Today was the premiere of Netflix’s new shark movie Thrash. While it isn’t Jaws by any comparison, it does give us something that is used regularly in horror movies. The symbolism of the color yellow varies depending on the film, but horror seems to have an obsession with it. The small but often crowded subgenre that is the shark movie is no exception.
Thrash is middle of the road, or ocean if you like, as far as shark movies go – meaning it is not my favorite but there is something about it that makes it watchable enough to not be in the so terrible it’s kind of good in a let’s-laugh-at-this kind of way. Looking at you Sharknado. Thrash takes place as a hurricane makes landfall on the coast of North Carolina and the surge brings sharks with it. While this film has more in common with Crawl than it does its shark movie cousins, it does use yellow in an interesting way.
A scientist who tags sharks (Djimon Hounsou) discusses a shark attack as the hurricane makes its way toward land. His boat happens to be yellow as he worries about his niece who has chosen to stay in his home instead of evacuating. He is her safety net, the person who took her in when her mother passed, and the person who ends up saving her. The niece, Dakota (Whitney Peak), wears a yellow sweatshirt. Dakota ends up rescuing Phoebe Dynevor’s character whose name is still unlisted on IMDB when I wrote this up. Dakota helps protect this woman after she has a baby as well. Like her uncle in his yellow boat, Dakota in her yellow sweatshirt is a safe place. A person to be trusted.
In another part of this community are three foster children whose foster parents own a yellow house. This yellow, though, is not safety. This yellow signifies the evil within these two foster parents who only took the kids in for the money they were paid. Both of these foster parents get what is coming to them for not really caring for the kids in the way they should and the kids are left to fend for themselves which gives them the opportunity to trust in each other. Horror movies are like that sometimes. It’s part of what makes them so great. Amoral behavior is always punished.
Dakota’s uncle, on an inflatable raft now, boats into town looking for the sharks he has tagged and his niece who seems to be surrounded by them. Meanwhile, Dakota tries to get Phoebe Dynevor’s character to safety in a yellow rowboat after Dynevor’s character has her baby. Props to Dynevor who fends off a shark by hitting it and to Dakota for shooting one with a spear.
This film isn’t perfect by any means but it is watchable for its farfetched-ness in the dual storylines. I would have preferred that this film pick one of the stories instead of splitting its time between the two because it meant neither ended up getting the attention it deserved. Dakota’s story in particular is a thoughtful one and would have loved to see her arc fully flushed out when she tries to save a pregnant woman in labor amid her own grief about her mother. That said, yellow is ever present throughout this film signifying both danger and safety depending on the usage. This film is a shark eat shark world. Literally. Gotta love the great white.
Jaws, and its Sequels
Speaking of great whites, Jaws was notorious for having issues with the animatronic shark they used in the film. It rarely worked and at one point it simply sunk to the bottom one day during filming. What really saved the film was something that did not happen in the book. Brody, Hooper, and Quint managed to shoot a harpoon attached to those yellow barrels in the film. Whenever those yellow barrels surfaced, the both the crew and the viewer knew that the great white shark was near. DANGER, those barrels say. This bloodthirsty great white shark is back. A warning for Hooper, Quint, and Brody. Not that Quint was going to ever listen.
One of the more memorable deaths in Jaws was that of Alex Kintner, the boy who took his yellow inflatable out with him to float on even after his mother told him his was beginning to prune. His kicking his way past the other swimmers was his undoing. The sound of his feet thrashing around in the water lured in the shark who attacked, taking the boy with it as well as a big bite out of that raft. It would be the only thing remaining after the attack as it floated back to shore, the water tinted pink with blood.
In Jaws 2, which is a stellar sequel if you ask me, several of the boats that the teenage kids boat out onto the ocean on are yellow, either wholly or with yellow accents. One in particular was taken out by Tina and her boyfriend before they are attacked by a shark. She survives, but he doesn’t. It ends up being Tina who is the only witness to reinforce Brody’s warnings that there is a shark in their waters again. Those yellow boats were another warning.
Jaws 3-D has a special place in my heart. My parents recorded it off of network TV when I was a kid so it was a horror movie I watched often growing up. The film uses yellow submersibles during a sequence when Mike Brody, now an adult, goes into a lagoon where they have built a Sea World aquarium to see if a missing man had drown there. This submersible was meant for safety, but the lesson of that movie is to stay out of the water entirely. Something that the Brody brothers don’t ever seem to learn.
By the time Jaws The Revenge was made, the series had played itself out. So bad in fact that Michael Caine refused to ever watch it, though he took the money he made from it and bought himself a house. The film largely ignored the events of the third film and found Sean Brody living on Amity Island as a police officer. When he goes out on his boat to clear up some driftwood, he wears a yellow raincoat. The raincoat in horror usually represents false safety and lost innocence. This film is no exception as Sean finally falls prey to a shark that first eats his arm and then him.
Later in the film, Mike’s daughter is riding an inflatable raft that is being pulled by a boat. It, like the one Alex Kintner was riding, is bitten by a shark as it attacks the girls riding it. Not only does this throwback to the first film, but it signifies how yellow in these films is always a warning. Something terrible is going to happen. Blood in the water. Maybe stay out of it.
Dangerous Animals
I’ve talked about this film on my horror blog before and I’ll mention it again now. The boat used by the serial killer is yellow. Bright yellow that stands out against the turquoise waters of western Australia. Another warning to every unsuspecting tourist who boarded his boat with the promise of scuba diving only to be fed to hungry sharks. The film also uses sickly yellow lighting aboart the boat when the serial killer is feeding his victims to the sharks. It shows his internal mental sickness as well as the fear of the events for the victims.
Jai Courtney and Hassie Harrison put in memorable performances. Harrison in particular has some escapist badassery that is worth mentioning.
As I conclude this shark themed horror blog, I’ll just remind you that if you see yellow in one of these movies, whether it be a raincoat or a barrel or a boat, it almost always means that danger is approaching. Unless you’re Whitney Peak in Thrash and you’re wearing a yellow sweatshirt. If you’re Whitney in yellow, then you’re a safe space. A person who can be trusted. A badass with a harpoon.
Until next time, stay out of the damn ocean, yeah?
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
Chapter 17
Today was the premiere of Netflix’s new shark movie Thrash. While it isn’t Jaws by any comparison, it does give us something that is used regularly in horror movies. The symbolism of the color yellow varies depending on the film, but horror seems to have an obsession with it. The small but often crowded subgenre that is the shark movie is no exception.
Thrash is middle of the road, or ocean if you like, as far as shark movies go – meaning it is not my favorite but there is something about it that makes it watchable enough to not be in the so terrible it’s kind of good in a let’s-laugh-at-this kind of way. Looking at you Sharknado. Thrash takes place as a hurricane makes landfall on the coast of North Carolina and the surge brings sharks with it. While this film has more in common with Crawl than it does its shark movie cousins, it does use yellow in an interesting way.
A scientist who tags sharks (Djimon Hounsou) discusses a shark attack as the hurricane makes its way toward land. His boat happens to be yellow as he worries about his niece who has chosen to stay in his home instead of evacuating. He is her safety net, the person who took her in when her mother passed, and the person who ends up saving her. The niece, Dakota (Whitney Peak), wears a yellow sweatshirt. Dakota ends up rescuing Phoebe Dynevor’s character whose name is still unlisted on IMDB when I wrote this up. Dakota helps protect this woman after she has a baby as well. Like her uncle in his yellow boat, Dakota in her yellow sweatshirt is a safe place. A person to be trusted.
In another part of this community are three foster children whose foster parents own a yellow house. This yellow, though, is not safety. This yellow signifies the evil within these two foster parents who only took the kids in for the money they were paid. Both of these foster parents get what is coming to them for not really caring for the kids in the way they should and the kids are left to fend for themselves which gives them the opportunity to trust in each other. Horror movies are like that sometimes. It’s part of what makes them so great. Amoral behavior is always punished.
Dakota’s uncle, on an inflatable raft now, boats into town looking for the sharks he has tagged and his niece who seems to be surrounded by them. Meanwhile, Dakota tries to get Phoebe Dynevor’s character to safety in a yellow rowboat after Dynevor’s character has her baby. Props to Dynevor who fends off a shark by hitting it and to Dakota for shooting one with a spear.
This film isn’t perfect by any means but it is watchable for its farfetched-ness in the dual storylines. I would have preferred that this film pick one of the stories instead of splitting its time between the two because it meant neither ended up getting the attention it deserved. Dakota’s story in particular is a thoughtful one and would have loved to see her arc fully flushed out when she tries to save a pregnant woman in labor amid her own grief about her mother. That said, yellow is ever present throughout this film signifying both danger and safety depending on the usage. This film is a shark eat shark world. Literally. Gotta love the great white.
Jaws, and its Sequels
Speaking of great whites, Jaws was notorious for having issues with the animatronic shark they used in the film. It rarely worked and at one point it simply sunk to the bottom one day during filming. What really saved the film was something that did not happen in the book. Brody, Hooper, and Quint managed to shoot a harpoon attached to those yellow barrels in the film. Whenever those yellow barrels surfaced, the both the crew and the viewer knew that the great white shark was near. DANGER, those barrels say. This bloodthirsty great white shark is back. A warning for Hooper, Quint, and Brody. Not that Quint was going to ever listen.
One of the more memorable deaths in Jaws was that of Alex Kintner, the boy who took his yellow inflatable out with him to float on even after his mother told him his was beginning to prune. His kicking his way past the other swimmers was his undoing. The sound of his feet thrashing around in the water lured in the shark who attacked, taking the boy with it as well as a big bite out of that raft. It would be the only thing remaining after the attack as it floated back to shore, the water tinted pink with blood.
In Jaws 2, which is a stellar sequel if you ask me, several of the boats that the teenage kids boat out onto the ocean on are yellow, either wholly or with yellow accents. One in particular was taken out by Tina and her boyfriend before they are attacked by a shark. She survives, but he doesn’t. It ends up being Tina who is the only witness to reinforce Brody’s warnings that there is a shark in their waters again. Those yellow boats were another warning.
Jaws 3-D has a special place in my heart. My parents recorded it off of network TV when I was a kid so it was a horror movie I watched often growing up. The film uses yellow submersibles during a sequence when Mike Brody, now an adult, goes into a lagoon where they have built a Sea World aquarium to see if a missing man had drown there. This submersible was meant for safety, but the lesson of that movie is to stay out of the water entirely. Something that the Brody brothers don’t ever seem to learn.
By the time Jaws The Revenge was made, the series had played itself out. So bad in fact that Michael Caine refused to ever watch it, though he took the money he made from it and bought himself a house. The film largely ignored the events of the third film and found Sean Brody living on Amity Island as a police officer. When he goes out on his boat to clear up some driftwood, he wears a yellow raincoat. The raincoat in horror usually represents false safety and lost innocence. This film is no exception as Sean finally falls prey to a shark that first eats his arm and then him.
Later in the film, Mike’s daughter is riding an inflatable raft that is being pulled by a boat. It, like the one Alex Kintner was riding, is bitten by a shark as it attacks the girls riding it. Not only does this throwback to the first film, but it signifies how yellow in these films is always a warning. Something terrible is going to happen. Blood in the water. Maybe stay out of it.
Dangerous Animals
I’ve talked about this film on my horror blog before and I’ll mention it again now. The boat used by the serial killer is yellow. Bright yellow that stands out against the turquoise waters of western Australia. Another warning to every unsuspecting tourist who boarded his boat with the promise of scuba diving only to be fed to hungry sharks. The film also uses sickly yellow lighting aboart the boat when the serial killer is feeding his victims to the sharks. It shows his internal mental sickness as well as the fear of the events for the victims.
Jai Courtney and Hassie Harrison put in memorable performances. Harrison in particular has some escapist badassery that is worth mentioning.
As I conclude this shark themed horror blog, I’ll just remind you that if you see yellow in one of these movies, whether it be a raincoat or a barrel or a boat, it almost always means that danger is approaching. Unless you’re Whitney Peak in Thrash and you’re wearing a yellow sweatshirt. If you’re Whitney in yellow, then you’re a safe space. A person who can be trusted. A badass with a harpoon.
Until next time, stay out of the damn ocean, yeah?
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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