I Just Realized Why King Charles's Haunting New Portrait Looks Familiar—and Now I Can't Unsee it

Earlier this month, King Charles unveiled a new royal portrait that was anything but subtle. From the hand of U.K. artist Johnathan Yeo, the painting of the 75-year-old monarch showcases him sporting a traditional red Welsh Guards uniform amid a blaze of fire. Is he on fire? Is he emerging from fire? Is he the embodiment of fire himself? Honestly, I don't know, and I don't really care—I'm not a royal family buff who pores over conspiracy threads (although I do sometimes look to Kate for a fashion rule).

And yet...

The image of Charles's fiery face kept nagging at me. Why did this sleep paralysis demon seem so, well, familiar?

And then it came to me: It reminded me of that insanely scary demonic portrait in Ghostbusters II.

Getty Images

The now cult-classic 1989 Ghostbusters II may have been a critical flop, but for some reason, that haunting painting of the sadistic Vigo the Carpathian, an evil 16th-century warlock (and no, not a real person—I had to look that up), stuck with me all these years, up until the unveiling of King Charles's scorched-earth portrait.

And unfortunately for the royal fam, I'm not the only one who made the leap from Buckingham Palace to river-of-slime overlord obsessed with Sigourney Weaver's baby. Per usual, ten steps ahead of me, the internet had already connected the dots.

I'm not sure which surprises me more: that "the firm" was down for such a satanic-leaning portrayal? That portrait artist Yeo got away with such a massive sub-tweet? Or that I'm not the only millennial who's been so thoroughly impacted by a film that, as its Wikipedia page notes, "failed to replicate the cultural impact and following of Ghostbusters. Although some critics retrospectively praised it, Ghostbusters II is generally seen as a poor follow-up to Ghostbusters and responsible for stalling the franchise for decades." I argue that Ghostbuster II's influence was so great that British officials should definitely be checking to make sure a river of slime isn't running beneath the entire city and into the Thames. Just a precaution.

Alas, now that I've addressed what was unnerving me, I can sleep at night and move on to other things...like the new portrait of Kate Middleton, which, now that I think of it, kinda reminds me of something I've seen before...

Tattler/NPR

Meghan Markle Just Mirrored Princess Diana’s Early ‘90s Style at the Airport