The Bluer Look of STRANGER THINGS Season 4 Was Largely Due to a Letter Steven Spielberg Wrote to The Duffer Brothers

Fans of Stranger Things may have noticed that the fourth season of the show was a lot darker than the previous ones, both in theme, as well as in color. Many of the scenes in the season took place at night, in the trailer park, at the lake, and at the old house, as well as in the upside down, and many of the scenes had a bluish tone. This was a sort of throw back to season one, and it was largely to do with a note from Steven Spielberg.

The creators of the series have said in the past that they grew up on Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, and they’ve done a good job of infusing those influences into their hit series Stranger Things. So it must have been pretty awesome to get a positive note from their favorite director after season one, where he complimented their throwback use of blue hue for their nighttime scenes. This was a more common camera practice in the '70s and '80s, and Spielberg used it some in his summertime hit, Jaws.

It was used mostly in “day for night” shots where a filmmaker shoots nighttime scenes during the day and use a particular filter to make it look more authentically like night.

In a 2022 interview in Filmmaker Magazine (via /Film), Stranger Things Season 4 cinematographer Caleb Heymann talked about what he added to Season 4. He said The Duffers explained that it was at the top of their list to go back to that blue-ish nighttime look that they did in the first season, but it was put on the back burner for the seasons thereafter.

The Duffers also studied the way Spielberg is able to capture different kinds of shots in one flawless take. According to Heymann, The Duffers were able to implement this as Stranger Things evolved from season to season. The fourth season was the most cinematic (and the most terrifying), and it has us fans on the edge of our seats to see how the story will wrap up in the fifth and final season.