WFG RATING: B+

A Fishel Film LLC production in association with Spruce Films and Ghost Cat Films LLC. Directed and lensed by Don Swanson. Written and produced by Joe Fishel. Editing by Jamie Lockhart. 

Stars Andre Santana, Rachel O’Day, Madeline Sclichter, Christopher Kai, Allen Enlow, Jaden Brown, Angela Kuzel, and Joe Fishel.

From the makers of Bigfoot Unleashed Part VII comes this tale of a group of students who find themselves haunted by the Liberator of Brazil.

At Mors High School, a group of students taking Latin American History are learning about Prince Dom Pedro, who was involved in the liberation of Brazil. However, they don’t have any interest in the test or the subject. Despite warnings from their teacher, Mr. D’Ath, the kids just want to get to the test and just get it over with.

They soon learn they are about to make a big mistake. Jayden, one of the students, begins to hear the voice in Portuguese but no one believes her. Soon enough, the students are being picked off one-by-one. Jayden attempts to discover why and find clues, learning along the way that her teacher might be responsible when he began studying on curses. Will she able to find out the secret of Prince Dom Pedro?

This was quite an interesting film from the makers of Bigfoot Unleashed Part VII, whose trailer is seen before the film with two other films (I Swiped the Wrong One and Winner Takes All: Royal Flush) before the actual film begins. However, there is a good reason why. Throughout the film, there are little nuances and running gags that relate to the screenings of the three films which are funny.

This film, about a group of high school students not taking their studies seriously has a major running gag in the form of the students themselves. The core group of students all have names that end in “ayden”. Seriously. It is quite funny as instead of resorting to tropey names of horror films (“Bambi”, “Candy”, Chad” come to mind), writer Joe Fishel decided to do something more fun with the rhythmic names of the characters.

Martial arts fans might get a kick out of this as well as there seems to be some sort of connotation between Prince Dom Pedro and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That is in part of the students’ Latin History teacher, Mr. D’Ath, having had Dom Pedro’s spirit in his in his youth to become a champion in the sport. This is evident when Jayden and Kayden attempt to talk to a former opponent of their teacher’s, who freaks out at the thought of what happened but not before thinking about attempting to change his dating profile.

There is a nice connection as Jayden and eventually Kayden begin to hear the voice of Prince Dom Pedro in their heads, who promises if they don’t take him seriously, all hell will break loose. Using the kids’ phones, he hacks into them and causes their demise. There are a few musical sequences as well that are quite enjoyable including a song dedicated to the titular character.

The Haunting of Prince Dom Pedro is funny, insane, and wild all wrapped in one little package with its running gags and offers us a bit of insight into the world of Brazilian culture…if The Gods Must Be Crazy director Jamie Uys had made a horror-comedy, it would be something like this.