SHAWN: A gun-toting Hall Monitor scours the halls of Rocky Mountain High School to track down a killer who is murdering the football team one player at a time.
KEVIN: What Shawn said, and it's a comedy.

2. What was the inspiration for "The Hall Monitor?"

SHAWN: The Hall Monitor came from a lot of different places. Disgust for Hollywood movies. Disgust for independent movies. As filmmakers, we didn't really feel like we belonged. That's where the inspiration for a movie that lampooned both came from. Kevin had actually written a different script called The Hall Monitor, because he thought it would be cheap and easy to shoot in High Schools. So we kept most of the characters, and wrote a completely new story with the idea that The Hall Monitor would carry a gun and the football team would be murdered. In retrospect, I guess we were a bit misguided: It's neither cheap nor easy to shoot in High Schools.
KEVIN: We wanted to kick start our movie-making careers and since no major studios were breaking down our doors we decided to go ahead and make a film on our own. We went to college in a rural area and had connections and resources there, so it made sense to me to write a film that could be easily produced in that environment. I learned, however, that no film is easily produced.

3. Despite being made before the event, I'm sure that the school shooting at Columbine High School has affected your film in some way. Can you go into detail on that?

SHAWN: It's impossible to watch the film without being reminded of Columbine. Even though they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, our film will always be linked to that tragedy... there are too many similarities. It's unfortunate. I think people may dismiss it as tasteless exploitation. I'd rather it be dismissed on its own merit.
KEVIN: There are times when I think it's had a big affect, albeit posthumously, on the film and it's story; and then there are times when I think the film's tone, it's bizarre characters and surreal landscape totally set it apart from reality.

4. Were you Troma fans before they picked up your film?

SHAWN: No... and the verdict is still out on whether we're Troma fans after they picked up our film. In all seriousness, we're not B-movie fans, per se. And we didn't set out to make a B-movie. We wanted to make the biggest movie possible for no money. It plays as exploitation now... that was never the idea.
KEVIN: I had seen several Troma movies but wouldn’t consider myself a fan. Like Shawn mentioned, The Hall Monitor was never meant to be a B-movie. It that's what we were going for there would be a lot more blood and a lot more nudity, trust me.

5. Was the administration of the school you shot the film in angry over its subject matter?

SHAWN: No. They thought we were shooting a nice High School Comedy. I actually wrote a different version of the script where the football team was kidnapped, though nobody ever asked to see it. The way I remember it, as long as we paid the janitors for their time, nobody got angry. They should really be more careful about who they let in their building.

6. What extras are lined up for the upcoming DVD release?

KEVIN: We delivered a commentary track which has Dan Frome, Shawn (the writer), and myself along with Mike Gehman (the DP). Also included should be a 10 minute behind the scenes documentary on the making of the film, deleted scenes, a trailer, production stills, and storyboards.

7. What reaction are you expecting to get from The Hall Monitor?

SHAWN: It's been on the shelf for so long that it's hard to expect any reaction. I hope people hear about it and give it a chance. I think filmmakers will respect it at least from a technical standpoint. But really, any reaction would be wonderful. We worked very hard to make it and waited a long time for it to come out.
KEVIN: I expect that people who give the film a chance will enjoy it a lot. It has such a strange and wonderful energy to it. I laughed a hell of a lot making it. I'm still laughing at it.

8. Anything else you'd like to say?

KEVIN: The Hall Monitor will be released on September 16th by Troma Team video on DVD. Do yourself and the people you love a favor & buy it!

More information on The Hall Monitor can be found at thehallmonitor.com.