A strange spirit. A cursed history test. And a classroom full of teenagers who really should’ve studied harder. The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro, the latest film from Don Swanson.
Running a bold 2 hours and 22 minutes, The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro is less of a quick detour into absurd horror-comedy and more of a full-blown road trip—with flat tires, strange pit stops, and a spectral Brazilian monarch riding shotgun. This feature-length fever dream, brought to life by Fishel Film LLC in association with Spruce Films and Ghost Cat Films LLC, is directed by Don Swanson, written and produced by Joe Fishel, and stars a sprawling cast including Andre Santana, Rachel O’Day, Madeline Schlichter, Christopher Kai, and Joe Fishel himself.
Swanson and Fishel previously collaborated on the knowingly silly Bigfoot Unleashed Part VII, a spoof short we at Screen Critix awarded 3.5 out of 5 for its tongue-in-cheek humor and gleeful low-budget charm. That same spirit returns here, but this time stretched to an epic runtime and blended with something altogether more unhinged—a supernatural teen mystery that feels part classroom drama, part haunted phone tech horror, and part historical musical. Yes, really.
The story centers around a group of high school students at Mors High who are taking a Latin American History course and are collectively uninterested in the subject — particularly the unit on Prince Dom Pedro I, the real-life Brazilian leader who helped free the country from Portuguese control. Their teacher, the ominously named Mr. D’Ath, tries to instill some reverence for the topic, but he’s largely ignored by a class more interested in texting than taking notes.
Soon, strange things begin to happen. One of the students, Jayden (and yes, nearly every student has a name ending in “-ayden”), begins hearing whispers in Portuguese. Nobody believes her. That is, until her classmates start vanishing one by one, picked off by forces unseen but clearly tied to the very history they’ve neglected. What unfolds is a bizarre, layered, and at times baffling tale involving possession, cursed smartphones, martial arts tournaments, spectral warnings, and unexpected musical numbers.
The decision to lean into this sort of chaotic genre-mashup is bold, and The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro doesn’t shy away from its own weirdness. Much like Bigfoot Unleashed, this film takes joy in referencing itself and other titles—trailers for Bigfoot Unleashed VII, I Swiped the Wrong One, and Winner Takes All: Royal Flush appear before the main feature, and they aren’t just decorative; each ties thematically and humorously back into the main film, creating a bizarre intertextual playground.
The most obvious running gag—the aforementioned “-ayden” naming convention—starts as a subtle joke and becomes its own comedic rhythm. Instead of resorting to stock horror characters like “Bambi” or “Chad,” the students are all cut from the same strangely named cloth: Jayden, Kayden, Zayden, Rayden, Brayden, Layden, and so on. It’s absurd, but that’s the point, and it plays into the film’s core strength: a refusal to take itself too seriously.
That said, at 2 hours and 22 minutes, the film does test the limits of how long absurdist horror-comedy can be sustained. There are entire side plots that veer wildly from the central story—like Mr. D’Ath’s backstory as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion, allegedly empowered by the spirit of Dom Pedro himself, or a detour involving one of his former opponents melting down while swiping on his dating app. These sequences, while amusing in isolation, sometimes threaten to derail the pacing. It’s as if the film knows it’s gone off the rails and dares you to keep watching anyway.
Visually, the film keeps with the aesthetic choices we saw in Bigfoot Unleashed VII: intentionally low-grade camera work, off-kilter framing, shaky handheld shots, and editing that feels more VHS-era than modern digital. The look is unmistakably DIY, but there’s a kind of charm in how committed it is to the style. The haunting sequences are underscored with out-of-place musical cues and melodramatic cuts, further reinforcing the film’s dedication to self-aware parody.
Then there’s the musical interlude. Or rather, musical interludes. This isn’t a horror musical, per se, but the film has no qualms about throwing in a full-on original song in the middle of a haunting. One number, dedicated entirely to Dom Pedro, appears with little warning and vanishes just as suddenly. It’s tonally jarring, thematically odd, and yet… somehow perfect for the world this film builds.
If there’s any major takeaway from The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro, it’s that Swanson and Fishel are doubling down on their love of genre spoof. The film functions like a spiritual cousin to Bigfoot Unleashed Part VII—both parody the conventions of horror films, both feature bizarre character choices and B-movie aesthetics, and both use their flaws as features. Where Bigfoot was short and sharp, Dom Pedro sprawls. Sometimes this works in its favor, allowing more time for gags and layered meta-jokes. Other times, it stretches a simple premise just a little too thin.
Still, if you’re on board with the film’s rhythm—if you’re the kind of viewer who appreciates intentional overacting, repeated jokes, haunted apps, and philosophical discussions about martial arts history with dating app humor mixed in—this film will reward your patience.
It may be overlong, uneven, and absolutely bonkers, but The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro is exactly what it wants to be: a self-aware, culturally playful, and often hilarious love letter to bad horror, good gags, and haunted monarchs. It’s a weird ride—but in the best way.
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