‘Tarot’ Review: A Cursed Card Game Leaves No Horror Cliché Unturned
variety.comTodd Gilchrist editor Set in a world where every door creaks and there isn’t a single well-lit location, “Tarot” is little more than a clearinghouse of horror clichés.
Co-written, directed and executive produced by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg (the podcast series “Classified”), the supernatural thriller repeatedly leverages the genre’s laziest mood-setting and suspense-building devices to keep its audience on the edge of their seats.
But even featuring a moderately charming ensemble led by “Spider-Man: Homecoming” breakout Jacob Batalon, the film’s PG-13 rating — and lack of virtually any characters other than its doomed protagonists — severely limits the efficacy of those techniques and tropes even when they’re deployed skillfully.
Batalon plays Paxton, the wisecracker among a studiously diverse college-age friend group that rents a remote mansion to celebrate the birthday of Elise (Larsen Thompson).
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