Crewdson's photographs usually take place in small-town America, but are dramatic and cinematic. They feature often disturbing, surreal events. His photographs are elaborately staged and lit using crews familiar with motion picture production and lighting large scenes using motion picture film equipment and techniques. He has cited the films "Vertigo", "The Night of the Hunter", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Blue Velvet", and "Safe" as having influenced his style, as well as the painter Edward Hopper and photographer Diane Arbus.