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 show’s fourth season was much darker than its predecessors, both in theme and color. Many scenes in the season took place at night, in the trailer park, at the lake, and in the old house, as well as upside down, and many scenes had a bluish tone. This was a throwback of sorts to the first season, and it largely had to do with a note of Steven Spielberg.

The creators of the series have said in the past that they grew up on Steven Spielberg and Stephen King and have done a good job of infusing those influences into their hit series Stranger Things. So it must have been really great to receive a positive note from their favorite director after the first season, in which he complimented their past use of the blue tone for night scenes. This was a more common photographic practice in the 70s and 80s, and Spielberg used it in his summer hit, Jaws.

It was mostly used in “day for night” filming where a director shoots night scenes during the day and uses a particular filter to make them look more authentically nocturnal.

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 he was on top of the their list go back to that blue- similar to the nocturnal look they had in the first season, but it was put on the back burner for subsequent seasons.

The Duffers also studied how Spielberg captures different types of shots in one flawless shot. 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 we fans were left with bated breath to see how the story will conclude in the fifth and final season.