This whole time you thought that you just loved Chilling Adventures of Sabrina for its magic, empowerment, and tale of self-discovery.
But we’re about to drop a whole bunch of new reasons to love, or at least respect the heck out of your latest favorite Netflix binge.
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The creators of CAOS clearly have a love of horror, and the sheer number of references and details we missed the first time around is downright…chilling.
Sabrina’s red dress with the white lace is a callback to Mia Farrow’s dress in “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Rosemary’s wearing the iconic red dress when the pain of her pregnancy finally stops and she’s able to enjoy the experience of creating life again.
Speaking of “Rosemary’s Baby,” Mary Wardwell name-drops Rosemary’s doctor.
When Wardwell picks up the stranded girl on the road in “Chapter One,” she tells the girl she’ll take her to Dr. Sapirstein in the morning. Dr. Sapirstein is the name of the Satanic doctor who cares for Rosemary during her pregnancy.
The show has lots of references to the character’s origin in Archie Comics, including Sabrina’s own Thermos.
When Sabrina is eating lunch with Harvey and Ros, the Thermos she’s eating out of is vintage Archie merchandise from 1969.
Harvey’s crop top look a direct reference to Johnny Depp’s in “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
It’s certainly a look, and I guess we’ll see if it catches on.
Don’t worry, Harvey’s does say “10” properly, I just flipped it around for the symmetry.
So, yeah, another actor wore nearly the EXACT same crop top as Harvey.
The song from the choir scene was written by notorious cult leader Charles Manson.
The song was released on Charles Manson’s 1970 album Lie: The Love and Terror Cult .
Luke is apparently a fan of Archie comics.
In “Chapter Six: An Exorcism in Greendale,” Luke is at the counter of Dr. Cerberus’, talking to Hilda. No big deal, except he’s actually reading an Archie comic.
Maybe it’s just the continuity dork in me, but I can’t help but wonder if Sabrina comics exist in this world too.
Many of the characters take their names from figures from the Salem witch trials.
The name Wardwell, for instance, comes from the Wardwell family, made up of Samuel, his wife Sarah, and their daughter Mercy. All three were accused of and confessed to witchcraft in 1692, but only Samuel was hanged after retracting his confession.
Susie’s family name, Putnam, is another one.
Three members of the Putnam family, Thomas Putnam, his daughter Ann, and his brother Deacon Edward Putnam, were all accusers during the Salem witch trials. Later in life, Ann would recant her accusations, saying that Satan had deceived her.
Principal Hawthorne also takes his name from the Salem witch trials.
John Hathorne was a local magistrate who was called upon to determine whether or not accusations of witchcraft were worthy of moving forward to trial.
The Spellmans have a house plant that looks an awful lot like Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Venus flytraps definitely don’t look like that in real life, so it’s a safe bet that this is a direct reference.
The glass ceiling in the Spellman Mortuary is straight-up lifted from the ceiling in “Suspiria.”
Thankfully, we don’t see anyone thrown through the Spellman stained glass. But maybe that’ll happen in Season 2.
Speaking of “Suspiria,” the doors to Blackwood’s office are also inspired by the Dario Argento horror classic.
The designs aren’t identical, but Cosmopolitan visited the Sabrina set, and production designer Lisa Soper confirmed the connection.
That same set visit explained what is going on with all of those shoes on the wall in the Mortuary.
Granted, this isn’t a detail anyone could have noticed, since it came from the set designer’s headcanon.
But basically, each of these shoes represents a hex that Zelda has put on someone who has angered her. She channels the hex through her shoe, and as long as the shoe is mounted on the wall, the hex remains in effect.
Susie’s costume from Ros’s Halloween party is Eddie Munster from “The Munsters.”
I know it’s been pointed out before, but I’m still not over the fact that this werewolf kid was the child of a vampire and a version of Frankenstein’s monster.
Sabrina’s dance after kissing Harvey calls back to Lydia’s dancing in “Beetlejuice.”
There’s no question that Sabrina’s moves are inspired by Lydia’s, including the weird camera cuts between different dance moves.
In several episodes, the first time we see Zelda, she’s reading a newspaper.
But what we didn’t notice is that pretty much every time, the newspaper is in a different language.
In talking about Edward Spellman, Hilda says that he was good-looking enough to be a movie star, like his cousin Montgomery.
This could very well be a nod to Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha Stephens for over 250 episodes on Bewitched .
There’s also another famous acting Montgomery witch in “American Horror Story.”
During the Coven season of AHS , Emma Roberts played movie star Madison Montgomery, who discovers she’s a witch. It’s possible that her character is named after the Bewitched actress, that CAOS is actually referencing her, or that it’s all just a fun coincidence.
Almost every room in the Academy of Unseen Arts is the same set redressed over and over again.
Nick Scratch actually tells Sabrina that every room in the Academy is a pentagram, in keeping with sacred geometry, but iO9’s set visit confirmed that it was also to make set changes way easier.
Zelda mentions an old dog named “Vinegar Tom,” which is a 1976 play about women accused of witchcraft.
The play sees 17th-century characters blame all of their misfortunes on Alice and Joan, who has a cat named Vinegar Tom.
When Sabrina goes to rescue Tommy from Limbo, she’s tethered back to the real world, just like Diane in the original “Poltergeist.”
That being said, this may just be common practice for traveling through interdimensional portals. I wouldn’t know.
“CAOS” doesn’t have many references to the “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” series, but the first episode has one.
In the ABC series, Sabrina would perform magic by pointing her finger. The first time we see Sabrina use magic in the new series, she points at the stereo to turn on music.
After she gets possessed, the cross in Ms. Wardwell’s house gets flipped, turned upside-down.
I don’t know if I prefer the idea of Madam Satan doing this herself, or it just kind of happening on its own because of the demonic presence in the house.
The very first shot of Sabrina in the series pays tribute to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
Just in case you were wondering why it looked so familiar to see a character munching on popcorn, smiling during a horror movie while everyone else looked terrified, that’s why.
