‘Riverdale’ Drops Multiple ‘Scream’ References in “Manhunter”

In the first season of Riverdale, some fans thought F.P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich) being the killer on a teen drama might be just a little too on-the-nose, given that his best-known role is probably that of Billy Loomis, the killer from Scream.

Despite a close call, with F.P being arrested near the end of the season, it turned out that he was not the killer, and has gone on to rebuild relationships with his son Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and high school sweetheart Alice Cooper (Madchen Amick).

In tonight’s episode, titled “Manhunter,” there were a few references to Scream — enough to send some memories flooding back for ’90s teens who first fell in love with the movie more than 20 years ago.

“I mean, it’s impossible not to [notice], to be honest,” Ulrich told reporters during a recent visit to the set of Riverdale in Vancouver. “It’s so apparent what the source material was.”

During a scene at the Cooper home, an unexpected knock comes to the door. Betty (Lili Reinhart) and her mother Alice go to answer it, but nobody is there. While they do so, Jiffy Pop brand popcorn is cooking on the stovetop, just like in the iconic first scene from Scream.

Also like Scream, when they turn around, the heavily-disguised killer (in this case, the Gargoyle King) is in the living room staring them down. They run upstairs into Betty’s bedroom to hide, and are met by F.P., who gets in by scaling a ladder to the bedroom window.

This is a callback to a scene from Scream in which, to throw the audience and other characters off his scent, Billy and his partner staged a scene in which Billy would be attacked by the killer while trying to protect his girlfriend.

“I think the only sort of flashback I had was when we shot that scene outside of Napa Valley. It was a real house and they had built this ledge onto the roof for me to squat down on and wait for the cue, and like I climbed in,” Ulrich explained. “This one, I got the climb a real ladder, so our show’s better. It was cool. It’s been a long since obviously since I made that movie and this is a very different character and world, but I think in a way, it really speaks to what screen was, you know, this sort of self-effacing of the genre kind of film, and I think in a way they took components of that and used it in an interesting way.”

Riverdale airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.