Though not a major hit, 2014’s Ouija turned a good profit and demonstrated an audience willingness to see horror movies based on supernatural games. In the same vein, we get 2024’s Tarot.

To celebrate Elise’s (Larsen Thompson) birthday, a group of college students rent an old house in the woods. When they run out of beer, they dig through the home to find more alcohol and eventually discover a deck of tarot cards.

For proverbial craps and giggles, Haley (Harriet Slater) does readings for all her friends. This comes with negative implications, as violence starts to befall the pals in ways prescribed by the cards.

Horror movies are the financial gift that rarely fails because they usually come with exceedingly low budgets. On the surface, the worldwide $48 million gross of Tarot looks pretty feeble.

However, because the film cost a mere $8 million, it cleared a tidy little profit. Of course, the big studios only seem to care about “home runs” – ie, tentpoles that churn hundreds of millions in ticket sales – but producers with more realistic goals can make nice money from these inexpensive flicks.

Despite the modest nature of Tarot’s take, I suspect we’ll get a sequel before too long. I can’t claim to look forward to that, unfortunately, as this flick provides nothing more than formulaic filmmaking.

Many movies of this genre rush through basic character exposition and leave us with little real backstory. Even in that vein, though Tarot seems exceptionally lazy.

The film barely bothers to give us any info about the roles beyond the most basic. Viewers seem likely to struggle to remember names or attributes, as the whole lot feels largely interchangeable.

Again, that doesn’t differ from a whole lot of horror flicks, so I can’t fault Tarot too much for its lack of exposition. I thought the film could compensate with a progression of scares that allowed it to overcome its generic vibe.

For fans, that tends to work with “R”-rated movies. Aficionados delight in the creative and gory kills.

However, the “PG-13” nature of Tarot limits that domain. While it comes up with a variety of ways to slaughter the characters, they all get “sanitized’ for that rating and thus lose the graphic elements preferred by fans.

It doesn’t help that Tarot telegraphs pretty much all its potential thrills and terror. For one, the film comes with omnipresent creepy music and ambience.

This seems tiresome and actually subverts scares. Because Tarot tries so hard to make every minute ominous, nothing feels frightening.

Tarot eventually grinds to a halt to give us exposition about the curse that relates to the cards. This seems utterly unnecessary and makes an already sluggish movie even more tedious.

We also find cheap and obvious foreshadowing from Haley’s readings. These essentially tell us what will happen to the characters, so we get no surprises along the way.

We also wind up with little to maintain our attention as we waltz through a predictable series of kills. Tarot delivers a bland and sub-mediocre horror effort.

Tarot appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie boasted a pleasing image.

Sharpness worked well. Nary a soft spot emerged during this accurate presentation.

I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to become an issue.

In terms of palette, Tarot went with a palette that emphasized a standard form of amber and teal. The disc reproduced these as intended.

Blacks looked dark and deep, while shadows seemed smooth and concise. I felt happy with this high-quality presentation.

In addition, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack added involvement to the proceedings. The channels used music in an involving manner, and various effects also broadened the soundscape in a winning way.

While not a film packed with action, Tarot came to life enough to work the speakers well. Various horror elements related to the thrills moved around the room in a convincing pattern to contribute life to the tale.

Audio quality worked well. Speech seemed concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and natural. Louder moments boasted fine punch.

Music was warm and full, with a good level of punch from percussive elements. All of this left us with a satisfactory “B+” soundtrack.

A few featurettes appear, and A Twist of Fate spans six minutes, 10 seconds. It includes notes from writers/directors Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg and actors Jacob Batalon, Avantika, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly González, Larsen Thompson and Adain Bradley.

“Fate” looks at the project’s roots and development, story/characters, sets and locations, creature design and the movie’s scares. This turns into a pretty efficient overview despite its brevity.

Circle of Friends runs six minutes, 41 seconds. It features Avantika, Batalon, Cohen, González, Halberg, Thompson, Bradley and Novogratz.

Here we get notes about cast, characters and performances. This one leans toward puffy praise for the actors.

Unsurprisingly, Killer Outtakes gives us bloopers. The reel lasts two minutes, 26 seconds and delivers a pretty standard allotment of goofs and giggles.

The disc opens with ads for Insidious: The Red Door, Thanksgiving, Madame Web and Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire. No trailer for Tarot appears here.

A stab at supernatural horror, Tarot does virtually nothing creative with its material. Instead, it delivers a slow and dull series of supposedly scary scenes without momentum or impact. The Blu-ray brings strong picture and audio but it lacks substantial bonus materials. Nothing memorable emerges from this forgettable film.