Ah… sweet little child in a bright yellow raincoat…
you KNOW they are in for some terrifying or supernatural adventure by this point!
But… why is that?
After this video, you’ll never look at the color yellow the same way again… or maybe you might!
Maybe this warning is something you’ve always known, deep down somewhere in your subconscious.
More and more media use the bright yellow rain jacket to visually cue the viewer that SOMETHING
of great, terrible import is going to happen to the poor, unfortunate soul who wears it.
George Denborough from IT, Coraline Jones from the “Coraline” movie, SIX from Little Nightmares,
Jonas from “Dark,” Heck, Fran from “Fran Bow” and the fairy story girl from “Resident Evil Village.”
All of these wearers of-the-yellow are at the center (or, in the case of Georgie,
the gruesome start) of something dark and mysterious and dangerous.
And, DARK may be the key to WHY YELLOW is the choicest of colors.
It’s warmth stands out like a beacon against the traditional “dark and stormy night” movie
sets and game backdrops so well that one could think it was developed exclusively for and by
visual media (like paintings, films, videogames, etc). Also, what’s with the paper boats, too?
But before we delve into the mysterious yellow, today’s video is sponsored by Hunt
a Killer - mysteries you can solve on your own, or with detective friends! What better
way to spend a “dark and stormy night” than by puzzling out clues to solve intriguing cases?
I’m currently working on the Cadence Theater case, and I’m loving pouring over all the documents,
looking for details that will point to the weapon… and the killer… of a snuffed out starlet.
Each box comes with everything you need to piece the clues together, and even comes with fun
physical props and “evidence” too! Use the link in the description below and code “ABITFRANK” for
20% off your first box. Some of the proceeds from every box go to the Cold Case Foundation,
an organization that is dedicated to helping real-life cold cases! Again,
that’s huntakiller.com/abitfrank with code “ABITFRANK” for 20% off your first box. Thank you
to Hunt a Killer for sponsoring today’s video! Ok, back into it!
And, before I get super into the Derry Canal with this, I’m going to do a brief
overview of color theory, examine yellow in the natural world, as well as the human-made world,
look at “yellow” in games like “Little Nightmares,” “Resident Evil 8,” and “Fran Bow,”
talk a bit about “Coraline” the netflix show “Dark,” THEN I’ll be doing some quick dives
into “yellow” in Steven King’s monster of a book “IT” (seriously, look at this thing! YES I marked
every mention of “yellow” until my brain broke) THEN we’re looking at the 1990 movie “IT” for
even more occurrences of the accursed yellow to compare them to our “yellow in horror” theories.
And, yes, I did originally write this video covering ALL of the occurrences of yellow in both
the movie and book… but we’d be here for longer than it would take to read the book and watch
all the movies… so… summary it is!) Phew! It’s still a lot! It’ll be fun! Have a balloon! Anyway…
Let’s talk about COLOR THEORY and the way humans subconsciously perceive color. Reds are opposite
greens, Oranges opposite blues, Yellows is opposite of purples. One color stands out against
the other, which recedes into the background. They are complimentary colors.In theory,
yellow “Pops out” at us in a punchy way, while the blue/purple recede into the background as noise,
filler, something to overlook... Something we SHOULDN’T overlook in the horror genre! While
we are distracted by the in-our-face descriptions and depictions of “comforting” YELLOW, like a moth
to flame, or eyes to pinpricks of lighthouse light on the horizon on a stormy night at sea,
or little flashlights in the great sewers of Derry, something is brewing in the recesses
of purples and blacks and blues. It wants us off our guard, distracted by the candle
light and scent of the circus, so that it can envelop and consume us with insidious ease.
Like an angler fish, light ablaze, luring transfixed prey into it’s unseen jaws of death.
Or, if you’re Ethan Winters, yellow guides you to which crates to smash, which trucks
to crawl under, which path to take, and helps in identifying (spoiler) pieces to re-assemble!
Resident Evil: Village has a largely desaturated color palette, so bright spots of yellow accents
are used to guide the player to pickups, interactions, and narrative points. They stand
out from (but still fit into) the natural world of the game, and the player is trained to look for
these yellow clues. This gameplay usage is similar to the traffic and warning signs in public spaces.
Before the gameplay though, is the intro, which I think perfectly shows off the innocence and
frailty of yellow. A small glowing child, in a big, scary dark world, gigantic monsters that
can turn and overpower her at any moment. She is small, and the yellow makes her easily seen...
Another color theory-adjacent… well, theory… is that red guts and brains
and innards and blood show up REALLY well on yellow, because of how bright yellow is.
It’s a visual contrast that’s great for films, games, etc. where gruesome is the way to go!
(This may also be why the lcMcDonald’s branding always made me queasy… BUT ANYWAY! TMI!)
Yellow is very prevalent in the natural world: plants, flowers, insects, animals, sunshine,
etc. Wherever yellow is in masse, yellow shines and darkness recedes. It’s warm. It’s
comforting. Hopeful, even. Yellow is a break from the cold, bitter winter: dandelions and
so many other flowers pop up to signal spring is finally here! It’s a visual spot of interest that
breaks up the monotony and melancholy - if you trust it. Yellow is a harbinger of change - in
the seasons - yellow is the soft transition from a warm summer to an icy winter.It’s the
re-assuring rising sun after a particularly terrible nightmare… or the start of one…
Because of yellow’s presence in nature, it was one of the first pigments used for making pictures,
be they cave paintings or canvass ones! Humans have been using yellow in visual media for a
long time, to denote emotions and warnings from fair joviality, to dubious treachery.
Yellow is a color of “caution” - road signs, warning tags, etc. Things that say “continue
on at your own pace, but Be alert and BE READY.” Things are ABOUT to change from
easy coasting to full stop. Yellow is NOT a color that stops you in your tracks, or
always makes you stop at a traffic light, but it IS a color that makes you AWARE. Makes you
think twice, or second guess at least. It makes you Pay Attention. The things it warns against
MIGHT not affect you… but then again… they might.
So, does yellow make us pay attention, or does it also put us in the shoes of whoever is wearing it…
because what happens to them probably won’t happen to us… but it might…
Things tend to Happen TO the person wearing the yellow raincoat. They don’t affect change with
their actions - they are a pawn or a victim - at least it seems so at first. A yellow raincoat
(is uncomfy to wear) but it protects the wearer against the rain… but NOT against a deluge or
drowning! It’s a pretend safety blanket. A bandage on a broken (or torn-off - rip Georgie!) limb.
Movie Coraline, in her yellow gear, doesn’t seek out the web of the Other Mother - the other mother
MARKS her and makes it possible for her to find her way to the Other World through the doll
(which is also wearing the yellow jacket...and which is also not in the book… BUT a doll IS
in the IT movie adaptation (but not in the IT book!) - is this a nod to “IT?” Jonas in “DARK”
“stumbles” into a plot that he doesn't understand. Things larger than him manipulate his actions and
circumstances… until they dont… until HE makes changes and decisions against fate… or does he?
His yellow raincoat is an iconic, lasting visual in the series. SIX in the videogame
“Little Nightmares” cannot DIRECTLY confront their captors or take them down (at first) - they have
to use the environment to affect changes. They climb, dodge, avoid… until something
shifts! Fran Bow (from the videogame “Fran Bow”), (spoiler warning) who wears a bright yellow dress,
has been manipulated into doing terrible things by a being from another plane. Her interaction with
the video game world is point-and-click, we only know of her previous gruesome acts through the
story. In IT, Yellow Rainslicker George Denborough meets a gruesome end. In Resident Evil 8: Village
(spoiler warning), Baby Rose is read a bedtime story (and essentially IS the little girl in the
story, clothed in the YELLOW dress, etc), and is separated into four pieces, suspended in yellow.
This… ah… separation… happened TO HER. She, as a wee babe, couldn’t really do a thing to stop it.
Yellow feels “too small” in a too large and scary world. You just know it will be gobbled up by it.
And, often appearing where innocent yellow does, the Paper Boat!
Little Georgie is chasing his waxed paper boat in the beginning of the book “IT,” and sometime later
in the movie “IT.” At least 2 paper boats appear in the game “Fran Bow” at points.
The little fairytale girl in the intro to Resident Evil: Village” is sailing on a paper boat for
some part of her journey in the wild sea. “Little Nightmares” takes place in a boat (ah, it’s metal,
but I’m going with a boat theme here!). Paper boats are usually thought to be “child’s toys,”
going along with the “innocence” theme. This plays into the “unaware of the great danger
surrounding the small child victim” sense quite well - a small paper boat on a large,
dark, unforgiving sea… the boat does not stand a chance! Just like our little yellow-wearers…
Paper boats at first are more of a visual cue for “childhood” than danger,
but when paired with cautionary yellow, they represent an overwhelming nativity that is about
to be chewed up. But why yellow, why a paper boat? Some speculate that these two things go
hand-in-hand for different reasons - well, reasons you’d exactly expect give how brightly the color
yellow stands out against dark and stormy nights (and seas!)… fishermen at sea… in boats… fighting
the storms… would often wear brighter rain slickers to be seen in the water if something were
to happen to them or their vessel! Practical. And, oddly, still chilling? Little boats and
yellow coats. A visual that perfectly captures an overwhelming sense of… overwhelming apprehension?
Yellow appears quite a bit in spooky visual media, but of course, many times the stories
and books behind the movies come first, and we get something a bit different, but no less colorful!
Is there something about the color yellow that puts us in mind of impending doom,
so much so that even written descriptions of it put us subconsciously on edge?
Something lodged in our collective psyche? Is it’s warm color tone so at odds with the dark,
scary tone of whatever media we are consuming, that it acts as an early alarm bell? What is
that all about?! So, naturally, we’re talking about books behind creepy movies! Details tend
to get lost in adaptations from book to movie. That’s understandable. But there’s an interesting
detail that both “Coraline” and “It” share are their unexpected yellow glow-ups for the screen!
In Neil Gaiman’s book “Coraline,” it’s rather interesting that Coraline does
NOT have her iconic yellow raincoat like she does in the movie adaptation.
Book Coraline has YELLOW rainboots with a BLUE hooded rainjacket and red scarf.
All her bright primary colors contrast with the written descriptions of the dreary, rainy,
misty world she lives in. Maybe she is written outside of the yellow-jacket trope for a reason,
to put the reader off-guard of coded yellow-only color-hints. Kinda neat that the movie kept most
of her colors, but rearranged them to suit the visual storytelling - blue hair makes Coraline
stand out as “different” as much as her unusual name does, even without the yellow rain jacket. It
does seem as though the movie “Coraline” got more than a few of it’s visual cues (like the Yellow
coat, and even the circus scene with popcorn and candy (which are not in the Coraline book))
from the book “IT,” where some soon-to-be victims can smell the sweet smells and hear
the merry jingling sounds of the circus… before they lose all their senses to the darkness.
It’s also interesting that in the 1990 movie adaptation of King’s “IT,”
Pennywise is in a YELLOW suit. In the book, the clown is wearing a silvery suit with big,
orange buttons.Is this another case of visual media changing character traits to
be more in-line with the visual “yellow - caution! Danger!” language? I have a
theory on this old Pennywise nearer the end of the video, so stay tuned!
But, of course, at the very start of Steven King’s book “IT,” yellow is already making
an unnerving appearance. The unfortunate George Denbourough DOES wear a yellow jacket as he chases
his waxed paper boat along the flooded streets of Derry, Maine. It’s on page one of the book:
“A small boy in a yellow slicker and red galoshes ran cheerfully along beside the newspaper boat.”
Yellow - innocence playing in puddles and rain ways after a miserable flood.
Yellow - a standout color against the gloomy grey of the storm that caused the flooding.
Yellow - a marker that the wearer is about to meet a horrible fate.
The paper boat also helps to give the “innocent, unsuspecting” vibe, and that is used in many
other scary stories from this point on. Only a few pages later (after some backstory)
Georgie has followed his boat to the storm drain where “There were YELLOW eyes in there: the sort
he had always imagined but never actually seen down in the basement.” These YELLOW eyes are a
warning. A piquing of caution… and one of the last things little Georgie sees in this short lifetime.
Yellow, the color of rubber duckies and unsuspecting innocence. Really paints a
picture for the tragedy that happens only a few paragraphs later. “George’s shoulder
socked against the cement of the curb and Dave Gardner, (...) saw only a small
boy in a yellow rainslicker, a small boy who was screaming and writing in the gutter with
muddy water surfing over his face and making his screams sound bubbly.” Yellow. Standing out amid
the mud and the water. Drawing Dave’s (and the readers’) attention to the unspeakable horror
of what is HAPPENING to George. (because things “happen” to the wearer of yellow, of course!)
Less than a page later, George’s little boat is still sailing on, even when poor George
is not. “For awhile it ran neck-and-neck with a dead chicken that floated with its yellowy,
reptilian toes pointed at the dripping ceiling; then, at some junction (...) the chicken was
swept off to the left while George’s boat went straight.” The boat... survives, the chicken with
yellow feet, like Georgie with the yellow coat… does not. The bodies are discarded. Yellow is
gobbled up, whether by It or by the current… yellow doesn't last.
King’s book is NOT visual media - so the color yellow does not stand out against the dreary,
blue/purple flooded background in a literal visual sense, BUT if you’ve a great or decent mind’s eye,
it WOULD in your visual brain. Maybe King knew this book would be adapted for the big screen,
and wrote the yellow jacket with movie visuals in mind, (the Georgie boat scene is almost
exactly as written in the movie) or maybe there’s more to it than that. Most every
occurrence of “Yellow” in this book is followed swiftly by supernatural and spooky happenings.
Another of many examples: as Young Ben is walking home, alone, one freezing winter evening. “And as
sundown came, the last of the day a cold YELLOWY-orange line on the western horizon,
(...) he came to the Canal.” - Yellow makes an appearance, so be warned SOMETHING supernature or
spooky is lurking a few words away, and as sure as the setting yellow sun, something is indeed
lurking - it is here that he sees the clown for the first time… a clown that casts no shadow and
has a decayed, dry face not unlike a mummy. ”We all float down here,” the mummy-clown croaked,
and Ben realized with fresh horror that somehow it had reached the bridge, it was now just below him,
reaching up with a dry and twisted hand from which flaps of skin rustled like pennons, a hand through
which bone like YELLOW ivory showed.” Ah yes, the caution flag of yellow… this time in bones!
Now, here’s where we venture deep into the Hollywood sewers of Derry to test how some of
the more “fun” yellow theories hold up. If you’ve made it this far, have a whole bunch of balloons!
They’ll float you through all these occurrences of “Yellow” in the movie “It.”
Both the book and the movie seem to honor “yellow as danger,” in their respective ways. Nearly
every time Yellow is mentioned in the novel, something dreadful, spooky or supernatural occurs.
It’s a warning. In the movie, this is still mostly the case, and it is extremely well
done! [399, 401, That being said, I think King could be more intentional in his use of color
than the movie could - it’s easier to write a scene without yellow on paper than it is to make
sure there is no unintentional yellow in every scene in a movie that’s over 3 hours. Some movie
yellows are of course intentional (teacup, opening scene/police, georgie scene], and I’ll talk about
some key scenes specifically, but others, like school scenes, etc. seem somewhat more accidental
or incidental. The book is also WAAY more graphically gorey. I know, ironic because a movie
is VISUAL and GRAPHICAL, whereas a book is text on a page… but the 1990 movie is tame comparatively.
One of the biggest ways the movie incorporates the written yellow warnings of King’s novel is
through their yellow-costumed Pennywise the clown. In the book he’s in a silver suit.
There are SO many of these intangible mentions of the “WARNING!” use of yellow in the book (like how
a “yellowy winter sunset” occurred shortly before young Ben sees the yellow-boned hands of the mummy
clown) that I think the movie took and mirrored what it could, but had to costume Pennywise in
yellow to help get that same warnings across for all the stuff they couldn’t capture directly.
Now, both the Book and the Movie open with storms and little, innocent yellow. We’ve covered the
book, but the movie also hits extremely hard with intentional yellow and storm imagery right
away - during the opening credits in fact. We see a yellow house that turns out to be the scene
of the first murder in the movie. The last thing this little girl does is to grab her yellow-haired
doll, which ends up near the sewer grate. As the mother first realizes the girl is missing,
she grabs the YELLOW towel from the line. The yellow police tape at the crime scene stands out
in stark contrast to the gloomy dreary day, as do the yellow rain jackets of some of the officers.
This is an unsettling visual contrast. In this same area, yellow marks the place where georgie’s
old photo appears to Mike Hanlon - a mundane yet supernatural yellow beacon guiding him there.
As Mike is contemplating calling the others back to Derry, behind him in the library,
is a yellow pennant hanging from the ceiling.
Stacked in front of him are many phone books - with a yellow one on top!
Also, for some reason, most of the Loser’s grow up to have the weirdest yellow “ART” in their
palaces when they get Mike’s calls? Ben’s at least seems extremely intentional - what
sort of award-winning, stylish, hip architect decorates with YELLOW CERAMIC CLOWN SHOES? Yikes?
I mean yeah that’s kinda scary though! Definitely gets us used to seeing Pennywise the clown!
Not so sure about Rich’s um art though? I guess it KINDA looks like the yellow werewolf claws he so
fears? When Beverly Marsh’s office first gets the terrible Mike call, a yellow jacket is prominent
on a clothing rack, and the woman sorting these is wearing yellow as well. Warnings - getting us used
to seeing the jarring color of his creepy suit! Nestled among other fashion illustrations are a
few yellow ones. In this scene, Bev, decked out in yellow-gold accessories, is scared and Tom is
an absolute monster of a man, so perhaps yellow is appropriate here. Bill’s phone call yellow
scenery certainly seems intentional - His wife, Audra, is wearing yellow - they have yellow wine,
yellow flowers in two rooms, there’s a yellow post-it, a yellow freaking phone? As he leaves
the house, the car’s yellow license plate stands out against the night. Bill is going into the
maw of the until-now forgotten beast… Eddie’s mom has an interesting? Portrait of a small
child in yellow in the foyer. After Stanly gets Mike’s call and goes to take an oddly-timed bath,
we see some yellow...ah...gumballs? In a sculpture thing? Where are these set pieces coming from?
Also, outside our YELLOW scope, but very much related to our questionable art discussion:
Why does Stan have this ah.. “art?” -]this little cherub thingy with suspended red
feathers and baubles? Is it supposed to look like the house HE encountered “IT” in years ago?
As in the book, Yellow precedes many a spooky occurrence in the movie as hints - warnings!
The box of paraffin needed to seal the paper boat? Yellow. Bill’s cough medicine? Yellow.
(It’s the cough that prevents him from testing the boat out with Georgie… very unfortunate!)
And of course, Georgie’s now infamous yellow rain gear. The movie exactly
follows King’s Georgie scene, and even adds in yellow roadblocks, and a Yellow balloon!
There are plenty of yellow games, cars, and boxes in Georgie’s room where Bill discovers the
winking, bleeding picture of his younger brother. In Eddie’s flashback, at the movie theater,
the whole background of people is lit by yellow light, whereas the “losers” are lit in
blue. Eddie accidentally kicks over the yellow popcorn onto the Bowers crew… in their escape,
they pass a yellow “circus” sign...hmm circus… clowns?! creepy! Shortly after this,
Pennywise remodels the school bathroom to confront young Eddie in his yellow bath towel.
Back in the library, Mike sees muddy footprints and comes face
to face with a YELLOW balloon. Take heed, Mike!
The kid’s little yellow flashlights are stark against the oppressive darkness of the sewer.
Will they be gobbled up? Yellow seems too small here!
Georgie appears in his yellow rain outfit….. Beverly’s father also appears and is also
bathed in yellow light. Soon after all this, IT appears and tries to pick off the kids one by one!
The “Marsh” doorbell id is yellow. The tea set? Yellow. Warning! and it shows the red uh…blood
off nicely, especially when it’s spattered and shattered.
Bev escapes the house, almost gets run over, and a YELLOW balloon appears at her feet,
the float rolls weirdly down street. This whole ordeal is quite a wake-up call for Beverly
We see a LOT of yellow road caution signs and yellow taxi for Ben’s arrival (nice cellphone,
Ben!) He gets out of the taxi, has a skeleton vision in front of the
Sewer building [a skeleton standing in the water] (the same he saw as a kid),
and is startled by a man in a yellow raincoat, asking for spare change. (Phew! False alarm!
Putting us off-guard!) Ben gets back in yellow cab, and yellow-suited PENNYWISE
appears on the side of the road! And, what’s this, a YELLOW BALLOON with “Turn back now”
appears next to him in the car! A very in-our-face (and for sure Ben’s!) warning!
After the library apocalypse, a single yellow balloon lingers amid library shards of glass,
kicked out of way, the yellow “Glowing” poster on wall by end of shot. Foreshadow much? Thought rain
inside was bad? Psht the worst is yet to come! In the scene where Audra gets taken,
the “Inlet View Motel” has a yellow sign. The gas station has Yellow flags and Yellow flowers
and even a yellow-shirted attendant, who turns into yellow-suited Pennywise, transfixing Audra.
So, Whether it’s weird yellow art, famously yellow balloons,
key yellow props, yellow lighting or yellow-costumed Pennywise itself,
the movie uses this bright color to create a sense of unsettling foreboding.
Was yellow developed by visual media to stand out? Did books inform the visuals, or did
each feed off of the books and movies preceding it? Or… is yellow something deeper and darker…
something lodged in the recesses in our collective subconscious?
Is yellow so successful in the horror genre BECAUSE it’s mostly associated with
safety, hope and idealism? And, when time after time, we get the rug pulled
out from under that safe notion, we now expect it whenever we see only a pinprick
of yellow against a dark and stormy backdrop? (Literally, visually, and metaphorically?) Do
we naturally get on edge because we know it will be overwhelmed by the storm? And,
like I said earlier, I did SOOOO much research and documenting every occurrence of yellow in
“IT” the book and original movie, that it would be a crying shame if it all went to waste.
So please, do let me know in the comments if you’d like to see even more “IT” lore dives!
Thank you, friends and fiends for tuning into this creepy video...
on a color. Seriously. Please like, share, and subscribe if this is your thing! See you soon!