People Are Comparing the King Charles Portrait to the Cursed ‘Ghostbusters’ Painting

The most famous King of England since Ralph, King Charles III recently unveiled his first official portrait since his coronation. Because the universe clearly hates every member of the royal family’s PR team, the painting, by artist Jonathan Yeo, quickly set off a firestorm of online ridicule, with some calling it the “worst royal portrait” of all time. 

Why the hate? Well, the unusual piece features Charles surrounded by red hues, as if he were drowning in a sea of blood, or perhaps being engulfed in the flames of Hell itself. And you know what? Fair enough, painting.

The painting’s unorthodox style shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to Charles, or anyone familiar with Yeo’s work. After all, this is the same guy who once created a portrait of George W. Bush using only clippings from porno magazines (which seems unnecessarily cruel to the hardworking people in the porn publishing industry who presumably never committed a single war crime).

A lot of people on social media couldn’t help but compare Yeo’s latest work to the haunted painting of Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters II. I’m no expert on the monarchy, but one would imagine that being immediately compared to an immortal baby-stealing monster probably wasn’t the reaction that Charles was hoping for. 

As one user pointed out, the painting housing the soul of a tyrannical 16th century warlock actually looks “less demonic” than the one depicting the reigning King of England.

Some folks with a little extra time on their hands even photoshopped Charles’ painting into Ghostbusters II, replacing Vigo. And, yeah, it’s definitely more disturbing that way. How is Dan Aykroyd not investigating this painting as we speak?

And Charles’ disembodied head floating atop a subterranean river of ectoplasmic slime is oddly perfect. Someone should really go full George Lucas and retroactively use computer technology to make King Charles the villain of Ghostbusters II. 

Creating a painting that’s more disturbing than the one in Ghostbusters II is quite the feat. In fact, the “painting” of Vigo wasn’t a painting at all, it was a photograph of German actor (and real life mega-creep) Wilhelm von Homburg, which was made to look like a painting. Not only does this give the painting an indescribably uncanny vibe, but when Vigo emerges from the painting at the end of the film, the transition is seamless. Side note: Maybe somebody should guard that Charles painting with a proton pack 24/7. 

At least this unflattering portrait of Charles has provided some measure of amusement to the impoverished masses that bankroll his lavish lifestyle. And, come to think of it, he should probably just be glad that the artist didn’t take inspiration from Saturday Night Live and decide to portray him as an anthropomorphic tampon. 

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