|
Title
|
Actors and Characters
|
Deck(s)
|
Scene or Plot
|
Year
|
American Nightmare
Crime/Horror/Thriller |
David R. Dean as Tarot Reader. |
|
Seven friends call a pirate radio show on Halloween. A serial killer listens in as they confess their biggest fears. The killer is intent on bringing his efforts to bear while utilizing their fears to scare them to death. |
2001 |
Beyond the Door III
Horror |
|
|
A professor, played by Bo Svenson, who is actually a Satanist, lures students to Yugoslavia under the pretense of a class trip. Once there, he sacrifices students to Satan. One girl is a virgin and the key to bringing the dark overlord into our realm. She must lose her virginity before she loses her life. |
1989 |
Bones
Horror |
Pam Grier as the Psychic named Pearl. |
(unknown; back was black with white sun) |
While she was reading the cards in relation to the spirit Bones, played by Snoop Doggy Dogg, he reaches out of the shadows and touches her. |
2001 |
Caught Up
Crime, Drama.
|
Cynda Williams as Vanessa Dietrich, fortune teller and diamond thief. (In a dual role, she also played Daryl's one true love, Trish, the mother of his son.)
|
Tarot of the Witches
|
Vanessa reads the tarot cards for Daryl, played by Bokeem Woodbine. The reading angers Daryl, yet it foretells the situations and events that occur in the film's plot with great accuracy. The tarot cards shown in the spread are the Fool (Daryl), Wheel of Fortune, Six of Pentacles, Three of Swords, Devil, Tower, and Death.
|
1993
|
Cleo from 5 to 7
Drama. |
|
|
Fortune teller predicts stomach cancer for Cleo. |
1995 |
The Corsican Brothers
Comedy.
|
Rae Dawn Chong as "The Gypsy."
|
|
Cheech and Chong are in a restaurant counting money at a table by a window. A gypsy is sitting at a table outside the window and sees them counting money so she comes in and tells them she can tell them something important, but they have to pay her. After they start giving her money, she begins laying out the cards.
|
1984.
|
Dangerous Liaisons
Historical drama. Period piece from play adapted by Christopher Hampton from French novel by Choderlos de Laclos.
|
Mildred Natwick as Madame de Rosemonde.
|
Visconti-Sforza Tarots.
|
Madame de Rosemonde lays the cards as a game or meditation whilst Vicomte de Valmont, played by John Malkovich, attempts to get Cécile de Volanges, played by Uma Thurman, alone to seduce her.
|
1988.
|
Dead Alive (aka Braindead)
Horror (Zombies). |
_______as the fortuneteller.
|
|
The cards show up as a type of foreshadowing in the earlier part of the movie when tarot cards are unearthed by a fortuneteller.
|
1992.
|
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
Horror.
|
Peter Cushing as Dr. Schreck . (The sinister fortune-telling doctor explains that the name translates to mean "Terror")
|
|
Dr. Terror appears on a train, introducing himself to the 5 passengers in the mostly deserted car as a doctor of metaphysics. He then drops a deck of Tarot cards (he calls them his "House of Horrors"), which the passengers ask him about. This leads to telling the fortunes (deaths) of the five passengers. Naturally, the terrified passengers then try to (unsuccessfully) escape their fate.
|
1965
|
Echoes of Enlightenment
Drama |
Gloria Pryor as Sara, Tarot reader. |
|
|
2000 |
Exorcist III
Horror. Based on William Peter Blatty's novel, LEGION.
|
Patrick Ewing plays an angel who lays the cards before Father Dyer, played by Ed Flanders, in a dream that is experienced by Lt. Kinderman just prior to the actual death of Father Dyer.
|
In the dream sequence, the giant Rider-Waite is used and the Hanged Man card is emphasized. In the psychiatrist's office, there is a poster of the Hanged Man card from the Renaissance Tarot.
|
Lt. Kinderman is played by George C. Scott in this tale of the 15th anniversary of the exorcism that claimed the life of the young Father Karras. A nightmarish series of bizarre, religious murders by the Gemini Killer, played by Brad Dourif, captivates the life of the aging police officer (Kinderman), endangers his family, and brings Father Karras (Jason Miller) back to life.
|
1990
|
| Games
Suspense |
Simone Signoret, as Lisa Schindler, plays a tarot reader/saleswoman who reads the cards for Jennifer. |
Rider-Waite Tarot |
A married couple, Paul and Jennifer Montgomery, played by James Caan and Katherine Ross, involve themselves in collecting fantastic objects of art and passing the time by playing strange games either on each other or on outsiders. They make a chance meeting with an older cosmetics saleswoman, who also happens to be an adept reader of tarot cards. The three of them become involved in pranks that lead to a series of deaths. Many plot twists and turns develop in this classic thriller. |
1967 |
The Gift
Thriller.
|
Cate Blanchett as Annie Wilson, psychic. The character is based on the screenwriter's (Billy Bob Thornton) own mother.
|
ESP cards. Professor J. Rhine is credited with the creation of the so-called "psychic cards." He did a great deal of pioneering work in the investigation of ESP at Duke University in the 1930's.
[Editor's note: Although not tarots or even an oracle deck, I've included the ESP cards here because the film shows them being used as a divination deck.]
|
Annie Wilson, a less than elite Southern woman, is widowed and left with young children to raise in innocent poverty. Annie, who is gifted with ESP and psychic abilities, thus the title, offers wisdom to clients and advice to the police regarding a missing woman.
|
2000
|
The Girl Can't Help It
Comedy |
|
|
Reader gives love life advice. |
1998 |
Happenstance
Foreign film: "Le battlement d'ailes du papillon" |
Louison Roblin, in the role of the neighbor-tarot reader. |
Marseilles-style; possibly the Camoin deck. |
An elderly neighbor invites the main character Irene, played by Audrey Tautou, into her apratment for tea and then insists on giving her a tarot reading. the reader turns over three cards. Unfortunately, the neighbor falls asleep before she can say what they mean. (5-GAW) |
2000 (France)
2001 (USA)
|
|
The Haunted Mansion
Comedy |
Cards shown as a computer generated display in the opening credits. |
Possible movie-created deck: Re-coloured Rider-Waite deck with unknown backs. |
Focuses on the Lover, Death and Three of Swords cards as an outline of the story plot in the opening sequence. Fun-filled, fright-packed Disney spook-tacular featuring Eddie Murphy. |
2004
(UK) |
Hello Again
Comedy |
Judith Ivey as Zelda, an occult bookstore owner. |
|
Shelley Long stars as Lucy Chadman, a housewife who chokes to death and is brought back to life by her sister exactly one year later. Zelda, the sister, consults the tarot in one scene. |
1987 |
Henry & June
Autobiography, from the Anais Nin diaries.
|
Uma Therman as June Miller.
|
Etteilla
|
This is the story of Anais Nin's affair/friendship with author Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer) and his wife June. June is looking at the cards in one scene. There is no interpretation.
|
1990.
|
Hideaway
Thriller; Horror |
Rae Dawn Chong as the psychic tarot card reader, Rose Orwetto. |
Probably the Cary-Yale Visconti Tarocchi deck. |
Hatch Harrison, played by Jeff Goldblum, recovers from hypothermia after his car, with his wife and himself inside, crashes into an icy creek. He enlists the help of a tarot card reader to help him find out why he's seeing visions of himself killing local teenage girls. |
1995. |
House of Cards
Drama.
|
Asha Menina as Sally Matthews, the traumatized daughter
|
|
After her father's death, Sally, a young girl, ceased to communicate with those in the world around her. She gathered all the cards in her home into a basket, including tarot cards, and used them to build a huge and intricate tower, which she sat inside while enjoying her silent fantasy world. Her mother, played by Kathleen Turner, studied the tower looking for a clue that would provide a way to contact the child and pull her back into the real world, thus breaking her long silence.
|
1993
|
House of Spirits
Drama, Romance.
|
Meryl Streep as Clara.
|
|
Clara was doing a psychic reading.
|
1993
|
King of the Gypsies
Drama |
Susan Sarandon as Rose, gypsy tarot card reader. |
|
Rose is reading for a client, scamming her. |
1978. |
Lionheart: The Children's Crusade
Action/Adventure
|
|
|
The Black Prince, played by Gabriel Byrne, is selling children as slaves to the Muslims. Robert Nrra, palyed by (Eric Stoltz, while setting out to join King Richard's crusaders, learns of the children's plight and vows to free them.
|
1987
|
Live and Let Die
Action -Adventure.
|
Jane Seymour, in her film debut, as the seductive tarot card reader- fortune teller Solitaire.
|
Tarot of Witches and Rider-Waite Tarot. (The R-W also appear in two locations as large size wall posters).
|
Solitaire advised Kananga using Tarot of the Witches (special focus on the High Priestess and Lovers cards). Bond (aka agent 007) handled a stacked deck of Lovers cards while seducing Solitaire. Later, Rider-Waite cards ( High Priestess, Moon, and Death) are used (handled by Bond and others) to foreshadow Solitaire's perilous situation.
|
1973
|
Lord of Illusions
Horror, Thriller.
|
Scott Bakula as Harry D'Amour, private detective.
|
Universal Waite Tarot
|
A fortune teller was being stabbed to death gradually with multiple knives when Harry walked in. Harry tried to stop the torture murder, but the two murderers managed to escape. Seconds later, the fortune teller died and Harry turned over the final face down card in the spread before him on the table. It was the ten of swords.
|
1995
|
The Manitou
Horror. |
Tony Curtis plays Harry Erskine, a faux psychic who tells fortunes to lonely old ladies to bilk them out of money. |
|
In the one scene with the tarot cards, the psychic advises an elderly woman about her future, making it up as he goes along. At the end of the scene she starts speaking in a Native American tongue and floats down the hallway, flinging herself down stairs and killing herself. The rest of the plot revolves around a Manitou (Native American spirit) that develops out of a growth on a woman's back and becomes a living manifestation of evil. In the end, Erskine and others destroy the Manitou. |
1978. |
|
Monster-in-law
Romantic Comedy |
Annie Parisse as Morgan, reads tarot cards for Jennifer Lopez, as Charlie. |
Stairs of Gold Tarot (aka Tavaglione Tarot). |
In the one scene with the tarot cards, Morgan interprets the cards for Charlie while Remy, played by Adam Scott, watches. The cards show that a man will come into Charlie's (Charlotte) life. |
2005 |
Moonlight and Valentino
Drama, Romance.
|
Sylvie Morrow, Whoopi Goldberg's character, reads the cards for Rebecca, played by Elizabeth Perkins
|
Giant Rider-Waite (special focus on the Hermit, Tower, and Wheel of Fortune cards).
|
Widowed Rebecca is helped through her crisis by her friend, sister, and step mother as she gradually learns to cope with her loss.
|
1995
|
My Sister's Keeper
Drama |
Kate, played by Sofia Vassilieva, read the tarot cards |
Rider Waite |
Kate, a leukemia-stricken
girl, reads the cards and jokingly predicts her own death to her sister
Anna, played by Abigail Breslin. |
2009,
included
in "additional
scenes" |
Now and Then
Drama.
|
Janeane Garofalo as Wiladene, the "Mystic" fortune teller. She does a tarot reading for Roberta, Teeny, Samantha, and Chrissy played by Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, and Ashleigh Aston Moore.
|
Golden Rider
|
In 1970, four friends hold a séance in a graveyard, which causes them to try to find out how "Dear Johnny" (a name they see on one of the tombstones) died. The girls consult the local psychic for help and she lays a spread which includes the following cards: Five of Swords, High Priestess, Death, Page of Swords, and Ten of Swords.
|
1995
|
|
Ocean's Twelve
Adventure |
Elliott Gould played Reuben Tishkoff. |
Rider Waite |
Reuben is shown getting a psychic reading. There is a Rider Waite deck on the table with the Five of Wands upturned on top of the deck. |
2004 |
The Red Violin
Romance, Drama, Mystery.
|
Anita Laurenzi as the maid/fortune teller Cesca.
|
|
Each chapter of the film unfolds as Cesca, a fortune teller, turns over a new tarot card, telling Anna Bussotti, the violin maker's pregnant wife, her future. The fortune told is really that of the flawless violin that her husband had created. After Anna died in childbirth, her grieving husband used some of her hair and blood to stain the perfect violin, perhaps enabling her spirit/essence to live on in the musical instrument.
|
1999
|
|
Soylent Green
Science Fiction |
________ as ______ reads for __________ played by ___________. |
|
Beautiful women, who come with the luxury condos as part of the furniture, are gathered together in one apartment socializing with one another when the apartment manager and a detective enter the room. The former occupant of that condo has turned up dead and the detective, played by Charlton Heston, is there to investigate (and take up temporary residency if he can get away with it).One of the women is doing a tarot reading for another woman. |
1973 |
Supergirl
Action-Adventure, Fantasy. |
Faye Dunaway as Selena, the witch.
|
Rider-Waite.
|
The movie is about an alien superheroine, Kara (aka Linda Lee) played by Helen Slater, that ended up on Earth. She's a female version of Superman. In fact, Superman and Supergirl are cousins. The cards show up in a scene where Bianca, played by Brenda Vaccaro, and her friend Selena are driving through a school campus. Selena reads the cards in the back seat.
|
1984.
|
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
Comedy/Drama/Romance. |
Calista Flockhart as Christine, a tarot card reader. |
|
|
2000 |
Thinner
Horror/Thriller. |
Bonnie Lateiner as the gypsy. |
|
|
1996. |
Tombstone
Western, Action, Drama.
|
_____ as the sister-in-law of Wyatt Earp, played by Kurt Russell. She lays down three cards: Tower, Death, and Devil.
|
The deck appears to be the Visconti-Sforza type.
|
The Cowboy Gang are outgunned by the Earp Brothers accompanied by dentist-turned gunslinger Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer). The gunfight at the OK Corral is the result.
|
1993.
|
Touch of Evil
Murder Mystery |
Marlene Dietrich as Tanya, a lounge/bordello owner who reads cards. |
The deck appears to be a Marseille style deck. |
Hank Quinlan, played by Orson Welles, is a cop. He was a heavy drinker, but stopped. Yet he frequents Tanya's lounge. When he starts drinking again, he asks Tanya, "What do you see for my future in the cards?" She tells him that he has no future. |
1958 |
|
Venus and Mars
Romantic-Comedy |
Emily Vogel, played by Lynn Redgrave, reads the cards for her daughter Kay Vogel and Kay's friend. |
Crowley's Thoth Tarot |
|
2001 |
The Virgin Suicides
Comedy, Drama.
|
(Cards are part of the setting and not actually handled by anyone on camera). The bedroom is that of Cecilia Lisbon played by Hanna Hall.
|
Rider-Waite Tarot
|
Circa 1975, a young male houseguest is walking through 13-year-old Cecilia's bedroom to get to the bathroom. The camera pans over assorted items on the floor and we see the unmistakable plaid back of some Rider-Waite cards next to a cross with Jesus mounted on it. Next, we see the Star card and just the corner of a Ouija board among the clutter. Shortly thereafter, Cecilia kills herself, not due to any occult occurrences, but from the effects of living in a strict, repressed Christian home.
|
2000.
|
A Walk on the Moon
Romance, Drama.
|
Tovah Feldshuh as Bubbie. She does a reading while at a middle class Jewish resort in upstate New York with her son and his family in 1969.
|
Rider-Waite Tarot
|
Bubbie reads the cards for one of the other lodgers: Looking at the cards, she says, "No."
"No?" the other woman says. "That's what I pay you for?"
"The cards don't lie."
Maybe they're subject to interpretation."
Bubbie holds up the 10 of Swords. " Does this look like a vacation card? You wanna go to Miami, go to Miami..."
|
1999.
|
Warlock III: The End of Innocence.
Horror/Thriller. |
Boti Ann Bliss as Robin, the witch. |
Universal-Waite Tarot. |
Kris Miller, played by Ashley Laurence, is a college student who unexpectedly finds that she has inherited a derelict house. Accompanied by a group of friends, she goes there to clear it of heirlooms before the structure is demolished. Almost immediately she and her friends are targeted by a powerful warlock (Phillip Covington played by Bruce Payne) who is very interested in her bloodline. Robin, one of the friends, reads the tarot to gain insight concerning the warlock and how she can fight his evil spells. Robin is no match for him and dies in combat with him. |
1999 |
What's the Worst That Could Happen
Comedy. |
Glenne Headly plays Gloria. She is a personal assistant to Max Fairbanks, the character played by Danny Devito. She reads the tarot cards for Max. |
A Rider-Waite-like deck, but with illustrations changed to form hybrid cards. |
Several scenes in the movie show the cards. In one scene the Max calls Gloria wanting advice so she pulls one card for him. He is horrified by it. |
2001. |
Wishful Thinking
Comedy-Romance.
|
Drew Barrymore as Lena, the theater's cashier. Since Lena collects decks, they are seen throughout the film.
|
|
The story is told from three viewpoints. Max, played by James LeGros, meets Elizabeth, played by Jennifer Beals. Then they live together, but when she mentions marriage, he balks. He becomes extremely jealous, probably without case, and thinks she's taken up with a friend of his, Jack. Elizabeth, hurt by Max's refusal to marry, catches Jack's eye, but the friendship seems innocent. Lena, who works with Max, likes him and realizes she can manipulate his jealousy and maybe engineer his split from Elizabeth.
|
1997.
|
The Wolf Man
Horror. |
Bela Lugosi as Bela, the gypsy. |
|
Larry Talbot accompanies Gwen and her good friend Jenny to a nearby gypsy camp, where Jenny volunteers to have her fortune told by Bela, the gypsy. The gypsy begins to read her cards when he notices the image of a pentagram suddenly appears in the palm of her hand, marking her for death at the hands of a werewolf. Bela frightens her from his tent as he turns into a werewolf. He turns Talbot into the WOLF MAN with his bite. |
1941. |
Woo
Comedy, Romance.
|
Girlina as the tarot reader - astrologer, Celestial.
|
New Orleans Voodoo Tarot. The Marassa card (duality, the lovers or twins) is turned over and emphasized by the tarotist.
|
Darlene "Woo" Bates played by Jada Pinkett Smith is trying to find a man. She always consults Celestial before making a decision. Her blind date for the evening turns out to be a Virgo just as Celestial had predicted, but the rest of the evening if full of surprises and problems that go from bad to worse.
|
1998
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