Back in 2024, with a fairly recognisable and likable cast, Tarot hit cinemas with the promise of making a strong horror outing from the classic premise of the fortune-telling deck of cards. The very practice is supernatural and spooky in the real world, so would seemingly be the perfect fit for a film that mixes in some strong character work.
Instead, Tarot just kind of came and went, failing to go on a winning run akin to 2026’s hits Backrooms and Obsession. Even so, it’s now on Netflix, giving it much more exposure with a title and cover art that will never fail to catch the eye. People still want to see the game brought to life, so where did Tarot 2024 fall flat?
Not the First Attempt to Appease Audiences
Tarot 2024 isn’t the first crack at running a fortune teller story in horror. The Gift from 2000, starring Cate Blanchett as a clairvoyant, Katie Holmes as the missing person, and, oddly in hindsight, Keanu Reeves as a violent redneck, did little to appease audiences or critics, but did quadruple its budget at the box office.
Then there’s the little-known Tarot from 2016, which charts the invention of the cards and their blood magic to their rediscovery some 600 years later. In 2024, a three-part short-story horror anthology from Korea was combined into a film also called Tarot, with the drama of each character’s story running from their tarot card.
None have had a truly lasting impact or reached a strong level of success despite interest in the theme. In the UK alone, psychic consultations aren’t as uncommon as you’d think. Some 23 per cent of Britons have consulted a psychic of some kind, with 57 per cent of those deeming the future-seer as truthful.
Such interest has even inspired expansions into entertainment beyond the odd foray into film. Among the special bingo games available, Mystic Meg Bingo stands out for its theme. In the bingo room itself, players get immersed in the theme of Mystic Meg, adding to the bingo experience and hoping that she favours their cards each round.
It all plays into both our thirst for knowledge, the mystery of what the future holds, and our fear of the unknown. Having a mystic, fortune teller, psychic, or tarot reader show the future can be reassuring. That makes it perfect for the horror genre, flipping a seemingly wholesome activity as so many of the greats have done in the past.
Where Did Tarot Go Wrong?
The cast was fine enough; the movie posters certainly give off the sense of mystery and peril that they should, and tarot cards are instantly recognisable for their horror potential. In the end, the issue with Tarot was the execution. In particular, not enough of a focus was put on making the horror to come matter to audiences.
It’s your pretty standard group of American friends who’ve each got the one defining character trait. From there, they harmlessly play the card game and then find the cards they drew are leading to gore-soaked, but uninventive, deaths. Instead of playing off of established character flaws for them to overcome, the card characters just arrive and kill them off.
They then go on the standard run of finding out the deaths happened and try to work out a way to undo the curse of the tarot cards. Building up relatable characters, running a coherent story, and, most importantly in modern horror, being creative is key, but Tarot fails in just about every one of these departments.
With Tarot 2024 in the books, the iconic card game with so much potential for storytelling in the horror genre remains very much there for the taking.