In the Hurbis-Cherrier lighting reading, the author brings up a point about how lighting can affect how we perceive a character. Indeed, there are many classic examples of how lighting affects perception of a character. Take, for example, the classic western. In general, your bad guy was cast in shadows, and dark colors, while your hero was clothed in white, or brightly lit compared to other things in the scene, generally signalling morality to us. Additionally, horror films, such as the blair witch project, use lighting as a storytelling element for much of the film.
However, this got me wondering: why does lighting have an emotional impact on us as human beings? Why can lighting make us feel a certain way about a character, or reveal some deeper insight into a characters motivations? Is this because of some long forgotten instinct of our lizard brains? Maybe. However, I believe this is due in part to the mystery darkness presents, and the human brains need to categorise and simplify things.