THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR Tarot (2024)
While the horror genre will always remain a favorite, we can’t help but notice that films are getting a bit too predictable. Now, only a handful actually manage to keep you up at night, afraid of using the bathroom at 3 A.M. But then, out of the misty shadows, emerges a gem like Tarot – a spine-chilling film that most definitely be a treat to everyone who watches horror for fun, thanks to its unique storyline.
Written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, Tarot is the type of film that will have you wondering what inspired the creators to tell the story in the first place. Well, in a recent interview, the film’s co-director spilled the secret behind their inspiration for the film and how the COVID-19 pandemic had a big hand in it all.
Tarot Directors Talk about How They Came Up with the Film
The horror film is based on the 1992 novel Horoscope by Nicholas Adams and follows the story of a group of friends on a getaway. That’s where things always go wrong now, doesn’t it? Things start to go horribly astray when they find a strange box of tarot cards in the house and Harriet Slater’s Haley agrees to read the group their horoscopes, despite her initial doubts.
Slowly, all her friends died one-by-one and their killers were none other than the images printed on their tarot cards that had come to life. Chills.
In an interview with Forbes, director co-director Anna Halberg talked about where she and Spenser Cohen, got the idea for Tarot from. She stated that the film’s origin began during the COVID-19 pandemic when the two saw many of their friends turn to tarot card readings and other things in search of an answer during “an uncertain time.” Halberg said,
“It was something that we were just feeling in the energy around us during the pandemic. We saw all of our peers and friends turning to the stars or tarot cards or other things for some sort of clarity because it was such an uncertain time. So, this idea of fate versus free will was really around us and it’s a theme that we wanted to explore in the movie.”
Cohen and Halberg incorporated the debate between free will and destiny into their film where while some characters believe in the former, others believe that their fates have already been written in the stars.
Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg Got Tarot Readings for Themselves
Before getting into a film that deals with tarot readings, there was no way the directors were going to miss out on getting one for themselves. However, keeping the plot of their film in mind, Halberg was the only one out of the duo to get a reading. Smart move. They got an astrology expert for consultation who also performed the reading for Halberg. The co-director stated,
“So, we brought in an astrology expert named Angie Banicki to consult on the film and she did a reading for me in pre-production before the movie started. But just to be safe, Spenser did not get a reading. One of us has to live, you know!”
Halberg also stated that the film was not going to be about tarot cards initially and that Sony had pitched a `different story about astrology and zodiac signs. But for the two directors, there was just nothing scary about that.
“It’s interesting because Sony had come to Spenser and I wanting to make a horror movie about astrology, but for us, there’s never been inherently scary about zodiac signs and horoscopes.”
Tarot’s final plot was the result of a ton of brainstorming between the two and when they realized just how scary predicting the future with tarot cards was, they knew they had the film’s foundation ready to go.
Tarot is currently playing in theatres.
