I think the ONLY thing that’s upsetting is, if I’m not mistaken, Trevor Henderson (creator of siren head and other cool monsters) did the monster design for the movie and was really happy to finally have his work in a film. Then it turns out to be the biggest dumpster fire. So I feel bad for the guy
Yep, that's what I came here to post. From what I can see, the monster design is actually pretty cool. A shame the movie looked as boring and formulaic as the trailer. Hopefully he'll get another shot sometime, or this film will somehow become a cult classic in 20yrs lol
For anyone curious, the Six of Swords basically means "making a journey to somewhere better after great hardships" not "here are six swords, we are going to stab you with them now."
@@dancheasal4298yep, because making tarot arcana antagonists is a bad idea they need to bs the reason for the characters to fall for a bad idea even if it's not
Exactly what I was thinking like they literally misinterpreted all tarot cards meaning and it's really stupid. like the hanged man? oh you're gonna get hanged I wanted to watch it because I think the concept of tarots is cool even if the horror was shitty but that literally defies the point
Dude I just saw it today, and straight up...the guy in front of us fell asleep and slept through almost the whole movie. The couple behind us, I heard her say 'hey you fell asleep' to the guy next to her. And then I dozed off for like a minute in the middle. Not even joking lol
@@stetsoncrobison in that case I think Charlie should add into his moist meter that it's a great cure for insomnia, should bring it up to at least a 15 percent.
this but my brother during five nights at freddys. Then he proceeded to gaslight me saying we went to that film because of me even though he offered it
>Draws The Fool >Hunted by a clown I'm not even a Tarot guy, but I at least have played a moderate amount of Persona to go "that's not even what the fuck that means, why did you take that so literally."
@@paperluigi6132cause the fool is literally the representation of potential, and Iggy’s stand utilized sand to create constructs of limitless potential
I cackled in the theater when the old lady died. Her card literally said "your going to be killed by a bunch of swords" and literally 2 minutes later, she's killed by a bunch of swords. That's "People die when they're killed" levels of bad writing.
The thing that kills me with Charlie's description of that scene is... It's literally the wrong card. If they were going off the look of the card for the deaths, then Six of Swords is NOT the right one. They were looking for the Ten of Swords (Which shows a person being impaled with ten swords). One quick google search would've shown them what they were looking for. Six of Swords depicts someone traveling down a river with six swords in their boat. But hey, maybe the studio couldn't afford to shill out for another four swords. Also, just saying, the Death card doesn't even mean Death. The Tower would've been a closer meaning for that type of end.
The thing that irks me most is that The Tarot is a very interesting premise for a horror movie if it followed a sort of twisted "Fool's Journey." The Major Arcana of Tarot are meant to represent someone's journey of self discovery, where they start innocent and carefree as The Fool, face a major change in their lives at Death, and eventually claim The World, which represents completeness and closure and someone having a full understanding of themselves. Given how the Major Arcana all have reversed meanings to represent negative aspects of the cards, you could make a sort of reversed Fool's Journey, where the protagonist faces dire circumstances in their life as a result of the reading and eventually gets an unfulfilling ending. There's so much potential with that structure alone yet instead they went with "this card represents the monster that will kill you".
Doesn’t he understand companies are owed people’s time and money for just making a product, regardless of quality? His review could influence people’s spending choices!!😢😢😢😢😢😢 So unfair!
As someone who reads tarot, there were SO many cooler ways that the cards and divination could have been used in a horror film. Could have been "Group of teens find a tarot deck at summer camp that predict an occult mass murder, and now they have to try and stop it," or "Family moves to a new house and find a tarot deck, whose predictions are the only thing preventing them from being caught by the entity that ALSO haunts the house." But no, they went with "The cards will predict your death in the most literal way possible, at the hands of a supernatural entity based on a Major Arcana." Fucking Tarot Mascot Horror. JFC.
Honestly a cool way to handle this, while keeping the B-movie murder horror vibe, would be to make them draw 3, then try to figure out which one will manifest literally, while having to follow the advice of the others. Say Chad draws a reversed fool, death, and Hierophant. Chad thinks death is the literal one, so starts acting like a dick to everyone because he thinks he'll spontaneously die. In a cruel twist, death represented his girlfriend breaking up with him. Hierophant manifests as, I dunno, the lazy route of a monster taking him away to force a "marriage." Ergo killing him. But that wouldn't print money for these studios, so why even try?
The moment I saw The Fool card be used so incorrectly in the trailer already made me assume this was gonna be ass. A quick word to all writers out there: If you don't know how something works, do some research on it, if you can't even be bothered to do that, DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR STORY. I feel like the general opinion that most studios have is "The consumer is an idiot/doesn't know what they want, so we can get away with being incorrect about a lot of stuff." This is just a bad way of thinking. As an artist, writer, content creator, or ANYTHING else, always assume your audience is as smart as you are and deliver the best work you can, you'll be surprised about what your audience manages to catch.
@@grassqwqI was waiting for this comment. I’m so tired of these kinds of movies man. At least make it a self fulfilling prophecy where it’s like- it gives them advice but their fear is what makes them take paranoid steps to hide and doubt others and so they end up locking in and harming themselves, but even then, it isn’t tarot’s cards’s fault because it will warn you not to act up and tell you why 😭
I'm not necessarily *trying* to be an asshole, but... Are you of the opinion that knowing how to read tarot cards is all that different from just making random stuff up? What I mean is... Do you actually believe they can tell the future/give unique insights/whatever?
I use my wife as a horror movie prediction. Showed the trailer to my wife: My Wife: ...thats not even how tarot cards work/are. *dumb* Me: yep its gonna flop And behold, 5% on rotten tomatoes!
I know what you meant. The filmmakers actually avoided showing what would be considered proper tarot readings which begs the question as to why they'd use the premise at all. It's not like the Ouija movies showed the characters not using the spiritboard in the recommended way.
For any writers or directors out there or people who wanna work in the horror genre the timing for a jumpscare goes 1-2-3. 1. Set up your monster/expectations for the scare 2. Subvert and kill the expectations of a scare for your audience 3. When they are no longer expecting the scare bring it at FULL FORCE.
10:50 - the frustration behind that "And then, even after that" is the iconic "I hate this so much that I just remembered something else you will not believe and will not stop until you know it" vibe.
"You really shouldn't talk bad about their movie, it can hurt them financially. Just wait for Tarot 2, they just need a little more time to work on things."
I love how they try to do the prophecy twist bit, but the prophecy is just "you get what you want, but there's a weird guy. Watch out for the weird guy." And the twist is the weird guy kills you. It's like saying "you'll become unfathomably rich but watch out for Jason" and the twist is that Jason from Friday the 13th shows up. That's not a twist!
This doesn’t even sound like Tarot Cards, more of those weird star things TikTok does. Which is a shame since a movie based on Tarot cards might be sick, like your card determines the way you die or if you live The Hanged Man is a hanging, The Tower is falling, The Lovers is either you were killed by your lover or spared, The Chariot is run over, etc etc
Honestly, this was like an anti-movie. This is like the movie you put on when you’re having boring sex and you need some noise to break the awkwardness. This is the movie you put on when you have all your friends over to play card games that you all glance at while awaiting your turn but never truly watch for more than 30 seconds.
Let's make a horror film where the point of the whole haunting/harassment is to drive people to do exactly that, and they think they won but they actually freed the demon.
@@LiminallyYoursI think there's already a few movies that have done that and they usually end with the MC dying or distracting them with a better deal
Its still way better the animated Netflix Marmaduke movie. I watched that as a joke and I got physically sick watching it lol. No but really it's so bad It's the only movie of 100s iv seen that I think deserves a negative rating. People would stop trying to leave north Korea if watching it on repeat until you die of old age was the punishment. I really did throw up when I watched it also. That was a first.
just for fun one time i looked into what some different tarot cards actually meant and im pretty sure that what just about all these cards ended up doing in the movie was completely unrelated to what they supposedly mean irl ex (assuming im remembering correctly): the fool card has nothing to do with being "bullheaded and making rash decisions," its mostly about being inexperienced. death also has almost nothing to do with actual death, it's mostly about ego death and the recreation of your personality. The swords also have nothing to do with actual swords, they represent intellect or emotions.
Wasn’t that line for the Taurus and not the actual card itself? Plus I keep seeing people say the cards were to literal but wasn’t the whole point being that they’re haunted by a scorned woman so now she just shapeshifts into the images on the cards and kill them however the MC said some bs like “water under the bridge” “wrong track” and “climbing the ladder”. At least that’s how I was interpreting it.
Why don't you go out and direct a better movie then, tough guy? Also, don't make jokes about homeless people. You never know what can happen in life. Maybe someday you'll fall on hard times and need government assistance.
@@Zenigundam you seem to miss the point of my comment there bud. Much like the director and actors of the film missed the point of making an entertaining and well-written production.
Now I’m not incredibly knowledgable about Tarot (I don’t have them memorized) but I own some decks, have given readings, and have received readings, buuuut… 1) your zodiac doesn’t have anything to do with tarot readings, you shuffle and place your cards, and based on the order, position, and kind of card you can gain some insights into the question you asked while shuffling. 2) there are a TON of cards in a tarot deck. 78, and only 22 are the major arcana (the fool, magician, world, etc). The rest are minor arcana (wands, cups, swords, pentacles). The odds of everyone getting a SPECIFIC major arcana card are SLIM! There are readings I’ve done/gotten where no major arcana shows up, and some where multiple do. For only ONE to show in a reading is NOT HOW IT WORKS! Probability says NO! ITS MATH!!! I don’t think the makers of this movie have used tarot decks. PS: to answer your question Charlie about the 6 of swords, the minor arcana has 4 suits (swords, cups, wands/staffs, pentacles/coins) and each suit has an ace(one)-10, a page, knight, queen, and king. It’s a lot like playing cards, and you can do divination with those too. So each suit has 14 cards, each suit means something (like a genre: pentacles usually align with wealth) and each number/face card in the suit has a more precise meaning. The major arcana cards have BIG sweeping meanings.
Honestly, they all could’ve been really interesting, like the Fool could’ve just been anything, Death could’ve been an extreme change in someone’s life, so much so that they just fall apart. The Hermit could’ve been the guy just forcing the guy to be alone after he got all the money.
My co-worker was gushing about how great this movie was. And she was telling my friend, who loves movies all together, to watch it. I hope it's not too late to save him.
When I first saw anything about this movie, I immediately went “Ugh, that’s not how tarot is at all… Why can’t movies like this do even the slightest amount of research?” Then, I learned that Trevor Henderson came up with the creature design and saw a longer trailer that actually made me feel slightly tempted to actually see the movie. I was hoping that it would be a story about some sort of curse or a warped/evil deck of cards and that the creature design + cool kills would carry the whole movie so it sucks that it turned out so shitty. I really hope that Trevor Henderson ends up doing designs for more things in the future, though.
Genuinely wtf was the point of shoving Tarot Cards into the movie? I swear all of the monsters barely resembled the things they were supposed to represent, there was no symbolism, and most people don’t even know about just the Major Arcana, much less the rest of the Tarot deck. It made no sense?
It would make sense if it followed the bones of 9 Where they all didn't know each other but the tarot cards intertwined their lives and the monster was a Weaver And it made dolls of the tarot characters to attack the group whenever they were alone And eventually the group starts staying together in populated areas by which point the "weaver" just ham fists it and attacks them anyway, which calls in the exposion woman who has survived her reading and that's how they figure out how to survive THEIR reading
Well, the whole "catholic horror" thing is getting severely overused and played out at this point, so they probably just thought "what religious/spiritual concept can we abuse this time to carry our dumb story without offending a large audience." Mark this comment: I bet a horror movie centered around astrology will come out in the next 2-3 years lol
@@AngryAlfonse I'll bet with you on that. Also what about one where people get killed with crystals? They're pointy and could be made spooky, ice queen style. As for abusing spiritual concepts, I am seriously wondering whether the horror narrative around tarot in this film may rather take inspiration from (specifically) the way Christian apologists got very loud about divination being demonic in the past like 5 years. It echoes all their points. It's kind of a bad PSA, except they should have been saved by Jesus at the end.
Oh my god I knew when I saw the first 3 seconds of the trailer this movie was going to be a massive shitter. They couldn’t even get the concept of tarot cards correctly
@@Is0G33kit says that tarot cards are “the best way to tell the future” but tarot cards aren’t used for that. They’re more so used as a way to get guidance towards making decisions and analyzing someone’s situation.
@@Is0G33k tarot cards do not work the way the movie claims they do. Just do the bare minimum of research on tarot and what the cards mean, and you'll understand why the movie is far from correct when it comes to tarot. The only thing it got correct is that you don't use someone else's cards, but that's only because the cards essentially "bond" to the person who owns them and so if someone else uses them, the cards will not read them correctly.
The fact that tarot was so trash is honestly motivation for me and anyone who wants to go into film. Like if the goobers behind tarot and moonfall could make those movies reality and get away with it then what is stopping you or me from going out there and making actually works of art/masterpieces.
If Sony had been smart about it, they would have released Tarot before Madame Web so that at least critics could say Madame Web isn't the worst Sony movie this year. Also, this feels like something even Blumhouse passed over. Either that or they weren't asked first.
Reminds me of paranormal activity where the few people there and my group of friends were loudly shit talking the movie the entire time. But the cherry on top was a dude standing up as the lights came on yelling YO THAT MOVIE WAS SOME BALLS. Just that phrase made that entire experience worth it
The noise Charlie made at 12:43 reminded me of when SpongeBob had bad breath and said to the guy at the movie theater “excuse me sir, I hope my horrible ugliness won’t be a distraction to you” and the guy said “not at all, boy - HUEEHHUEEEH”
As someone who casually reads tarot for fun, this is hilarious. Both the usage of tarots in the movie and the way Charlie calls the readings "horoscopes" 😭
3:05 "unironically, matt and I's acting in the green screen merch shoots is better than anything you'll find in tarot" I mean, you can't expect these actors to compete with the star of hunger games.
The annoying thing is that with a competent writer and good director this idea could actually be kind of cool. Like the premise sounds interesting enough if done right, unfortunately it was not done right
And since tarot cards are really popular right now, it's the perfect time for a movie like this to be made. How does someone fumble the ball like this? An evil zodiac movie would also be a good idea since astrology is trendy too, but they'll just waste that opportunity too. 🙄
Useless information here, but the 6 of Swords is part of the minor arcana. There's 4 different types in the minor arcana: swords, cups, pentacles, and wands. The minor arcana cards are numbered 1-10, and also have Page, Knight, King and Queen. Supposedly the minor arcana is where we got regular playing cards from. The High Priestess, The Hanged Man, and Death are all the major arcana.
The worse thing is this movie copied the name from one movie in the Phillipines but it was made before this trash exist (2009). The tarot cards was perfectly accurate and how it function really is.
@@p-__ Shut up, you bot. Instead of spamming the same thing over and over again, why don't you do something new like writing a normal comment? Now go and do something with your life, you sad little spammer.
Aaaah, that genuinely sucks. I was genuinely looking forward to this one because I saw that the monster designs were done by Trevor Henderson - the guy who made Sirenhead, among many other cool as hell monsters. Was planning on watching it just for that, even though the plot looked super generic based on the trailer. Hope Trevor doesn't get any hate for it.
FYI from what I learned you can use anyone's Tarot deck, but your own deck is supposed to be a gift from someone else. You're just not supposed to go out and buy a deck for yourself even if you really like the artwork.
Yeah but a deck that's been used before and might have bad vibes you're meant to leave it under the full moon for a night to cleanse it. Anyway I buy my own decks bc like who is gonna give me one... Some kind of tarot fairy?
@@missquinberly hahaha! I definitely understand your reasoning. It was easier for me, because the little shop I used to work at sold decks, and two of my elder witchy coworkers saw me looking through the major arcana of some decks I liked the look of, and bought them for me (with the 40% employee discount). And prior to that even my mother had occult interests before I was born, so she gifted me her classic Rider-Waite deck once I was old enough. But in your shoes I know I'd probably do the same. Lol
What pisses me off about horror from Hollywood is it is the one genre that has so many great short films to take from. Like so many people making short horror films that could used the investments.
In 2022, I had a series of N-Stemi incidents- essentially mini-heart attacks that presented as acute indigestion- which eventually culminated in a 4x bypass. These got progressively worse in pain level and duration, and I knew I'd have to eventually get over my "guy-ness" (i.e., everything will just go away if we wait long enough) and go to the ER, or conversely, eventually drop dead. So literally the week before I did finally go to the hospital I had a particularly severe occurrence as I was watching "Moonfall" on Netflix... And I thought, "OMG please please please don't let this be the last movie I see before I die..." It really was that hilariously awful.
Moonfall was one of the movies I’ve ever watched. My favourite part is the flooding scene when they start drowning in knee deep water, and the dude dives in to save him except it’s knee deep water so he can’t just dive in and instead sort of flops down into it then has to perform the acting of a lifetime to make us believe he’s actually swimming in the knee deep water. What makes it better is you can _see the stairs through the water_ and can tell it’s like… 3, 4 stairs deep? It is BARELY knee deep.
What baffles me is they got Trevor Henderson the famous and highly talent artist most known for creating siren head, cartoon cat, long horse and other internet monsters to design the creators for this movie How they got someone with his talent on board is beyond me
I saw one from our local school. The house was haunted, so the girl says “this is my house now, you need to leave” and the ghost leaves! Because they’re respectful that way. They were very proud of their work.
I couldn't help but think of a comedic turn when you said she drew the card of Six Swords - I just imagine the response from one of the guys screaming, "The Swords of Revealing Light?!"
I have not seen this movie, but if it has anything to do with tarot cards, I'm betting it breaks rule #1 of tarot cards. The death card doesn't mean you or someone you know is gonna die. It means there's change coming. So if some tarot reader in this movie slaps down the death card and the music gets all dramatic and it turns out the card caused people to die, understand that that's actually MORE bullsh-t than tarot card readings. Because even tarot card readers understand the rules. Okay yeah the climax is the main character draws death on the evil ghost and it destroys the ghost. God damn it.
The RT score is up by about 20 points, by the way. I didn’t have any problems with the movie; it had some real good production values, considering other horror movies I’ve sat in on that were flat and murky. No loose plot threads or anything really, other than some of the exposition dump with Alma Astryn’s character. I get how she didn’t serve too much, other than try and help the remaining teenagers lift the curse only to get killed off, but I easily think with her backstory, had they put that at the beginning of the movie (specifically in the mansion before it was turned into an AirBNB), I think it would add some extra depth and clarification to the film’s story. Love it or hate it, you certainly could do a whole lot worse…
this might be giving it too much credit but i thought that the jester getting scared away was just to tell us that his tarot actually didnt happen and the jester was just one of those creepy clown memes
Ouija board movie where they get sucked into the board. They can't see anything around them, only darkness, and the floor (the board). Human bodies are the letters/numbers, and for every sin you committed in your life, you have to ask that amount in questions to the board/entity. I could go on, but it's not hard to think of something original like that.
It's adapted from a bad horror novel from the 90s & it completely discards even most of that plot where a serial killer is murdering people in ways consistent with their horoscope.
By never picking up a book about tarot cards? But who knows, the TikTok crowd might get upset if you added real history (like making your own cards used to be a requirement)
Its sad cuz this sounds like an interesting concept. Haunted tarot cards sounds creepy. If only it was done right. Imagine if it was at least self aware and knew it was bad but still enjoyable.
