The unscripted investigative documentary, The Haunting Lodge, is currently available to watch On Demand. Taking place at a hunting lodge in Georgia, the film follows two filmmakers and their team as they look into the paranormal occurrences reported by the owner. However, the investigation takes an unexplained turn, prompting Vera and Kendall to seek insight from psychic medium Jill Morris who attempts to connect with the lodge’s supernatural entity.
Husband and wife duo, Kendall and Vera Whelpton, serve as the directors and executive producers of The Haunting Lodge. In addition to their other roles, Kendall is also the documentary’s cinematographer, while Vera acts as the editor. They are previously known for their work on projects such as The House in Between, The House in Between 2, and The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home.
Screen Rant interviewed Vera and Kendall Whelpton about the challenges of capturing authentic paranormal activity on camera and the decision to stay on location despite their unnerving experiences.
Kendall & Vera Whelpton Talk The Haunting Lodge
Screen Rant: What originally sparked both of your interests in the paranormal?
Vera Whelpton: It’s probably been since childhood. We have that in common. We both grew up listening to ghost stories from our family members. Both of my parents claimed to have lived in haunted houses, so we heard the stories during family gatherings. I always wondered if they’re telling the truth, or they’re just telling ghost stories to scare the kids. I just loved them. They’re part of my childhood and growing up. They swear to me that they were true.
That’s part of how it all started. Later, as an adult, I had my own personal experience. It changed my world, and it happened after my dad passed away. That’s when I really started researching for real. I needed to find out more. I needed to find out answers. Are other people experiencing the same things? That led me to apply to Ghost Hunters Academy, which is a TV show spin-off of Ghost Hunters where Kendall was working. That’s how we met.
Kendall Whelpton: For me, it was my family as well. They told ghost stories at family functions. My grandmother was super into the paranormal. Growing up, it wasn’t really a big deal to talk about it. It just piqued my interest. I graduated high school and moved out to Colorado in the mountains. I lived in this multiple unit apartment, and I started having these strange experiences the first night I was there. After doing some research and talking to some people around town, they said that that was the old hospital. So I actually lived there for a couple of years and just experienced stuff on a nightly basis. That really got me into it right away.
How did Dan know to call you for this investigation? Did you know each other beforehand or have a mutual connection?
Kendall Whelpton: Our very nice friend, we call him JD, but his name is John—he actually found Dan’s property in a very particular way. He was actually trespassing one day on Dan’s land.
Vera Whelpton: He was doing a photoshoot in Georgia, and he heard about this ghost town, and he wanted to go take photographs. He ended up finding this really cool abandoned home, and he wanted to take pictures of it, so he went in.
Kendall Whelpton: Well, someone saw him go in there, and they called Dan, the property owner, and Dan drove out there. Dan’s known to carry a side arm because there are hogs and stuff on it. He’s got a huge property. John was very brave trespassing. Dan’s like, “What are you doing in my property?” and John’s like, “I’m looking for ghosts, sir. I’m just taking photos, and I’m looking for ghosts.” Dan was like, “If you’re looking for ghosts, you’re in the wrong place. You should follow me.” So he took him to the lodge, and that was it. John found the place, and he called us.
When you both stepped into the lodge for the first time, what were your initial thoughts or feelings?
Vera Whelpton: We try not to go by feeling a lot. We tried to stay very focused on just capturing the evidence and capturing the claims of the people who experienced the haunting. He likes to debunk, I’m more like, “It’s possible.” We kind of balance each other out that way. When we first walked in, I thought it was amazing. It was a little shocking, because you see all the deer heads on the wall, and it’s a little overwhelming. But I didn’t feel anything scary or anything. We’re just so focused on the work. We immediately started setting up cameras, and then [Kendall is] probably used to looking at lighting. It’s more like production before we go into paranormal investigating.
Kendall Whelpton: How are we going to shoot this? How are we going to make this? How is this going to look at night? There are so many other things. But we’re also considering the claims. Dan told us all the stories on the phone before we got there, so we’re able to walk around with him. Everything you see in the movie—we’re shooting it as it’s happening. It’s rough and raw, but we really think that there’s an element to that kind of filmmaking and storytelling that hasn’t really been done in some of these programs.
Were you able to capture almost everything that you experienced? Or were there moments that, for whatever reason, weren’t caught on audio or video?
Kendall Whelpton: Oh yeah, there were a bunch of those moments. When we do these, if we don’t have it solid on audio or video, it kills like everything. So we get rid of a lot of stuff.
Vera Whelpton: Sadly. We have a lot of personal experiences where everybody could have seen something. If it pertains to the story, we’ll leave it, but if it doesn’t, it has to go.
Are there times when you’re genuinely spooked by the things that are happening and consider leaving?
Vera Whelpton: He made me take that out! He made me take that scene out. I wanted to leave it because it was real, but he didn’t want to look like the bad guy. I was literally begging him, and saying, “I don’t care. We’re leaving,” and he was arguing with me. He’s very desensitized to it because he’s been doing this for way longer than me. He’s gone into abandoned buildings for Ghost Hunters. He’ll be on the camera doing B-roll. He’ll go into the buildings by himself and film things for the TV show.
He can block it out where most people would be running out of there. You saw the experience that I had that one night, and I was one-hundred percent sure that it was him and it wasn’t him. I was getting touched everywhere. I was just like, “This is not cool. I’m willing to come back and investigate, but I’m not sleeping another night in this house.” And he wouldn’t give it to me. He was like, “No, I’m going to hit a deer. It’s too late. There are no hotels nearby. We’d have to drive two hours.” I think I just got to the point where I finally passed out on the couch.
Do you think there’s a reason to fear these presences? Or are they peaceful in your experience?
Vera Whelpton: For this case, in particular, it was just there. It didn’t feel evil if that’s what you mean. It didn’t feel like it was there to harm anything. It was really an anomaly that was just kind of there.
Kendall Whelpton: We were the first ones in there to do the investigation. The first thing I say when I go into a place is, like, “Hey, we’re here to tell your story.” If there is something on the other side, they know I’m here, and maybe they’re trying to get our attention or something. It’s all theory, but the evidence that we’ve captured there is pretty fascinating. It shows that there’s something there on multiple levels, I think.
How long did it take you to edit this? I’m thinking about all the days of straight footage that you had to go through.
Vera Whelpton: This one took me about six months.
Kendall Whelpton: Yeah, I think six months and then all the trailers and stuff.
You mention that documenting authentic paranormal activity is rare and difficult, but hopefully, advancements in technology will help. If that ever does happen, how do you think it would change the way society views the paranormal?
Kendall Whelpton: That’s a very good question. I think that there are multiple levels to that answer. The first thing that I’ve realized from doing this for a very long time is that people generally stay skeptical until they have an experience, and I’m one of them. Once you cross that threshold of being a skeptic, you have to have that personal experience, and you have to be able to not have any other way to define your experience. It has to be that one answer. I think science has a far way to go. You’re going to have to really have something solid for people to believe.
Vera Whelpton: Even then, I mean, think about it. Now with AI and everything, people have reason to doubt it because everything can be faked. YouTubers have all of these paranormal shows for entertainment purposes where they can clearly spook people and give them a good time, and it’s all fake. It’s all trickery. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s just for entertainment purposes. The problem is when the audience believes that or the audience thinks that we’re doing the same.
Kendall Whelpton: There are a lot of variables going against that answer because for someone to believe, you have to get through a lot of that stuff.
Do you have plans to visit any other haunted places?
Vera Whelpton: We have a list of locations, and, thankfully, we have been invited to a few already. We have to do a little bit of pre-production on that.
Kendall Whelpton: This experience that we had at the lodge has kind of shifted our whole lives, really. We’re still researching what happened there. I know, for both of us, we don’t feel complete at all after the documentary. It opened up more questions. I really feel like we are going to do more research on some of the stuff that we captured there and talk to more people who might have experienced it and might know more about it. There’s more stuff in just what we captured at the lodge to kind of go and put more forward.
About The Haunting Lodge
In this unscripted investigative documentary, American filmmakers Kendall and Vera are asked to film a remote hunting lodge in Georgia that has been experiencing paranormal activity for over a decade. Dan, the desperate lodge owner, is searching for answers, as the hauntings are scaring hunters away and could ruin his business.
Kendall and Vera move into the lodge to begin their investigation. Vera is the first to experience the hunter’s claims, but soon they both experience terrifying events, including being touched while they sleep. They call upon psychic medium Jill Morris to help them solve the case, and she reveals that the haunting is the work of an intelligent entity. The lodge’s dark secrets are revealed as the paranormal activity escalates at the never-before-investigated location, and the couple find themselves in over their heads when they finally capture evidence of something otherworldly.
