The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro is the latest film from director Don Swanson (Occurrence at Mills Creek, A Wish for Giants) and was something far different to what I expected. This is a comedy horror with an empathises on comedy, the horror being so slight as to me almost non-existent. 

A group of high school Latin American History students are not paying particular attention during the lesson on Prince Dom Pedro, and subsequently do bad during the exam on it. Their disrespect to the Prince somehow has real world consequences as one by one the friends turn up dead, seemingly killed by the Prince's angry spirit. The two surviving friends - Jayden (Rachel O'Day) and Kayden (Madeline Sclichter) begin to suspect they have been cursed, and go on a quest to locate a book on curses that may be able to help them.

The film has a story that is mostly full of nothing. Red herring quests that seem to always have them getting nowhere near the truth. The horror, if that is what you can call it, is mostly the friends hearing the disembodied voice of Prince Dom Pedro threatening them, yet never seeming to understand what he is saying to them due to him speaking Portuguese. The few death scenes are very brief and sudden, with the ghost able to kill his victims simply by touching them. The story overall was a bit too simple. It was never clear why they had become cursed by the ghost, and the meandering story that sees the protagonists not really achieving anything at all didn't really seem to serve a purpose. Other than have the characters meet ever eccentric weirdos, such as Gamemaster (Lorin Foster) who purports to be the best board game player in the world. There are also two full length musical numbers where characters are watching someone perform on stage, I didn't quite see the importance of these parts either.

This film world has a light tone to it, this made the comedy feel like it was something from a teen drama. There is a sense of unreality with characters who don't really act the way you would expect them to when bad things happen. The young leads never seem that fussed with what is happening, and the surreal side characters add to a 'twee' type vibe. The humour was mostly strange, such as the adverts that play at the film's start and are then constantly referenced by characters advertising these. One of them is Bigfoot Unleashed: Part VII, with one of the leads repeatedly talking about the film, and it even playing in its entirety after the end credits. I wouldn't say this was a funny movie, but it had a consistent light heartedness to it, regardless of what was going on. I guess if there was any message to be learned, it would be to not have such a dependence on phones, as almost every character here seems addicted to phone use, much like the real world if a little exaggerated. 
This was filmed on a micro-budget (being a SAG-AFTRA micro-budget agreement production), which is obvious to see. Limited locations, set dressing, and a cast of actors who while not always the best, all shared enthusiasm for their roles, none of them standing out in a bad way.

The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro was inoffensive and carried a simple charm to how it played out. The horror was so slight as to almost be non-existent. Limitations to the story telling did leave me a little lost at times, but with plenty going on, and a friendly vibe, I can't say I ever found this one to be boring, and the low budget didn't really get in the way of anything. This was designed in a purposeful way with the tone presented intended, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

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