An Interview with Carl Medland, Director and Star of Paranormal Hollywood Haunting

by Mike Haberfelner

August 2026

Carl Medland on (re)Search my Trash

Your new movie Paranormal Hollywood Haunting - in a few words, what's it about?

At its heart, Paranormal Hollywood Haunting is about identity, memory and the stories people leave behind. It follows my investigation into an extraordinary house overlooking the Hollywood Sign, where a tragic death and decades of hidden truth appear to have left something behind. What begins as a paranormal investigation slowly becomes something much more human. It explores love, loss, shame, acceptance and the idea that the loudest ghosts are often the ones created by the secrets we keep in life. The film asks the audience to decide for themselves where reality ends and the unexplained begins.

With Paranormal Hollywood Haunting being a contínuation of your Paranmormal Farm movies, how do you feel the series has evolved over the years, and what made you think it was "Hollywood-ready" now?

The biggest evolution has been maturity. Paranmormal Farm was about exploring haunted locations and documenting strange experiences with a genuine sense of curiosity. As the films progressed, I became less interested in proving whether ghosts exist and more interested in understanding why certain places affect people so deeply. Paranormal Hollywood Haunting feels like the natural next chapter because Hollywood itself is built on dreams, reinvention and hidden histories. It is a place where image often outweighs truth. That made it the perfect backdrop for this story.

Technically, I also wanted to push the format further. We filmed entirely on an iPhone, embraced natural environments and worked with real people rather than constructing traditional horror scenes. The scale is bigger, but the philosophy remains the same. Authenticity always comes first.

You also have to talk about Paranormal Hollywood Haunting's LGBTQ+'s subtext for a bit, and was this intended from the beginning, or has this slipped into the narrative only eventually?

It was there from the beginning because it was already part of the true story we were documenting. I never wanted LGBTQ+ representation to feel added for effect or treated as a separate issue. It simply exists because these were the lives we were filming.

The story touches on themes of identity, living authentically and the emotional cost of hiding who you are. One of the central tragedies is rooted in somebody who never truly felt able to live as their authentic self. That emotional truth interested me far more than creating a conventional ghost story.

As a gay filmmaker, I also wanted to show older LGBTQ+ lives with dignity and complexity. Hollywood has often overlooked those stories. Here they are placed at the centre, not as victims or stereotypes, but as people whose lives deserve to be heard.

(Other) sources of inspiration when writing Paranormal Hollywood Haunting?

My biggest inspiration has always been real people. I am fascinated by conversations, memories and personal testimony because reality often produces stories stranger than fiction. Cinematically, I have always admired films that blur documentary and narrative filmmaking. I wanted viewers to feel they were watching genuine events unfold naturally rather than watching scenes designed to manipulate them. Hollywood itself became an inspiration. Behind every glamorous image there are forgotten stories, hidden relationships, compromises and personal sacrifices. That contrast between myth and reality became central to the film.

Do talk about Paranormal Hollywood Haunting's approach to horror!

I have never been interested in horror built around constant jump scares. Fear is far more powerful when it grows from uncertainty. The film deliberately blurs documentary and cinema. The audience is continually asking themselves whether they are watching factual investigation, coincidence or something genuinely supernatural. That uncertainty creates tension because people naturally search for answers.

The emotional story is equally important. If viewers connect with the people first, the unsettling moments become much more powerful. My goal was to create horror which stays with you because of what it makes you think about afterwards rather than what it makes you scream at in the moment.

For Paranormal Hollywood Haunting, you've once more chosen tthe found footage approach - so what do you think were the advantages but maybe also challenges filming your movie that way with this movie in mind in particular?

Found footage allows honesty that traditional filmmaking often struggles to achieve. The camera feels like a participant rather than an observer. Conversations unfold naturally, reactions are genuine and the audience feels present inside the investigation. The challenge is that everything has to remain believable. Every camera movement, every conversation and every decision has to feel authentic. You cannot rely on cinematic shortcuts because the illusion disappears immediately. Shooting on an iPhone helped enormously. People relaxed around it. It allowed us to capture intimate moments which would have felt different with a large film crew. The technology became invisible, which is exactly what this style needs.

As in the Paranmormal Farm films, you play the lead in Paranormal Hollywood Haunting - now obviously you have written the role with yourself in mind, but how has the character evolved over the years, and how much of the actual you can we find in Carl by now?

The Carl audiences meet now is much closer to who I really am than in the earlier films. Originally the character was primarily an investigator searching for evidence. Today he spends far more time listening than talking. Over the years I have become less interested in proving something to an audience and more interested in understanding people’s experiences without judgement. That personal growth naturally found its way into the films.

There is still a distinction between Carl the filmmaker and Carl the person because every documentary involves storytelling choices. But emotionally, this is certainly the closest audiences have come to meeting the real me.

Do talk about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these people?

The cast are extraordinary because they are extraordinary people rather than conventional performers. Arthur Porter brings nearly a century of lived experience. His life spans old Hollywood, the entertainment industry and enormous social change. Daniel Lopez brings emotional honesty and remarkable openness about deeply personal experiences. Neither of them are performing characters. They are sharing their lives. That authenticity cannot be written into a screenplay. It has to exist naturally, and I think audiences recognise the difference immediately.

You of course have to talk about your wonderful Hollywood location, what was it like filming there, and how did you ge it even?

The location is genuinely one of the stars of the film. Sitting beneath the Hollywood Sign overlooking the lake, it carries its own atmosphere before anybody says a word. We were incredibly fortunate because Arthur and Daniel welcomed us into their home and trusted us with their story. That trust was everything. Without it, this film simply would not exist. Filming there felt unlike any production I have worked on. You constantly felt surrounded by Hollywood history while documenting a deeply personal story that had never been told before.

A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?

The atmosphere was calm, respectful and collaborative. Because we were documenting real people, there was never a sense of forcing drama. We followed events as they unfolded naturally. Some moments became unexpectedly emotional because people were revisiting memories they had rarely spoken about before. Everyone understood that honesty mattered more than spectacle. It felt less like a conventional film production and more like sharing an important story together.

The $64 question of course, where can Paranormal Hollywood Haunting be seen?

The film is available through Amazon Prime Video as a digital rental or purchase across multiple international territories, with additional territories continuing to come online. We are delighted audiences around the world are now beginning to experience it, and we hope it sparks plenty of conversation afterwards.

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Absolutely. I think there are still many stories worth exploring within this style of filmmaking because there are countless real people whose experiences have never been documented. At the same time, I am also expanding beyond the paranormal. One project I am particularly excited about is a psychological drama based on the writings of North Devon author Elizabeth Revill. Like Paranormal Hollywood Haunting, it focuses on the human story first.

Whatever genre I work in next, the philosophy remains the same. I want audiences to leave questioning what they have seen, thinking about the people they have met and feeling they have experienced something authentic rather than manufactured.

Thanks for the interview!

© by Mike Haberfelner

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