Raincoat of Horror

...Yep, definitely a horror work!

Raincoats are getting to be a common item in the horror genre, to the point where you can almost expect a work to be a horror, or horror elements to suddenly enter a work, by the sight of a significant character wearing a raincoat.

Perhaps it's because raincoats are often (though not always) colorful and provide a Splash of Color against the dark backgrounds common to horror, thus allowing the directors to emphasize the characters who wear them...or the blood on said characters. Perhaps it's because raincoats, particularly yellow ones, tend to be associated with children, making them perfect for a Creepy Child, or any other use of Subverted Innocence. Perhaps it's because raincoats cover a lot of a person's body, so similar to the concealment of In the Hood, the raincoat adds a layer of mystery: there could be scales, slime, or tentacles beneath, and we'd never know until The Coats Are Off. Perhaps it's because yellow raincoats (especially when paired with the classic sou'wester cap) are the standard Hollywood uniform of grizzled old mariners or fishermen with horrifying tall tales. Or perhaps it's simply because a raincoat is what a character would be likely to wear when It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, which is a common ambiance for horror works.

Compare In the Hood, Badass Longcoat, Conspicuous Trenchcoat, Trenchcoat Brigade, any of which this could possibly overlap. Contrast Exposed to the Elements, The Coats Are Off.

This item is available for purchase in the TropeCo™ catalog!

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Monster Musume: Suu's body is actually liquid, and would thus soak through any clothes she tries to wear except for a raincoat. Played With mostly for laughs, in that this is from the Harem genre with material borrowed from the Horror genre — Suu normally has an innocent and childlike personality, but she provides most of the creepier moments (especially appearing dark silhouettes) whenever she gets angered or desperate to absorb liquids.
• Wonder Egg Priority features some disturbing and uncomfortable themes, and main character Ai Ohto always wears a yellow hoodie that is sometimes meant to evoke a raincoat, as a means to protect herself from the external world (she starts as a hikikomori).

Films — Animation

• Coraline: One of Coraline's iconic outfits from this horror film is a yellow raincoat.

Films — Live-Action

• Alice, Sweet Alice: The title character wears one identical to the killer who she's suspected of being.
• American Psycho: Patrick Bateman wears a clear plastic raincoat over his suit, to prevent it from being stained with blood.
• Don't Look Now: The protagonist keeps catching glimpses of a figure in a red raincoat that might be the ghost of his daughter (who was wearing a red raincoat when she died). It's not - it's an elderly woman with dwarfism, who's also the serial killer mentioned on the news, and when the protagonist finally corners her, she viciously murders him.
• Friday the 13th (1980): Significant parts of this film take place when It Was a Dark and Stormy Night and the counselors wear raincoats accordingly.
• It (1990) and It (2017): Georgie becomes the prey and a form of the eponymous It on a rainy day while wearing a bright, conspicuous yellow raincoat.
• The evil boy from the little-known horror flick Milo wears a yellow one.
• Killer Dream Home: The psychotic Morgan Dyer wears a blood red raincoat when breaking, entering, and killing. Until the final confrontation when she decides it's no longer necessary and switches to an all-black outfit.
• Although it's an action-comedy, Last Action Hero includes the Ripper, who would be right at home in a slasher film with his disfigured face, wicked axe, and yellow raincoat.
• Mimic: The insects in this horror film use their mimicry to appear like hobos dressed in dirty raincoats.
• Shrooms: Tara wears a clear raincoat during this horror film. Understandable, as she's camping in Ireland.
• Unbreakable is a Psychological Thriller/ Deconstruction of the Super Hero genre, but it strays into horror territory near the end when protagonist David Dunn confronts a sadistic janitor who has invaded a family home, killed the father, and held the wife and their two children captive. David wears a long, hooded rain poncho◊ that conceals his face for the duration of that scene. The poncho later makes an appearance in a newspaper article about his heroics, with an artist's depiction of the mysterious hooded hero◊ who rescued the two children gracing the front page.

Literature

• Bakemonogatari: Suruga Kanbaru's aberration, the Rainy Devil, is often depicted as a monkey wearing a raincoat. Kanbaru dons one herself when she's possessed by it.
• In The Secret Integration by Thomas Pynchon, significant parts of the story take place in the rain, and the child protagonists are said to be wearing raincoats.
• "Something in the Rain" by Seanan McGuire (published in the anthology Defying Doomsday) is set in a world where the rain is full of deadly flesh-eating microorganisms, so the protagonist has to layer herself in two raincoats, rain boots, plastic wrap, and gloves to ensure she's absolutely waterproof before going outside. She even lampshades that she looks like "something out of a low-budget horror movie".

Live-Action TV

• Jonas, the de facto protagonist of the German Netflix series Dark, wears a conspicuous yellow raincoat (which even gets featured prominently on the promo poster).
• Eureeka's Castle: There was a horror-themed episode that dealt with fear of movies, fear of a real monster, and pranks revolving around fear. Its opening had three rodents (puppets) scurrying around outside in a storm, screaming their heads off, running from a monster, and wearing yellow raincoats.
• Hannibal: As a Shout-Out to American Psycho, the title character wears a clear raincoat to prevent his fine suits from being soiled during his murders.
• In the Inside No. 9 episode The Twelve Days of Christine, the protagonist suffers from apparent nightmares featuring a man in a raincoat, who seems to be trying to kidnap her son.

Video Games

• A red raincoat is a recurring motif in the Japan-only sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations. It is 100% Played for Horror, since a mysterious figure keeps showing up, committing crimes, and taunting Edgeworth and company, and all they know is what this person sometimes wears.
• The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation is set in a haunted university somewhere in Taiwan, with one of their six campus urban legends being about a group of mysterious anglers said to fish near the lake beside campus grounds while wearing hooded yellow raincoats, even if it isn't raining. Should they pull down their hoods though, it turns out they're headless.
• Deadly Premonition: One of this horror game's antagonists is even called the Raincoat Killer.
• Dead Rising: In this zombie game, there's actually an enemy cult full of people who wear green masks and yellow raincoats, called "The True Eye". Why they wear masks and raincoats is never explained.
• Don't Starve: With its Sanity Meter and dark undertones, this game definitely has some horror elements. And yes, it's possible to craft a raincoat that can indeed help when it rains, since there is a wetness meter that can negatively affect your character.
• Future Diary: The 13th Diary Holder introduces the eponymous character of Azami Kirisaki. Her ominous number is equally fitted by her ominous raincoat - and her objective is to kill all 12 other Diary Holders.
• Goosebumps HorrorTown: Thalia who is actually a disguised monster wears a bright yellow raincoat and rain boots. She wears them to keep her makeup intact.
• Little Nightmares: This game takes place in a horrific engine of child exploitation, cannibalism, and danger called the Maw, and stars a raincoat-wearing little girl named Six.
  • Its prequel, the mobile game Very Little Nightmares, also stars a young girl in a yellow raincoat.
• Skull Girls: Umbrella wears an outfit with a yellow rainhat, raincoat, and rainboots, all going along with the fact that she weilds a morphing Eldritch Abomination umbrella as her weapon.
• Terraria: There is a cosmetic raincoat outfit available in the game, but the only way to obtain it is by killing zombies (classic horror monsters) who are wearing raincoats.
• Yandere Simulator: There are at least two raincoat outfits that help keep blood off your clothes (the darker one is occult-club-specific), likely as a send-up to this trope.

Webcomics

• It was on a rainy night that Sadick lost his eye and his brother was murdered so they were wearing rain parkas in Charby the Vampirate.

Western Animation

• In the Donald Duck short "Duck Pimples", Donald is greeted at his door by an intimidating-looking figure wearing a raincoat. It turns out to be a jolly character looking to sell him magazines.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: There was a horror-themed episode taking place on a rainy night, where a forbidding-looking character with a hook-hand, wearing a concealing raincoat seems to be following Frankie around. He's actually a goofy-looking imaginary friend looking for a place to stay, and he's following Frankie because he heard about Foster's.
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Pooh Oughta Be in Pictures", Piglet (who has been struggling with fear the whole episode) gets spooked by a shadowy figure wearing a raincoat, which turns out to be Pooh. This scene is also shown in the theme song.
• The Simpsons: In one Treehouse of Horror episode, Flanders turns into a werewolf, Hulking Out and destroying the raincoat he's wearing as soon as the clouds part and reveal the full moon.

---