I broke out the tarot deck and asked questions in advance of watching Backrooms. Spoilers ahead. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen the movie and ever plan to, stop reading.)

Some of the notes I took didn’t make sense at the exact moment but were clarified through watching the full scene and context, which I’ve since edited, hence the brevity.

What’s going on on screen at 5:01?
king of cups, king of pentacles, devil
guy breathing while walking through a corridor that goes from realistic to surrealistic

I’m not sure the cards really answered my question beyond the devil card showing that he was stuck.

What’s the first thing said in words after 9:20?
judgment, temperance, emperor
therapist asked him if “anyone deserves to be alone”… it was a question and it was to a boss

I assumed she was talking to a boss because of the emperor card (and maybe the nature of movies) and I was right. I’ve seen a few cards come out as posed questions before, and one or both of the first two cards have been questions. Maybe temperance is the therapist or the tone?

What’s happening at 19:00?
chariot, empress, queen of wands
therapist is watching tv on couch, “it’s never too late to forge a new path” on infomercial/commercial

This one made me breathe hard. The TV was telling her to stop VHS & chilling and go do the things.

What’s the first sound/noise at/after 28:14?
7 of cups popped out, then: wheel, page of wands, judgment
took a while of ambient wind tunnel-wailing sounds but eventually sounded like a radio playing chinese people talking? many more languages continue. then finally he calls out “hello?”

The cards are like “surprise, bitch! exploration awaits!” with the first two cards I actually pulled, and judgment is his confused question into the ether. 7 of Cups popping out before I finished shuffling is a laugh with the multiple languages/people’s voices being so many options to choose from. The recording is from the “hi, we are the people of earth” thing thrown out into space some decades ago.

What’s visually happening at 45:22?
temperance, 5 of cups, hermit (note in advance: someone waiting/standing still alone)
standing still at a mirror testing a camera to begin recording… not alone but visually alone, doesn’t want to be there

Yep. Nailed it. The scene was about waiting for someone and the exact moment was a guy visually alone. The 5 of cups card was his frustrated reluctance.

How do I feel about what’s happening on screen at 59 mins 59 seconds?
lovers, ace of swords, knight of swords (note in advance: make a choice to protect yourself, idiot… choose thinking harder)
…seriously?? mom had just told daughter to avoid the window (girl was curious) because it’s too ‘outside’ outside.

The cards described the scene, not how I felt. I’ve had ace of swords come up for folks looking out windows before and I described it as “hey, what’s going on over there? I should find out!” and that’s exactly what was going down in the scene until she’s told to get away from the window. Mom was literally telling her to protect herself (knight of swords).

What’s visually happening at 1hr 13 mins?
moon, 9 of pentacles, sun
mom being wheeled away, having a bad hallucination/nightmare, is currently IRL unconscious, becoming aware of the nonsenseland

I’m not sure about 9 of pentacles exactly, but moon-sun was her becoming aware of the weird.

What’s going on at 1hr 24 mins?
king of wands, 6 of wands, lovers
therapist yells at him. he’s having a meltdown about his wife/life. she tells him how it is.

I think she was the king of wands here, not him. His ego was on display and she wands-esque told him what’s what. Lovers would be the conversation itself, but he specifically wanted to roleplay her as his wife.

What’s the first thing said or spoken at/after 1:35:12?
temperance, 6 of wands, 8 of swords
at the exact time she was in a really narrow hall/corridor walking sideways trying to escape the backrooms… next words were “are you okay?” and “who the fuck is that??” and being stopped by regular people

Wild how many of the random-ass times I chose were key pivotal moments. Her being stuck between the Backrooms and wherever she goes from there, and also stuck between the creature and real people, is very interesting with the 8 of swords.

Is the main protagonist of the movie a fucking idiot?
page of cups, 7 of swords, ace of wands (note in advance: they’re “guns a blazing” and think they can charm their way out of situations)
kind of, yes. drunk guy trying to out-strategize and go ham into the dark

What horror protagonist isn’t an idiot? But I had to ask out of curiosity of what an idiot could look like in tarot form. Welp.

That was a fun experiment. I haven’t watched a movie using tarot in a good while and I figured since there would likely be shaky cam and I already had a headache, I would need to take a lot of eye breaks anyway, so what better excuse than to use my miserable experiences as a time to play.

Since this is my first tarot post here, have some background: I’ve been curious or interested in paranormal, psychic, and weird content since I was a little kid but my atheism and ye olde scientific method has kept these things in the “that’s nice, dear” pile. Sometime around 2021 I decided to at least learn how to read tarot cards, and around 2024 I began experimenting with more detailed and complex questions as I found more understanding with specific cards. I’m not a complete novice anymore but I still feel like I just started, and each time I do experimental questions with immediate answers like this I feel like I get a better sense of what cards could mean and how tarot could be used. I still don’t know if it’s not just a matter of human pattern-finding and need to fill in the blanks, but it’s at least occasionally interesting.