Horror is one of the richest genres to explore tension, mood, and emotion. For cinematographers, it’s a playground for visual experimentation: From the shadowy monster movies of the 1930s to the neon nightmares of modern indie horror, the genre offers endless opportunity to push style and technique.
For emerging cinematographers, understanding how the “X” trilogy, “I Saw the TV Glow,” and “Midsommar” adapted lighting, lenses, formats, and color science to evoke fear and beauty is essential. These DPs didn’t just point and shoot; they designed entire emotional systems.
Eliot Rocket and the ‘X’ Trilogy — 3 Worlds, One Series
Eliot Rockett, frequent collaborator of director Ti West, approached the “X” trilogy as three discrete visual challenges. For “X,” the goal was to evoke the texture of ‘70s grindhouse horror. They shot digitally, but Rockett leaned on era-accurate lighting fixtures to sell the illusion. He found the method frustrating. “Some of it was really funky,” Rockett told IndieWire’s Chris O’ Falt in 2024. “And I was like, ‘No more.’”
With “Pearl,” Rockett knew when to honor the past — and when to innovate. The film was an homage to Technicolor musicals, but Rockett pivoted to modern LEDs, high-key lighting, and remote dimming rigs that made his workflow more efficient while preserving period style.
For the ‘80s-set finale “Maxxxine,” Rockett used modern fixtures but also called on veteran gaffer Ross Dunkerley, whose credits stretch back to “Leprechaun 2.” Said Rockett, “Ross is old school, and he really understands the way things classically have been lit.”
Cinematographers like Rockett also know how to make a post-production tool like the LUT (aka Lookup Table, a preset file for editing) part of his shooting palette. Working with colorist Tom Poole, they crafted a custom in-camera LUT, which let them simulate the halation, grain, and contrast curve of 35mm from 1985. “If you’re not working with a LUT on set that gives you 80–90 percent of your look, you’re not seeing the full picture,” Rockett said.
Eric Yue and ‘I Saw the TV Glow’: Embracing Darkness and Color
Eric Yue’s work on Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” is a masterclass in building mood through minimalist lighting and film texture. Yue anchored the look in low-light sources like fish tanks and CRT screens — soft, glowing elements that pulled viewers into the protagonist’s headspace.
But it wasn’t just about mood; he built a technical workflow around that feeling. Yue believed digital couldn’t hold the saturated, emotional hues the story demanded and he fought to shoot on film, even sacrificing shooting days to make it happen.
“Film has such fidelity of color,” Yue told O’Falt in a 2024 interview. “You can’t push digital that hard without it feeling artificial.”
Though most of the film was shot on master prime lenses, to shoot the final sequence Yue switched to Tribe7 lenses for their intense flares, dialed the shutter angle way down, and strobed the lighting for a visceral, anxious effect. “I wanted to assign panic to a lens,” he said
Pawel Pogorzelski and ‘Midsommar’: Brightness Can Be Scary Too
Pawel Pogorzelski’s shift from the claustrophobic shadows of “Hereditary” to the sun-drenched fields of “Midsommar” showcased a cinematography fundamental. Natural light is not the easy way out; it’s the ultimate test of control.
To shoot a horror movie in near-constant daylight, Pogorzelski tested multiple systems before choosing Panavision’s DXL2, which gave him rich color and graceful handling of overexposure. For lenses that could handle light pouring in, Pogorzelski’s Panavision lens tech introduced him to Artiste. The series of large-format lenses gently lifted shadows and bloomed highlights for a fairytale-like glow.
Rather than rely on massive HMIs, Pogorzelski used 20×20 overhead frames to shape light with bounce and neg fill, only bringing in 18Ks for close-ups when clouds interrupted continuity. Like Rockett, he built a LUT to simulate Technicolor three-strip aesthetics. His cinematography affected the entire production design; that LUT, which he designed with a technician at Harbor Picture Company, even informed the art department’s color decisions.
“It’s very important to do this work with a colorist before when you’re being that edgy and living in fear,” he told O’Falt in 2019. “You need that safety line. You know that, ‘Okay, we can have this covered in post.’”
