content? Learn how to read your birth chart and get to know each planet in it!
Read also: The Meaning of Tarot Suits
Tarot is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, in their feature film directorial debuts, based on the 1992 novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams. The film stars Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly González, Larsen Thompson, and Jacob Batalon as a group of college students who, after using a strange Tarot deck, begin to gruesomely die one by one. Tarot was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on May 3, 2024.
Plot Summary
A group of college friends - Haley, Grant, Paxton, Paige, Madeline, Lucas, and Elise - rent a mansion in the Catskills for Elise's birthday. As the atmosphere turns awkward following Haley and Grant's recent breakup, the group attempt to lighten the mood by having Haley read their fortunes with a box of strange old tarot cards discovered in the basement. Elise gets The High Priestess; Lucas gets The Hermit; Madeline The Hanged Man; Paige The Magician; and Paxton The Fool.
The next day, the group returns to campus. That night, Elise is lured to the attic then attacked by a monstrous version of The High Priestess, who proceeds to bludgeon her to death with the attic ladder. The group meets again after finding out about Elise's death and that night, while returning home, Lucas is terrorized by The Hermit and chased into the restricted area of a train station, before being killed by a speeding train.
Suspecting something amiss with the deck and they are in danger, the remaining five visit Alma Astrom, an expert on tarot they found online. Alma reveals that the cards belonged to an astrologer who, in 1798, served a Hungarian count and would predict the future for him. After a reading that his pregnant wife and child would die in childbirth came true, the grief-stricken count ordered his men to kill the astrologer's daughter as revenge.
The astrologer, enraged with grief, doomed the count and his friends to death with her cards, then killed herself and cursed her deck to kill anyone who used it. The cards are responsible for several massacres over the years, including Alma's own group of friends. She was the sole survivor, as she did not do a reading on herself. Alma urges them to destroy the deck.
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While driving to the Catskills mansion, their car breaks down on a bridge. Madeline freaks out, leaves the car and runs away, only to be hanged by The Hanged Man. At the mansion, Haley, Grant, and Paige are unable to burn the cards and request Alma's help. Alma summons the astrologer's spirit, but the astrologer does a reading on her and kills her with the Six of Swords.
The Magician lures Paige into the basement and hypnotizes her. She hides in a box but gets locked inside, and The Magician fatally saws her in half. Desperate, Haley comes up with the idea to read the astrologer's horoscope. As Grant is dragged away by The Devil, Haley does a reading on the astrologer, giving her Death. Eventually, Haley lets go of the grief from her mother's death.
Haley and Grant reconcile over their survival.
Nicholas Adams's 1992 novel of the same name.[7] Ground Control's Scott Glassgold produced through Alloy Entertainment, together with Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Koplovitz Dutton.
Reception
In the United States and Canada, Tarot was released alongside The Fall Guy, and was projected to gross $5-6 million from 3,104 theaters in its opening weekend.[2] The film made $2.5 million on its first day, including $715,000 from preview screenings.
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, writing, "Flashes of competence are not enough to distract from a sense of crushing pointlessness, more watery slop served up lukewarm for undemanding Friday night horror fans, who really ought to be demanding so much more."[22] Variety's Todd Gilchrist said the film "repeatedly leverages the genre's laziest mood-setting and suspense-building devices to keep its audience on the edge of their seats."[23] IGN's Jesse Hassenger gave it 2/10 stars, saying, "Tarot seems perpetually uncertain about whether it should play its thinly conceived premise for laughs, or actually pursue real scares.
Cast Interviews
Jacob Batalon jokes he never touched the tarot cards given to him at the end of filming his new movie with Avantika, Tarot, out May 3. “In the trailer, they say that you should never use anyone else's tarot cards,” he tells Teen Vogue.
Sony's latest horror flick, Tarot, revolves around a group of friends who make the grave mistake of using someone else's tarot deck, unleashing a series of terrifying events that will haunt them for life. As an astrologer and professional tarot reader and practitioner, the movie is particularly interesting to me. It is considered an important superstition to always use your personal tarot deck because its energy is connected to the owner - and to never buy your first tarot deck. (So to be honest, Batalon was probably in the clear.) Instead, it is recommended to cleanse any deck before using and to have it gifted to you. When the characters in Tarot break these rules, drama and chaos ensue.
As a result, they must confront malevolent spirits in the real world, where their fears manifest as tangible threats. The group race against the clock to prevent a grim fate that has been foretold by the cursed tarot cards. In order to rid the cards of their evil influence, the teenagers need to evade their destiny.
Tarot also sends a message that innocent people can be affected by the supernatural. The film emphasizes the importance of using proper steps while summoning evil spirits, including saying “goodbye” at the end of the session to let them know that you're done calling upon them and performing cleanses afterwards to rid oneself of the energy that was brought in. Additionally, before every reading, it is crucial to ensure that the energy is appropriate and that only welcoming spirits are present. Tarot safety is important.
I sat down with Avantika and Jacob Batalon for Teen Vogue to discuss their birth charts, tarot cards, and on-set friendship. (There was plenty of chemistry, shout out to air signs.) Even though their characters have opposite vibes, a Libra and Aquarius can be great friends both on and off set.
| Character | Actor | Tarot Card |
|---|---|---|
| Elise | Larsen Thompson | The High Priestess |
| Lucas | Wolfgang Novogratz | The Hermit |
| Madeline | Humberly Gonzalez | The Hanged Man |
| Paige | Avantika | The Magician |
| Paxton | Jacob Batalon | The Fool |
| Haley | Harriet Slater | Death |
| Grant | Adain Bradley | The Devil |
Lisa Stardust: Have you ever had or given a tarot reading?
Avantika: I never have given a tarot reading. I like learning. I just bought a deck. But I do get tarot readings religiously every four months. What I usually hear is that I'm gonna have three kids, and that's like the one constant I get.
Jacob Batalon: I would say that I definitely have not done my proper tarot reading. My mother is actually very into these types of things. I went with her once to get my palm read. And the person said that I was gonna be an actor, but it might have been because my mom told me to remember that I wanted to be that too. So, I think that that's probably my only experience, she knew the answers.
LS: I wanted to pull tarot cards and explain to you the meaning, and you can tell me if you resonate with it. I pulled the Nine of Cups, The Magician, and The Sun. The Nine of Cups is all about having fun and being in a state of joy. The Magician is about communicating. And the Sun is about being in the spotlight and shining bright - doing what you wanna do, basically based on your will and determination.
JB: Do people decide their life family?
AV: I feel like tarot is a good guideline slash reminder of common things.
LS: Do these cards resonate with you?
AV: Yes. I am in the spotlight, literally.
LS: Do you both believe in tarot and astrology?
JB: It’s tough to say. I mean, I believe in fate. Fate is really right.
AV: I don't really know enough about tarot to confidently say I believe in it. I think it’s an observational find. Astrology has been around for so long, but I also think it's more so about pattern recognition than, like, this is what's gonna happen to you.
JB: That makes more sense to me.
LS: Did anyone read tarot on set?
AV: I feel like there was a point in time when one or more people read all of our tarot cards.
LS: What is the spookiest thing that you've ever heard during a tarot reading?
AV: [Laughs] I don't know..I don't think they're like, trying to spook us or anything.
JB: But then the multiple things of having kids, I read that's definitely something for sure.
AV: For sure.
LS: What are your zodiac signs?
JB: [While laughing with Avantika] What is October 9? Libra? Is Libra an animal? No, I'm dead ass right now. Is it like a zebra?
LS: [Laughs] It’s the scales.
AK: I’m a water-bearer. But she would always diss me, bro, like, for no reason, like, we'd be having a good time on set. No, we had a good time. We had a really good time on set for sure. There were a lot of jokes.
LS: Air signs like to laugh and communicate together. They have a similar sense of humor.
JB: Wow. There’s a lot of jokes. A lot of talking sh*t.
LS: Well, that's what air signs do - they like to gossip. They like to communicate. Do you know anything about Mercury retrograde and the Great American eclipse next week? Mercury retrograde is when, you know, things get wonky astrologically. Then we have a big eclipse happening on April 8 that's going through the western part of Mexico all the way to the northeastern part of Canada. So are there any major events that you're planning to do for the eclipse? I like to warn people during Mercury retrograde that traveling is not a good idea during this time.[At this point, we discover Jacob is traveling around that time.]