--- name: "Aaron Morton" canonical: "https://film.one/person/aaron-morton" fi1m_id: "aaron-morton" imdb_id: "nm1195670" tmdb_id: 1155982 wikidata_id: "Q20987509" roles: ["Cinematographer","Director"] born: "19 September 1972" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-22T02:07:59.111731+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Aaron Morton ## Identity Aaron Morton - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/aaron-morton - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** aaron-morton - **IMDb ID:** nm1195670 - **TMDB ID:** 1155982 - **Wikidata ID:** Q20987509 - **Same entity:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20987509, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1195670/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1155982 Cinematographer and director. Born 19 September 1972 in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand. ## Details - **Work:** Cinematographer, Director - **Born:** 19 September 1972, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand - **Active:** 2011–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 1 directing, 4 crew - **Frequently works with:** [Jane Levy](https://film.one/person/jane-levy.md) - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 78 (2), 2020s 68 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 72 to 71 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Horror 2, Thriller 2, Action 1, Comedy 1, Drama 1, Mystery 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $97m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20987509, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1195670/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1155982 ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Black Mirror*](https://film.one/tv/black-mirror.md) (81), [*War Machine*](https://film.one/film/war-machine.md) (63) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The First Omen*](https://film.one/film/the-first-omen.md) (72) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Aaron Morton > Aaron Morton lights dark so that it is occupied rather than black, and uses colour to tell you where you are before anyone speaks. It is disciplined, unshowy horror photography, and the films around it have often stopped deserving it by the last reel. Aaron Morton's corners are never empty. In *Abigail* (2024) he lights Susie Cullen's mansion in lamplight and brown shadow, so that every panelled hall and spiral stair has somewhere for a small girl to be standing. In *The First Omen* (2024) the city is browns and burnt oranges, grain in the shadows, daylight coming through high windows in slabs, and the film frightened us in its corridors before anything had arrived in them. That is his habit: dark you can see into, and a palette that does the map-reading for you. He came up through the camera department on *Xena: Warrior Princess*, shooting music videos and shorts with the director Jesse Warn, and got his first feature with *Nemesis Game* (2003). Then a decade alternating television and film: the *Spartacus* series, *Evil Dead* (2013) for Fede Alvarez, and *Orphan Black* (2013–2017), where he shot dozens of episodes and directed three. The work since has been larger without changing much in kind: *Black Mirror*, including *Bandersnatch* (2018), *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power* (2022), and the two horror features of 2024. *Whalefall* (2026) is next. *Orphan Black* is the clearest lesson in what he does. With David Frazee and Michael Marshall he shot Sarah's city in grey and underpass orange, Alison's cul-de-sac in bright flat daylight and Cosima's lab in amber, so you knew whose episode you were in before a line was spoken. On a series about Tatiana Maslany playing several people, that is how the show stays followable. He is a classical lighter, meters and waveform monitors even on digital, and he prefers practical blood on the set to blood added later; on *Evil Dead* he shot in story order so the art department could protect the set from the carnage. The reservation is that his pictures keep their promises and the films around them often do not. *The First Omen* repays being looked at, then lies down for its last half hour; *Abigail* is twenty minutes too long and cannot stop explaining its own rules. Neither is Morton's fault, but a man this careful about lamplight and grain keeps spending his craft on scripts that stop earning it. He is also a servant rather than a stylist: you could not pick a Morton frame out of a line-up, and the old-photograph look of *The First Omen* is Arkasha Stevenson's as much as his. *Black Mirror* is the highest score we have given anything he shot, and our review found nothing in the photography to single out. In horror the house matters more than in any other genre, and Morton builds houses you believe could hurt you. Watch *The First Omen* for the slabbed light and *Orphan Black* for the colours. Whether the next director gives him a third act to match is out of his hands. ## Biography Aaron Morton is a New Zealand cinematographer and occasional director working in film and television. He began his career in the late 1990s with music videos and short films, later contributing to series such as *Xena: Warrior Princess* and *Spartacus*. Morton served as director of photography on *Orphan Black* (2013–2017), for which he received multiple Canadian Screen Awards for Best Cinematography, and directed three episodes of the series. His feature credits include *Evil Dead* (2013), *Black Mirror: Bandersnatch* (2018), *No One Will Save You* (2023), *The First Omen* (2024) and *Abigail* (2024). He has also worked on *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power* (2022) and *Sweet Tooth* (2021). *Sources: aaronmorton.com, imdb.com, de.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Directed (1) - *Orphan Black* (2013), Fi1m 74, Cinematography, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/orphan-black.md) ### Crew (4) — the average rests on these - *War Machine* (2026), Fi1m 63, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/war-machine.md) - *Abigail* (2024), Fi1m 70, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/abigail.md) - *The First Omen* (2024), Fi1m 72, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/the-first-omen.md) - *Black Mirror* (2011), Fi1m 81, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/tv/black-mirror.md) ## Complete filmography (22) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Whalefall* (2026), Director of Photography — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/film/whalefall.md) - *War Machine* (2026), Director of Photography — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/war-machine.md) - *Abigail* (2024), Director of Photography — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/abigail.md) - *The First Omen* (2024), Director of Photography — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-first-omen.md) - *No One Will Save You* (2023), Director of Photography - *The Tank* (2023), Director of Photography - *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power* (2022), series, Director of Photography - *Sweet Tooth* (2021), series, Director of Photography - *Spontaneous* (2020), Camera Operator, Director of Photography - *When the Streetlights Go On* (2020), series, Director of Photography - *Black Mirror: Bandersnatch* (2018), Director of Photography - *6 Days* (2017), Director of Photography - *Evil Dead* (2013), Director of Photography - *Orphan Black* (2013), series, Director, Director of Photography — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/orphan-black.md) - *Black Mirror* (2011), series, Director of Photography — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/black-mirror.md) - *Frosty Man and the BMX Kid* (2010), Cinematography - *The Ferryman* (2007), Director of Photography - *Sione's Wedding* (2006), Director of Photography, Cinematography - *Boogeyman* (2005), Second Unit Director of Photography - *Nemesis Game* (2003), Director of Photography - *Little Samurai* (1999), Director of Photography - *Hinekaro Goes on a Picnic and Blows Up Another Obelisk* (1994), as Clapper Loader --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/aaron-morton