STACK #238 August 2024

FEATURE MOVIE

Humberly González

Tarot follows a circle of friends trapped by a curse, pursued mercilessly by death as their fortunes, once foretold, start to materialise. It's a formulaic exploit that the directing partners have zhuzhed up and given a unique take on, and Anna explains how the project came to be. “We had made a short film with Sony called Blink , and so we had a great relationship with the studio. And we were talking about other ideas and things to do after that

Directors Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen are only getting started with Tarot , the new horror movie that puts the horror into horrorscope. Words Glenn Cochrane S peaking with STACK , they discuss making the leap from writing and producing duties on movies like Extinction (2018) and Moonfall (2022) to taking the reins of their first full-length feature.

project, and they approached us about doing a horror movie based on astrology. She adds with amusement, “And for us there's nothing inherently scary about astrology. “But what is scary are tarot

Tarot was shot entirely in Serbia with a mostly Serbian crew. DYK?

cards and tarot readings. And so we thought to combine the two of these things, which ultimately became the movie that you see.” With a strong hook, they set about extracting as much horror from the concept as possible, pulling no stops to ensure authenticity, as Anna explains. “We wanted to make sure that it was very accurate, and that people who know way more about astrology and tarot than we do could look at the spreads, or could hear the things that were being referenced in the movie, and know that they were spot on. We also hired an expert who knows a lot about both of these worlds to come and advise, and make sure that everything that we were saying was true.” Spenser admits that it was a tricky balance finding the right people to align with each of the various tarot monsters. “We were trying to look at the inverse of their shadow side, you know? Like, you have Jacob playing this sort of funny character and so his shadow side is The Fool, The Trickster. And so we were really looking at Jungian archetypes and tarot represents that. We were trying to match each character up and how that would feel for them.” Elaborating, Anna adds, “More than

“ Tarot was the first successful attempt to make a feature,” explains Spenser. “Over the past ten years, we've had many close calls where it almost happened for us. When we graduated from film school we didn't have a lot of money and we were poor film students who were 21 and 22 years old, with dreams to make movies. And no one hands you a feature when you're 21 years old. “We didn't have tons of equipment or things to use, but what we did have was paper and a pencil, or a computer, and we learned to basically direct on the page. So, even though

Jacob Batalon

we started out as writers, we were always thinking, 'If we were shooting this, how would we do it? What's the production design, what's the music going to be?' We would talk about all those things. And we would have directors over the years say to us, 'You guys write like you're supposed to direct.'”

Larsen Thompson

anything it was about casting an ensemble of characters that felt like real friends that we believe and love from the beginning. In order for the scares to work and for us to go on this journey with them, and to care what happens to them, you need to be invested in their friendship.”

• Tarot is out Aug 7

13