"Zoetrope - The Motion Picture" (which is also available as a music-only CD release on Nextera records) is an 18 minutes long DVD in a beautiful gray packaging with embossed lettering that features a film based on Prague-born Franz Kafka's "In the Penal Colony", a writing about an imprisoned man tortured by a sadistic bureaucrat. "Zoetrope" is a kermesse of talented artists and another great example of how an independent film can match up in quality to much bigger and well-financed projects (altough, judging by the crew and the quality, this film was not made on a very tight budget at all). Director and writer Charlie Deaux (who previously directed clips for Mortiis and System of a Down) did an amazing job at capturing the claustrophobic environment of an abandoned, cold, dirty basement where Kafka's character underwent all sorts of (unseen in the movie) tortures, and he did so by choosing to shoot the very effective black and white 35mm 16:9 widescreen kodak film format. All this bonds very well with the amazing photography by James Hawkinson (who's worked on videos for Tool, Aphex Twin, Linkin Park and many other mainstream acts) and with the 3D animation by Student Accademy Award winner Robert Beebe (complemented by Andy Davis', Tim Zegenbein's and Asylum's special effects). The editing of the movie (by Lee Cowan) is also extremely well done and modern, fast-paced and often utilizing blurring effects to convey the sense of time passing (a great way not to make a movie "slow" but still allow the viewer to percieve that a long time is going by in the movie itself). The minimal casting is also well placed: a naked, scared and agonizing Nigel Bonfield and a well-dressed, bureaucratic and psychotic Michael Bradley. Melissa Berry produced the film and definitely chose the right crew. The production of something like "Zoetrope" requires countless hours to put together the right people and make sure everything clicks and she succeeded masterfully. Melissa Berry (co-founder of the Video Association of Dallas and the Dallas Video Festival, and producer of "Say Yes Quickly", "@alien" and award winning "To Seek, To Find"). The movie itself is great. I expected more violence, but was not disappointed to see that instead it portrays mostly mental violence and the psychological unfolding of events and moods. The style itself reminded me mainly of the Saw, the Machinist, maybe (but only in small part) the Blair Witch Project (I personally like this more than the BWP) and another movie I unfortunately don't remember the name of about some people trapped in a castle whose maze is alive with violent and abused ghosts of another time. Last but not least (especially since we at Chain D.L.K. are writing this review), the incredibly murky, sadistic, claustrophobic and nightmarish music and sounds are by Brian Williams, aka Lusmord, who, aside of his successful and prolific solo music career featuring many many releases over the years and basically generating the offspring of what is now called the "dark ambient" genre, believe it or not, has also been able to extend his film scoring and sound-designing talents to the Hollywood industry, landing jobs on such movies as The Negotiator, Underworld, Ghost in the Machine, The Crow, Spawn etc. Talent obviously means something here and you can tell right away! Two thumbs up! Unfortunately the DVD contains no special features whatsoever, which is a pity considering how little of the DVD's available space is used by the short film. The price, however, is honest ($11). After Yahoo and their Yahoo Internet Life Online Film Festival allegedly tried to screw the crew of "Zoetrope", I say we owe it to them to show some true spirited support from the underground scene!