CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA: A MIDWINTER'S TALE Holiday Special Coming December 14
We won't have to wait for a second season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to catch up with The Spellmans and fiends, as Netflix has just announced that a Holiday Special is coming in mid December...
Praise Satan Santa! Netflix has announced that a Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Holiday special will be with us on December 14, which means we won't have to wait for another season of the spooktacular series to catch up with the titular teenage witch and her various friends and foes.
There's a few seconds of footage from the special in Netflix's Christmas video, and while everything appears to be fun and festive in the Spellman house, you just know dark forces are going to attempt to put an end to the comfort and joy at some point.
Check out the vid along with a logline below. In case you missed it at Halloween, we also have a breakdown of the first season's horror movie homages and references.
The Church of Night, like all covens, celebrates the Winter Solstice –the longest night of the year–when families gather around the Yule Fire to sing pagan carols and tell ghost stories. But the holidays are also a time for guests and visitors–both welcome and unwelcome– you never know what might come down the chimney…
To view the references all at once, simply click on the VIEW LIST (ONE PAGE) button below!
Night Of The Living Dead
We'll start with arguably the most obvious one!
When we first meet Sabrina and her pals they're watching Night of the Living Dead at their local theater. Then, when Harvey is walking 'Brina home he quotes the seminal zombie flick's most famous line, "they're coming to get you Barbara!"
Rosemary's Baby
There are a couple of references to Roman Polanski's terrifying Rosemary's Baby.
The first is a very subtle nod to the character of Doctor Saperstein when Mrs. Wardwell/Madame Satan picks up what she believes to be a young woman in distress on the side of the road. Then, in a later episode, Sabrina has a vision of twin babies and one of 'em has cloven hooves instead of feet.
Pet Sematary
Hilda actually mentions that The Spellmans have a Pet Cemetery out near their human graveyard, but later on we get a far more sinister homage to Stephen King's classic tale when Sabrina resurrects poor Tommy Hinkle.
Like little Gage in the novel and film adaptation, Tommy comes back as a soulless shadow of himself, seemingly with a taste for human flesh.
Salem's Lot
When Ambrose's new boyfriend Luke pays the housebound warlock a visit, he scratches on the window before appearing in the doorway and saying, "open the window Mark."
If you've seen the 1979 TV movie adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, you'll know this is a reference to one of the scariest scenes when a vampire child comes calling on his best friend.
Evil Dead
A very direct homage to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead occurs when Sabrina is fleeing her Dark Baptism.
As the conflicted young half-witch is running through the forest, the branches of the trees attempt to stop her by coiling around her limbs. Fortunately, things don't go quite as far as they do in Raimi's movie! After all, the infamous scene is known as the "tree rape" for a reason.
Hellraiser
At one point, Father Blackwood gives Sabrina a puzzle known as The Achyron Configuration to solve as a test to see if she's ready to take conjuration class. Solve it she does, and releases a demon in the process.
This is very similar to what happens with the Lament Configuration box in Clive Barker's Hellraiser - although Batty Bat is not quite as kinky as ol' Pinhead.
The Shining
The rather aggressive way in which days of the week flash up on the screen in CAOS is most likely paying homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, but there's also Roz and her Nana Ruth, who exhibit a precognitive power they call "The Cunning."
In the movie and Stephen King's source novel, Danny Torrance and Dick Halloran posses a very similar ability known as... well, you already know that!
The Exorcist
When Suzie's uncle Jessie is possessed by a demon while working in the mines, Sabrina takes in upon herself to perform an exorcism.
There are some very clear nods to William Friedkin's classic here, including a variation on the head spin, and a bit of projectile vomiting for good measure.
The Craft
There are obviously many thematic similarities between Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Craft, but we get a far more obvious wink to the movie when the titular teenage witch and The Weird Sisters are seen walking in slow motion towards a group of jocks they plan on tormenting.
The Devil And Daniel Webster
When Sabrina finds out that a human attorney once managed to defeat Satan himself (at least, temporarily), she pays him a visit and hires him to defend her family name in the infernal court.
The lawyer's name is Daniel Webster... presumably the same Daniel Webster from the 1941 film, The Devil and Daniel Webster!