A group of young adults, each focused on their own personal dramas and on a future yet to be built, have gathered for a holiday away from the daily hustle and bustle of the city. During one of the various evenings spent together having fun in a villa rented for the occasion, something strange happens: they find an apparently ancient and dark artifact with which they choose, naively, to play together. This is the incipit of The prophecy of evil (Tarotin the original), horror film based on the novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams, directed by Spencer Cohen and Anna Halberg, available in Italian cinemas from 9 May 2024.
Starting from a horrifying context of disarming simplicity and familiarity, the film attempts to play with the terror of a dark and violent story, alternating its most disturbing dynamics with a very particular narrative nature with a light and adolescent verve, both from the point of view of the screenplay and of the writing in images. So we find ourselves involved on a journey in which the narrative structure is inspired by many other films of the same genreworking on an exposition that could certainly have given and left much more to the spectators at the cinema (if you are horror lovers and looking for something new to see, we refer you to our review of Home Education – The Rules of Evil) .
A holiday like many others
Paxton, Elise, Page, Haley, Lucas, Grant and Madeline are great friends, or so it seems, given that The Prophecy of Evil never delves into the relationships between its protagonists. During a holiday out of town, in what appears to be an old villa rented for the occasion, in a moment of boredom they find a small box with some cards inside, namely tarot cards.
Since Haley knows how to use them and above all read them, they choose to have their horoscope done, consequently having a different evening. The cards they found, however, are not like the others, they seem ancient and hand-drawn, worn out by the use that someone has hypothetically made of them over time. The resulting prophecies are all curiously disturbing, while still being easily interpretable. That night will forever change the lives of all the young protagonists, projecting them into a series of traumatic and dark events that none of them would have ever expected to experience first-hand. All the fun comes from the fun of a different evening monstrous and brutal violence at the center of The Prophecy of Evilof a story in which the naivety of adolescent fun connects with something very distant and very close.
All predictable but…
From the very first moments at the opening of The prophecy of evil you can perceive the young adult and horror combination that will carry the entire narrative forward through ups and downs. Starting from a narrative context seen in many other feature films of the same style, however, the film never really manages to stand out in any way, to shine with its own light, proposing a picture in which fear is connected with a violent consequentiality that would certainly have deserved greater characterization. Some kids find some dark tarot cards and are killed one after another, nothing new if it weren’t for the underlying mystery that also involves, however getting lost as the current events progress. Thus all the interest remains firmly anchored not to the story, but only to the scariest moments and the aesthetic, formal and sound choices in this sense (we found a dynamic of this kind, however expanded immeasurably, in the review of Saw .
As for the rest, The prophecy of evil it doesn’t have too much to offer. The characters are recognizable bordering on stereotype, presenting some characters that always remain on the surface (with some small exceptions) of a writing that doesn’t seem to have any desire to launch into in-depth analysis, or even just to make you become attached to them in some way. No protagonist manages to stand out, or even just leave something, with the story that he tries to think about a lot and continuously, especially on the concept of destiny and acceptance of one’s existence. Such work, of course, ties in perfectly with the tarot gimmick and its role within events, as well to all the most humanly hidden symbols that have always been associated with the reading of these cards.
Folklore and humanity’s vain attempts to control its future return in a warning that acts as a common thread throughout the entire feature film, paving the way for an underlying reflection that would also have been interesting if developed differently. Unfortunately, Even in its main message, The Prophecy of Evil turns out to be a fairly lazy piece of work, concentrated more on trying to scare than on enhancing the main narrative possibilities and everything that could derive from it. The predictability of a story emerges that never fully convinces, that does not captivate despite presenting a potentially fascinating iconographic construction as a whole (especially in the zodiac signs and their perception in relation to the nature of individuals).
Violent terror remains the true constant of a story that develops using an underlying lightness that is never entirely convincing, also leaving behind some superficialities that attempt to emerge without finding balance. Net of the experience on the big screen, however, The prophecy of evil also finds some curious moments, working the images in favor of certain narrative gimmicks that leave their mark: these are specifically horrifying sequences built to remain imprinted, despite never daring to the end. The big problem with this film, in fact, does not lie in its aesthetics or formal construction, but precisely in the writing and characterization of the events beyond the ongoing horror.
Using a handful of characters easily recognizable in their being, The prophecy of evil anticipates its fate from the first moments, offering a violently predictable experience, dotted with interesting moments that remain, unfortunately, unproductive. In the inevitable comparison with other cinematographic products of the same genre, the film directed by Spencer Cohen and Anna Halberg would like to experiment without however fully succeeding. The result translates into simpler cinematic entertainment than you might imaginein horror terms, without adding anything to what one might expect starting from the trailer.
