Being a practicing tarot divinator for more years than I'd care to admit to, it only makes sense that I'd get a crack at reviewing Adam & Eve/Ultimate Pictures' latest opus, the stylistically venturesome Taboo of Tarot. It wouldn't take a psychic to tell you that a better title might have been conjured up, but director Nick Steele obviously has his sights on something other than the hall of dumb names - "fame" being the more likely alternative if Steele and company continue in this creative mode.
With its inspired visuals and sense of authenticity, Taboo of Tarot is a product of unstinting passion characterized by a flamboyant music score [Saint] that brings to mind some of the exotic Middle East rhythms set forth by the recent mainstream film 8mm.
As storylines go, even tarot readers have their groupies, which finds Jessica Drake and Chandler up to their beautiful esoterica in their search for clues to the disappearance of a psychic [played by Nikki Anderson]. Within the haunts of an old manse [great house, by the way], Chandler and Drake happen upon a deck of tarot cards that once belonged to Anderson. As they plumb the mysteries of the deck, particular cards emerge and come to life - a plot twist similar to the classic Peter Cushing horror pic, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.
Okay, maybe I'm a sucker for stained glass windows, of which there's more here than you're average French cathedral. But if you're into such defining objectives as production value in adult movies, from here, the feature gets downright spinetingling with its deployment of costuming, camerawork and art direction, all beautifully resolute in their interpretation of the card figures' archetypal eccentricities.
To wit, Evan Stone is the charioteer, portrayed in the tarot deck as the all-or-nothing, Alpha male. In a scene that pretty much defines the raw magnitude of this production, Stone gallops into view on a chariot and takes peasant girl Envy in the ass quicker than you can say Ben Hur. Now that the legendary Marc Wallice is in drydock, Stone gets all the long, flowing-hair-in-the-breeeze parts, and is a damn worthy successor to Wallice. Pre-nom this scene as you might the opening threeway that brings together Chandler, Drake and streams of hot wax together for a luxurious date with the tarot deck's High Priestess, Vivianne - Chandler, looking the best I've seen her, finally getting it in the ass via a strap-on wielded by Drake.
When I mentioned authenticity earlier, one particular subtlety of this feature offers convincing evidence that the scriptwriter did some homework. The "Two of Cups" [the tarot symbol of love] scene featuring Drake and Dale Dabone first depicts them in their card rendition as back to back and blindfolded. Very few tarot decks, perhaps the only one being The Sacred Rose, actually do this. In most traditions, the couple is seen face to face approaching one another to embrace. Minor point, but it really drives home the fact that exceptional pains were taken to avoid getting off on the cheap as you might expect from the usual adult industry project.
Nikki Anderson, who has star billing, plays the missing psychic Katrina Sands. Anderson gets two great scenes, one with Randy Spears as her husband, the other with Marc Davis, who, as her lover, gets to plow her in the ass. Being that it's the "lover" who generally gets the better of the deal in the love triangle, even in tarot mythology, pretty much explains why Davis is blessed with the anal chores.
Besides Steele for delivering a modern masterpiece, special nods to Christoff for art direction; Emotion Arts Digital for the grand visual f/x; Jane Waters and Philip O'Toole for superb camerawork and O'Toole for editing.
