Netflix’s ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Will Pay Tribute To ‘The Exorcist’ In An Episode

In the first season of Netflix’s forthcoming Archie Comics adaptation The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the titular teenage witch will find herself paying homage to one of the great horror films of the ’70s.

Describing Sabrina Spellman as “the heroine in this series of mini-movies,” Aguirre-Sacasa told EW that one of the mini-movies will be an homage to the 1973 William Friedkin horror masterpiece The Exorcist.

“I love The Exorcist. It’s one of my favorite movies,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “We’re doing an homage to that; we’re doing an episode that’s like [The Exorcist].”

Of course, The Exorcist recently had its own TV adaptation, but it was cancelled earlier this year and the consensus seems to be that the less said about that, the better.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is based on a comic book series of the same name from Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Robert Hack. The series was developed at Warner Bros. Television as part of an overall deal signed with Archie Comics after the success of Riverdale.

The original plan was for Sabrina to come to The CW, where it might cross over with Riverdale and exist in the same universe, but neither of those two things seem to have come to fruition. While The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina got a two-season commitment from Netflix, so far producers and cast members seem pretty comfortable saying that none of those 20 episodes will bring the characters into contact with Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica.

The Aguirre-Sacasa/Hack run was the latest reinvention of the character of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, one of Archie’s most popular characters outside of the comics. A TV series starring Melissa Joan Hart ran for seven seasons based on the character, her aunties and her sarcastic, talking cat, and besides that healthy run and the TV movie that launched it, there have been numerous animated adaptations in the time during and after the show.

The current series star Kiernan Shipka in the title role. In addition to Shipka, the cast of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina includes Ross Lynch, Lucy Davis, Miranda Otto, Jaz Sinclair, Tati Gabrielle, Chance Perdomo, Michelle Gomez, Ricard Coyle, and Bronson Pinchot.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will drop its first season on Netflix on October 26.