Filmsquatch - "World War Bigfoot" (2026)

In this episode, we sit down with filmmaker Jason Mills to talk about his new Bigfoot feature film, World War Bigfoot. Set during World War II, this action-packed cryptid thriller follows a terrifying Bigfoot encounter that sends both sides on a deadly secret mission filled with thrills, suspense, and carnage.

The film releases May 19, so don’t miss it!

#WorldWarBigfoot #JasonMills #BigfootMovie #CryptidCinema #IndieFilm #WWII #Filmsquatch #Bigfoot #MonsterMovie #IndieHorror #CreatureFeature #Podcast #FilmPodcast #SupportIndieFilm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome to Film Squad. What two guides from the film squat? What can we do movies about this? That's a little takes a look at a single film about a stat or a yeti. And the guys break it down for you. Patrick and Kendall work believes. But they're too old, too fast, and too lazy to get up off their sofas and go hunt for a Sasquatch themselves. So they just sit back and watch movies about it. Now, let's head over to the Film Squatch screening room, where Patrick and Kendall are ready to discuss their latest film.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Hey ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Film Squatch with me, Kendall Fontno, and my tried and true co-host Patrick Bennett. How are you doing tonight, Patrick? Doing good, Kendall. Doing good, man. Tonight we have a surprise for folks. We have the writer, director, editor, pretty much everything except the actor of World War Bigfoot. That's Jason Mills. And a World War Bigfoot will be released on May 19th of this month, 2020, in 2026. And uh we're gonna take a look at the trailer, Patrick, and then we'll hop right into our interview with Jason. This is gonna be a fun episode.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Jason, how's it going, man?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Doing good. How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Good, man. It's good. We're glad to have you back on here. We talked to you, I think, last year.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah, just before we were shooting, like a couple of days before we were shooting.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah. Well, well, first of all, I want to congratulate you on the new Bigfoot film. It's finally in the can. Now you can kind of breathe and relax a little bit, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah. It released is May 19th, so it's coming pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

So so how does it feel? Didn't expect it that fast. Um, it's actually very enjoyable to make. It was probably one of the most like I guess the people I was working with as well just made it fun to make. And it was just like, you know, when you're just in something and it then it ends, it's kind of sad of it a little bit. So I want to keep going. But there's always new movies.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Can you give us a quick uh synopsis of the film?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Um, well, Bigfoot obviously is in the World War II era and this uh movie, and um it's um uh right here is the medic helmet. So it's the the American medic um and a team going into a secret mission, which is obviously Bigfoot related in the title. And uh they become attacked by Germans because they're onto the same kind of mission, so it's kind of like a secret battle, and um basically the war, the war goes on, and the Bigfoot is on sides with humanity, so he doesn't want to kill anybody, he just doesn't want to kill. So it's kind of but he he has to. So there's so I don't want to give anything away, but he's it's one of those movies, it's just all the way through intense stuff happening all the time, and yeah, it's fun times, a fun time.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

It's a very dramatic film, it's got a lot of action too, but it's real dramatic, and um, it's carried to me at least by your medic.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

He does he carries the story. I thought he did a great job.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

It's basically about his life and how he created his his life afterwards. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

What would you say was the uh hardest part about making the film?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Just getting everything finalized was the hardest part. Shooting was so fun and just such a breeze. It just everything fell together. The location we were in helped out a lot. It was just it's the obviously at the end of it all is it's getting the hard stuff where you're on a time limit. But other than that, like we it it was a really fun, I wouldn't say easy, but it was one of my easier films that I've made just because of the people that I had on set with me. Like they just made it easy for me, which is nice.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Now, this this feature was effects heavy. You had a lot of special effects in this. Um was it a blend of CGI and practical effects? There, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

So we have obviously the the uh this is one of the hands of the Bigfoot. Um, so we had a Bigfoot suit and everything, but the mask, we have a good mask, but the mouth is weird on it. So we added some just like change it up, CGI helping it out and stuff like that. And the truck is actually a miniature truck that we used, but it with CGI enhancements, which is pretty cool. So it really like helped out the picture, and it's a lot easier to do these days. You it can you get a lot of uh tools that you can use to help you out with that as well. But yeah, you're still gonna know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Yeah, yeah, it it was uh the the uh the soldiers looked authentic. I mean, yeah, you know, a lot of especially in a lot of independent films, you get you use what you have available. Exactly. Your your soldiers, they they looked like they actually were in the military, yeah. And uh I thought they they looked great, they did a great job acting wise. I really like Dieter. I'm not gonna say anything more about Dieter, but yeah, Dieter. Dieter's my favorite. Dieter's a good guy.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

It's a cool scene Adieter. Some cool scenes with Dieter, yeah. Yep. They were fun to shoot, too. So emotions there.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah. So let me ask you out what aspect of the whole filmmaking journey do you like the the best? You know, what what's the the most fun you have?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

The obviously filming, like the camera work I love doing. That's something that's my one of my strengths, I would say, and the editing. Actually, creating the film. Like, I don't really call myself a director, uh cinematographer. I call myself a filmmaker. I make the film, basically. So I do a hell of a lot of the work, but that's how I work. It just works with me like that. And I've learned as I've gone through the years, I have about 18 feature films, 19 or something like that. But um, I've learned on each one what I need and what I can do myself. Obviously, to save money. If you have millions of dollars or whatever, it's a different story. But you know, when you're doing it for a budget, you you gotta you gotta do it for a budget. So finding doing as much as you can yourself is probably the easiest way. Like the 5.1 surround mix I do myself. I do all the like even sound on the set now. I'm doing myself because I've just learned as I've gone what to do and like where I can speed and go fast because we shoot pretty quick. We're pretty far, like, you know, I do about five-hour days, tops. One of these days was really long in this movie just because of the set that we're on, but it was uh probably shot in like five five days, six days maybe. And a half days.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Did the movie turn out the way you envisioned it?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Um my so I had this this um before COVID, I had this idea, and then COVID happened, so I had to do some other movies just because it was a little bit bigger than I could do at that time. But it was supposed to be in the snow. The original idea was a snow movie, and um I didn't, you know, it's cold in the snow. And it was nice where we were, so but other than that, it was pretty pretty cool how I wanted it, yeah. Great, pretty close.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I'll tell you uh the cinematography was uh was pretty good. I I love the footage. Um, you know, in the woods with the large tree trunks, and they were covered with like moss and stuff, thick moss. It was gorgeous. So, where did you where did you film that at?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

We actually filmed that in uh Vancouver. Close to Vancouver, there's uh it's called Watershed Park. Some of those scenes. So some of those scenes were in Watershed Park, and then some was Chilliwack at a location in pretty much middle of nowhere. It was beautiful. We had a whole farm. That's why there's some cows in the movie you see and stuff like that, which are really cool, like in the location that we're in. So we got to beautiful place, Vancouver and Canada and stuff. It's quite a nice place to shoot some wood stuff.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

So, did you have access to actual military? No, the poster or or like there was a scene, you know, where there is a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

No, no, that's all that's all uh oh no, that's so that was created in just a studio with projector. And I just built the back of the truck and then just had the scene go on through the just projector, and it worked out really well, which is really cool. That's a very like useful way of uh with no one getting injured or anything like that, but it's all basically controlled, no worries. I think Kendall was a huge thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Your awesome poster. Go ahead, Kendall.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Yeah, yeah. The poster, I don't know why, but I'm looking at it right now. This one, yeah. I mean, it it reminds me of I I don't know, I don't know if y'all had it up in Canada, but uh TV Guide used to have these blurbs with images in them, and this reminds me with the claw going down, yeah, and three of your primary characters in there. That's what it reminded me of. I mean, what was who who created the poster number one? And then what was inspiration?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah, vision film uh vision films are the one that's uh distributing it. They created the poster, and um, I'm not sure exactly what their inspiration was, but they hit it right off the mark.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

It's it's an awesome poster. Uh it is a beautiful poster.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, they do a great job with the posters. Like it's easy working with good actors, like they they get it, they understand. So it's it's just it was fun watching it and just I let them um kind of express itself through it so they can kind of if it if it goes if it's good, great, take it down a little bit, you know what I mean? Whatever it was, but it seemed to guess it worked, it was easy like with the people you work with, it makes it easier, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:03

So uh you want to talk a little bit about your your makeup department?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Um yeah, it was awesome. Um she did a really good job on the dead bodies and stuff like that. And then I had uh one of the suits was made by a guy in um in LA, uh which was really cool. Did a good job on the so the dead, the dead one, all that suit, that was all real suit and everything. Like it was really cool. Um it has kind of like the mush-up suit, which was really cool, and just fun with the dead body, you know, like certain characters, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Right. Ah, okay, and and uh the the creature, the uh the live one. Yeah, it seemed to be inspired by uh by gorillas.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Um yeah, it kind of had a monkey feel. It has a monkey feel to it, because I I I feel that there are some some part monkey, you know what I mean? There's something ape in them. Animal, I feel. But you know, as that was my take on it in this movie, and yeah, I kind of wanted something just beasty in a way, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Yeah, I I like I'm not gonna say what it was because I don't want to give it away, but uh movement of this creature, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Kind of like certain, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

I don't want to say what, yeah, I like those movements.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

He had a really cool, yeah, and it's a really cool moment with the soldier in the war of battle, you know. Like that was really cool. That was really fun to do that one.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Yeah, now did you I I know you said you worked with miniatures. The uh the truck, did you build that yourself or did it?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

No, so it was uh it was a remote control army truck, and when it was going, it it looked kind of real, but then when you put these layers on it, it creates kind of uh a realism to it, which is amazing, and it just helps it out so much. And um, it was my first time kind of using that technology, so it was really cool. Like, but all the initial work is um it just just amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

It all looked very fluid, yeah. I mean, the the entire film just worked as you transition between different different uh technologies, I guess you'd say. Yeah, real fast. I thought I did a really good job on that.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah, thank you, thank you, Patrick. So we have a like really small crew, right? There's a lot of small crew to make this movie. But I don't think you probably never think a movie like this could be done with such small crew, but it was very tight and amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

I don't because a lot of term is rerogatory, it's a very slick production. Slick, yeah. It's it looks uh, you don't hear the word slick when it's mentioned in Indy, you think, oh, it's Hollywood. But no, this this looked very good, uh, just overall cinematography, everything. It looked really good.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Patrick, you got anything to add?

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, I like the way you started the story in like modern times with the man telling the story to his grandkids and then jumping to the World War II part. Yeah, kind of reminded me of uh Superman the movie that started with the comic book being read and then it went into the movie. I I like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, totally. Yeah, it's fun I I let my kids and my kids, two kids. They did a really good job. And Darren actually, the um the grandpa, he's I've actually worked with him quite a bit, quite a bit as well. So he's in a bunch of my Bigfoot stuff. He loves the Bigfoot stuff as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

And how about your music? Um Thomas Beckman. Is that done in-house?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, Thomas Beckman creates all the music, great job in this movie. He's just he's done about nine of my movies now, and he's just getting better and better and better as he goes. It's just rocking, which is awesome to have him do that. He knows the cues to hit, it's just right. Yeah, really cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Now, um, you you did say it was gonna be released on May 19th.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

May 19th, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

And where will it be available?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

VOD. I know that um DVD and all that you can get on Amazon Pro Amazon and stuff like that. And there is, I I have a list, I haven't got that list yet, but there's uh direct TV, all on rentals on TV, cable and all that stuff on all of them. They're ready to go. And then um I think a few months after that, or weeks, it does a worldwide thing. So it's out in Canada and US first, if I'm correct, something like that. Yeah. So it is coming and it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait. It's gonna be sweet. I wanted to do a premiere coming up, but it was too short notice when they gave me the date, and I was like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. So because it's everything's booked. So I'm gonna do uh probably a reef for the for the rest of the which will be cool. Okay. Coming up.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Now, uh your shirt on. Is there anywhere folks interested can get a shirt like that? Yeah, you can see the post like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah, so on my I have a store which I just trying to find the link to it because it got for some reason it got taken off of my YouTube channel. So I have to reset that on that because you can usually buy them right off my YouTube. Um so I will I can send you the link to that, and then you can post the link because uh they are available, they're pretty cool, and there's only gonna be a certain amount made, and they just have our logo on here. So a really cool treaty share tweet.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Well, Patrick, you got anything else you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Yeah, I just want to say I enjoyed watching it. It was it was different than the normal uh Bigfoot movie since it was set in World War II. I I thought it was unique, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

It's very different, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

You didn't see it every day.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

And it was a lot of fun, and it was believable, you know what I mean? It's it's like it could it could have happened. You never know.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Yeah. Well, and you know, in uh in the real world, they had the uh rock ape incident. I think it was during Vietnam. There were some soldiers that were attacked by these ape-like creatures that had rocks and stuff thrown at them. Yeah, that's that's a documented thing. Uh no one knows for sure what the the rock apes were.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

That would have been a there you go. It's a rock ape. Rock ape world war rock ape. That'd be cool, dude. But yeah, I'll probably be uh doing more Bigfoot stuff. Like I got some cool ideas coming up. Awesome. So I gotta actually we're over uh Bigfoot Country 2 is releasing soon as well. So which is gonna be cool. It's an edited version version of it, which is cool. Longer ending. They're really fun to make those movies. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

But uh I I really enjoyed this film. Uh uh you had a story, it wasn't just Bigfoot killing people to kill people. Exactly, it's nice actual story, and uh I'm not even saying it was Bigfoot killing people. Yeah, who's your favorite character?

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Who's your favorite character?

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Mine? Yeah, mine uh it well, the medic is probably my favorite but carries it, but uh but yeah, but I've got a soft spot for Dieter. I mean, yeah, he was played by uh was it Grant Gladys?

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Grant Glanitch, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

Yeah, he did a great job as Dr. Um did a good job, yeah. But I guess if if if that's all we've got to say about it, we've come to the point in the program, Jason, where I'm gonna ask you to rate your own film. And on this on Film Squatch, we rate our our films on a scale of one to ten Bigfoot tracks, with one being the worst Bigfoot film ever made, and ten being the best, which in my opinion is the legend of Boggy Creek. So, on a scale of one to ten Bigfoot tracks, give us your rating of your own film. There's no wrong answer.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

I would say seven. Seven? Yeah, I I really I like it. I like it myself, and it's like I I can't give myself uh, you know, I'm never competing in movies, I just tell stories. That's what I do. I like tell stories. I'm not trying to make the best, make this, make that. I'm just trying to make a movie that you guys want to watch and you enjoy. So five to seven is good for me. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Like, yeah, all right. Patrick, would you like to rate it next, or you want me to go? Go ahead, Kendall. You want me to go? All right. Well, I like the cinematography. Uh I love the acting. Um it was cute, like I already said, it's character-driven. Um, I really like the the creatures. And uh I thought I I hate to use this word again because I thought it's just it's slick. It's really it's a really slick production. It looks good, sounds good, very well acted. I'm actually gonna go a little higher than you. I'm giving uh World War Bigfoot an eight. Wow, and that's that's what I had on on my my notes before I logged in tonight. You were getting an eight. I I really like this movie. Thank you, appreciate it. So that's yeah, you you get an eight from Kendall. Patrick, what you got?

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Man, I I'm right there on the fence with uh six and a half to seven. I thought it was a good movie. Uh, like I said, it's very unique, it's set during World War II. I mean, I don't think I've seen another Bigfoot movie like that, which uh that kind of me in. So I had a lot of fun with that, you know. It was uh, but yeah, I mean, you know, the five is like an average film right on the fence, but this one's higher than that. It's a good movie, and uh, I'll tell everybody to go watch it, you know. I think you'll enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Awesome. I appreciate that, man. Appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Very cool. And uh that about wraps it up, folks. Uh Jason, thank you for being with us.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Is there anything else you'd like to say before we sign off with you?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Um enjoy the movie. And uh thank you for thank you. Thank you for everything. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

All right. Well, thank you, Jason. We'll definitely get you back on here for your next movie. Good talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Awesome. Thank you.

unknown 22:33

All right.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Well, ladies and gentlemen, uh, we want to thank Jason Mills uh with World War Bigfoot coming on talking to us tonight. Had a great talk with him. This is our second time having him on the show, and we really enjoy having him. He's a real treat to have. And uh be sure to get out there. Uh, as he said, on May 19th it will be released, and uh, it will also be available with physical copies over on Amazon. So be sure to pick up a copy and uh follow, follow him on social media, and sooner or later those shirts will be up. And I gotta get my hands on one of those shirts, Patrick. I don't know about you.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Thanks for listening to another episode of Film Squatch. If you like the podcast, please leave us a five-star review and tell your friends about it. Make sure to like us on Facebook and join in on some of our interactive discussions. Remember, Bigfoot is out there. Watch your back.