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11 times ‘Riverdale’ paid an obvious homage to cult classics

It is no secret that Riverdale is jam-packed with pop culture references. Drawing inspiration from countless television shows, movies and comics is one of the many ways that Riverdale captures fans of so many different backgrounds and interests.

With the show’s inspirations stemming back from the eras of the 1960s to today, there is no question that Riverdale has an infinite amount of material to pay homage to. Here are a few references that you may have missed that Riverdale has captured on the small screen. (For this list, we aren’t mentioning the Archie Comics. That one is just too easy.)

Read more: Cole Sprouse teases ‘Riverdale’ season finale with gory photo

Twin Peaks 
Riverdale is absolutely filled to the brim with Twin Peaks references. While David Lynch’s ‘90s cult classic television series was never meant for a younger audience, Riverdale closely follows the storyline of the small town high school murder. The opening sequence of Riverdale immediately mirrors Peaks with a shot of the town’s welcome sign. In addition, Madchen Amick, who plays Betty’s mother, also plays Shelly Johnson in Lynch’s magnum opus. However, the most chilling parallel between Riverdale and “The Black Lodge” is this scene below where Killer Bob creepily steps over Laura Palmer’s living room couch. Doesn’t it remind you of Betty’s Christmas dream with the Black Hood in “Chapter 22: Silent Night, Deadly Night?”

Psycho
In Season 2: Episode 13, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Betty and Jughead work together to push Chic’s car into a swamp. This scene strikingly resembles this scene in Psycho when the film’s iconic murderer, Norman Bates, sinks Marion Crane’s car to dispose of her body and the rest of the evidence.

Brokeback Mountain
Who would have thought that the creepy creators of Riverdale would make a reference to the 2005 cowboy tearjerker? “Chapter Sixteen: The Watcher in the Woods” expertly pays homage to Brokeback Mountain when Kevin gets stabbed by the Black Hood while out on one of his midnight forest runs. While that instance turned out to be just a scene that played out in the very-much-alive Kevin’s head, there is no doubt that it took inspiration from Brokeback Mountain. The show’s creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, told Entertainment Weekly, “That horrible scene where Heath Ledger is calling in the phone booth and he sees flashes of Jake Gyllenhaal’s death—that was what inspired that.”

Nightmare On Elm Street 
For this one, you might have to look a little bit closer. And by closer we mean super close—at the street signs. In addition to Jughead’s name drop of Wes Craven’s masterpiece in the Season 1 finale, Betty and Archie actually live on Elm Street. To make matters even more telling, Betty’s house strikingly resembles Nancy Thompson’s white, upper-middle-class home with a bright red door. Coincidence? We think not.

via GIPHY

Zodiac
Directed by David Fincher, the 2007 mystery thriller gets a quick salute in “Chapter 15: Nighthawks.” In the Riverdale episode, two high school students are seen doing Jingle Jangle in their car only to be shot directly in the face, much like Zodiac’s scene below.

Carrie
All right, this one is pretty obvious. In the show’s musical episode, “Chapter 31: A Night To Remember,” the cast performs its version of the gut-wrenching tale by Stephen King. With the night ending in tragedy, Carrie’s symbolism alludes to more than a few pop culture references.

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Leave It To Beaver
Riverdale has its fair share of dream sequences. However, this one is not one to be overlooked. In “Chapter Seven: In A Lonely Place” Jughead has a nightmare that throws the cast back into the 1950s. While this scene directly draws comparisons between Riverdale and the Archie Comics in terms of setting and costume, the scene also emulates a strong Leave It To Beaver vibe. Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly that Leave It To Beaver came to mind even before the 1950s Archie Comics. “When [writer Aaron Allen] turned in his draft of the script, he had added a dream sequence that was done in the 1950s, sort of Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, black-and-white television show mode,” he says. “A little bit after that we thought, ‘Oh, this could be a way to do the 1950s Archie if we do that in this dream sequence.’”

Blue Velvet
Paying homage to David Lynch through Twin Peaks references just wasn’t enough. And we don’t blame them. According to IndieWire, Lynch’s Blue Velvet was cited as one of Riverdale’s main inspirations in terms of vibe and environment. However, the severed ear in Blue Velvet also seems have a similar connotation to the Black Hood’s finger that he kindly sends to Betty in “Chapter 22: Silent Night, Deadly Night.”

Pulp Fiction
At the end of “Chapter 20: Tales From The Darkside” Josie and Chuck can be seen sharing the famous dance from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. This quiet inclusion makes Josie’s situation all the more creepy and sinister. Hats off to the Riverdale cinematographers for this awesome shot.

Grease
Jughead and the Ghoulies’ deal in “Chapter 19: Death Proof” gives us all major Grease vibes. We aren’t sure if it’s the gang’s uncanny resemblance to the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds or the street racing itself, but either way the Riverdale creators definitely had this 1970s musical in mind.

Batman
Revealed by Aguirre-Sacasa to be a direct tie to Riverdale’s latest fan freak-out, this exemplary photo shows a bloody Jason Todd being carried by Batman. “This is one of the most iconic images in modern comics,” Aguirre-Sacasa says. “And an inspiration for tomorrow’s episode of Riverdale.” With Todd being a very obvious parallel to Jughead, the Riverdale fandom has been left in a frenzy. Will Jughead make it out of Season 2 alive?