By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Stories about Bigfoot and Sasquatch probably date back to the origins of humanity. Yet there’s always room for a new spin. Great Bend-native and filmmaker Aaron Mull has broached the topic for his new feature-length film, “Squatch,” which will premiere at Golden Belt Cinema 6 in Great Bend on Monday, June 8.
“It was essentially just to make something super light-hearted,” Mull said. “I think Bigfoot, Sasquatch, it’s a pretty harmless topic – universally loved. It’s very silly and weird. I feel like there’s an audience for something like this that’s just a little wacky and fun. I’d just come off a pretty serious project with the Dolly Madison murders. I thought, what better thing to do than to do something light-hearted.”
Mull has long dabbled in video projects, making national news in 2012 while a senior at Great Bend High School. He now lives on the east coast and works for soccer.com, recently traveling to South America for a shoot with one of the world’s biggest stars. In 2023, Mull released “The Dolly Madison Murders,” a true-crime documentary about the unsolved Great Bend 2002 case. For “Squatch,” Mull flew three Great Bend friends out to North Carolina for a much lighter comedy.
“We knew from the beginning we wanted it to be a road-trip movie involving Sasquatch,” Mull said. “From the beginning, there was the idea it would follow these two park rangers relocating Bigfoot from the Smoky Mountains to the Pacific Northwest. Everything else in between that is just shenanigans, just your typical road-trip movie.”
Mull directed the movie, which had several co-writers. The film features Marcus Mull, Lyle Jones, and Aaron Clark, all with heavy Great Bend ties. At six-foot-seven, Clark was a perfect fit to play the famous furry creature, though Mull spent approximately a third of his budget on the Sasquatch costume.
Mull shot most of the movie over an 8-day stretch in North Carolina last May, but there are local scenes. Cardinal Thrift Store in Hoisington is featured in the movie, and other scenes were shot near Great Bend and at one of the state’s novelty attractions in Mitchell County.
“Most of it was shot in North Carolina, but of course, with the main characters being from Kansas, we wanted to also show the transition from the East to the Midwest,” said Mull. “We didn’t actually shoot in the Pacific Northwest – we cheated some of the shots in North Carolina. The budget didn’t quite get us all the way out to Washington state, but I did pay more than I should have to ship the van from North Carolina to Kansas, so that was fun.”
Mull’s documentary was part of a 2-night premiere at the Crest Theater in downtown Great Bend. The premiere of “Squatch” at Golden Belt Cinema 6 will feature an orange-carpet event with cast members from the movie and an 8-foot-tall Sasquatch cutout. Mull said it was important to bring his movie back to Great Bend.
“Even if we wouldn’t have had the other people in the movie, I feel like Great Bend is always a place I want to come back to,” he said. “I have family there. Obviously, with the ties everyone has to Great Bend, we wanted to bring a local premier to Great Bend. There are just so many people in Great Bend who fostered this creative journey I’m on. Dan Heath really pushed me in that direction in theater at a young age. Having people like him and his wife, Kim, and my parents, and Marcus’s parents - all of these people helped with our creative journeys. Of course, we want to have a special night to premiere it.”
“Squatch” will begin playing at 7 p.m. on June 8. Seats are limited and selling fast. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.