In cinema, what you don’t see can often be more unsettling than what you do – and there are few better examples of that theory in action than The Zone Of Interest.
In Alien it’s a technique used by director Ridley Scott to build tension ahead of revealing the xenomorph in all its predatory glory, but in Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film about the day-to-day life of a Nazi officer and his family, there’s something far more sinister lurking in the background.
Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig and their five children seem to have a pretty idyllic existence. They live in a large house with a lake nearby to swim in, plus a spacious garden for Dilla the dog to explore, but down one side of it runs an imposing concrete wall. That’s because the Höss family live next to Auschwitz – the largest of the Nazis’ death camps.
The Zone Of Interest never shows us exactly what’s happening on the other side of that wall, but there are clues. Peeking over the top you can see the buildings used to house the prisoners, armed guards inhabit an all-seeing watchtower, and a chimney periodically belches awful smoke into the sky overhead.
In The Zone Of Interest, though, the horror arguably comes more from what you hear than what you see, which makes it essential to have a sound system that can do justice to the film’s meticulously constructed soundtrack.
Every scene set in and around the Höss residence is underpinned by the monstrous rumble of the camp’s crematorium at the bottom of that chimney. It’s there when Rudolf reads a bedtime story to his daughters; when Hedwig gives a visiting friend a guided tour of the vegetables growing in the garden; and while their young boys play with toy soldiers in the bedroom.
On a TV’s built-in speakers this subtle detail is likely to be lost, but with one of the best soundbars or surround sound systems it becomes a truly disturbing aural accompaniment to the largely mundane events that take place.
As the film goes on you start to tune it out slightly – but that's why it gets slightly louder towards the end. This dreadful sound has become normal to the Höss family to the point that none of them seem to really notice it, and it’s only when the film cuts to a scene away from the direct surroundings of the camp that it becomes conspicuous by its absence.
It’s not just the sound of the crematorium that hints at the evils taking place either. The buzzing sound in the garden comes not from bees busying themselves among the plants, but the strong electric current running through the barbed wire that tops the perimeter wall. The chuffing of a locomotive indicates the arrival of a fresh intake of prisoners, while occasional gunshots tell us that the guards won’t hesitate to use extreme measures to keep order.
There’s no Atmos available on the Prime Video stream, only 5.1 surround sound, but The Zone Of Interest isn’t really about getting effects to whizz around your head. It’s more concerned with authenticity. Some of the sounds are deliberately ambiguous, but they all combine to create a soundtrack that will really test your system’s ability to tell the full horrifying story.
Both the film’s director, Jonathan Glazer, and its sound designer, Johnnie Burn, have spoken of effectively making two films: the one you see and the one you hear. Watch it on a sub-par set-up and you will only get half of the experience. And while that might make it easier to stomach, it doesn’t do justice to the victims of people like Rudolf Höss.
The Zone Of Interest is available for Amazon Prime subscribers to watch for free, but only for the next 10 days, so don’t miss this opportunity to see one of the most impactful and thought-provoking films of the past decade. It's also available to buy in 4K on Apple TV and Rakuten TV, rent in HD on Sky, Curzon, Rakuten TV and Apple TV, or buy on Ultra HD Blu-ray.
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