10 Goosebumps Easter Eggs & References In Episodes 1-5

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Goosebumps episodes 1-5!

While 2023’s Goosebumps reboot features a lot of nods to RL Stine’s popular horror novel series, the show also finds time to reference a handful of other classic movies and shows in its first five episodes. Goosebumps has been through many incarnations over the years. The franchise started as RL Stine’s popular series of children’s horror novels, then spawned a ‘90s anthology series. After that, 2015 saw the arrival of a live-action Goosebumps movie. This meta-comedy parodied the series and its author RL Stine, and the movie earned a sequel in 2018’s Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.

Now, 2023’s Goosebumps reboot sees Hulu turn the book series into a horror-comedy series aimed at young adults. Goosebumps tells the tale of Isaiah, Margot, James, Isabella, and Lucas, a group of mismatched teens who find themselves plagued by bizarre supernatural occurrences after they attend a Halloween party in a seemingly abandoned house. The teens soon discover that the cursed artifacts they stumbled upon at the party belonged to a troubled youth with a dark past that somehow connects to their parents. As this unfolds, 2023’s Goosebumps references all manner of famous horror movies and TV shows.

Related: Goosebumps Episodes 1-5 Recap: 10 Biggest Reveals

10 Popular Franchise Costumes At The Halloween Party

In Goosebumps episode 1, “Say Cheese and Die,” the show’s pop culture references come thick and fast. Eagle-eyed viewers will already recognize that the episode’s title and its basic premise are borrowed from the famous Goosebumps episode that starred Ryan Gosling before he was famous. However, the Easter eggs don’t end there. Angela, James, and Isaiah attend the episode’s Halloween party as Kill Bill’s heroine, the Bride, Batman’s love interest, Catwoman, and the MCU hero Thor, respectively. Margot dresses as a more generic “Spy,” while Isabella is a vampire until she dons a haunted mask.

9 Back To The Future’s Time Travel Reference

In Goosebumps episode 3, “The Cuckoo Clock of Doom,” James finds himself trapped in a predicament when he hits his head on the eponymous cuckoo clock and is soon stuck in a time loop. When this first happens, he tells his friends about his plight, only to realize that they all assume he is joking. To this end, Isaiah laughingly references Back to the Future when he is reacting to James’s claims of time travel. The Back to the Future franchise isn’t referenced again, but James later complains that his duplicates don’t align with what he knows about time travel stories.

8 James’ Duplicates Copied Michael Myers

Speaking of James’s many duplicates, Isabella unintentionally earns their ire when she accidentally destroys one of the doubles with an errant pool ball. Later in “The Cuckoo Clock of Doom,” one of James’ duplicates lingers in Isabella’s yard menacingly, trying to intimidate her into staying silent about his real nature. In the process, the clone recreates Halloween franchise villain Michael Myer’s famous appearance outside Laurie’s window as he appears for an instant, only to disappear when the heroine searches for him seconds later.

7 Isaiah Copied A Terminator 2: Judgment Day Move

Near the end of “The Cuckoo Clock of Doom,” Isaiah attempts to work out which James is real and which is an impostor. This moment mirrors the ending of director James Cameron’s legendary blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day, wherein the T-800 must work out which is the real Sarah Connor and which is the T-1000 in disguise. Although this scene substitutes an abandoned mine for a forge, the moment is otherwise very similar to Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s scene until James’s double gleefully reveals that they are both evil clones.

6 Lucas’ Worms Link To Drag Me To Hell

In Goosebumps 2023 episode 4, “Go Eat Worms,” the reckless slacker Lucas attempts to impress his crush Margot by eating a worm in front of her. Later on, as he sleeps, the rest of his pet worms slither up his nose in a moment reminiscent of the classic 20009 horror comedy Drag Me To Hell. In that underrated Sam Raimi movie, the heroine wakes up after this gross occurrence, but Lucas sleeps soundly through the ordeal.

5 Crawling Worms Was A Nod To A 2006 Horror Movie

After Lucas has imbibed the worms both knowingly and unknowingly, the viewer is treated to the gross sight of them crawling under the surface of his skin. This borrowed from the lone-location 2006 horror Bug, one of director William Friedkin’s most underrated movies. However, that movie left the reality of the bugs ambiguous and heavily implied they might only exist in the mind of the unwell antihero. In “Go Eat Worms,” they are most certainly real.

4 The Worm Monster Mirrored Stranger Things’ Mind Flayer

The worm monster that the mass of worms forms at the end of “Go Eat Worms” looks and moves a lot like the Mind Flayer from Stranger Things season 3. While the Mind Flayer’s physical form was seen a few times during the show’s third outing, the monster got its biggest role in the finale. There, the Mind Flayer ran up a hill outside Hawkins in pursuit of the heroes, whereas here, the Worm Monster runs down a hill in pursuit of Lucas.

3 Margot Needed Help From A Weekend At Bernie’s Move

In Goosebumps episode 5, “Reader Beware,” the gang puppeteer Margot’s unconscious body, much like the title character of the ‘80s comedy hit Weekend at Bernie’s. In that cult comedy, the heroes were trying to obscure the fact that their boss was dead, whereas, here, the gang is trying to hide Margot’s unconsciousness from the student body. Otherwise, their methods are pretty much identical.

2 Harold Biddle Had Nightmare On Elm Street Motivations

It makes sense for Goosebumps to reference A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger since that slasher series is perennially popular among fans of fantasy horror. In “Reader Beware,” the revelation that Harold has been using supernatural means to get revenge on the children of the people who burned him alive mirrors Freddy Krueger’s backstory from the classic slasher. Admittedly, Freddy was a far more unambiguously evil villain, but the fates of the two characters and their revenge plans are surprisingly similar.

1 Slappy’s Original Inspirations

Slappy the Dummy was originally inspired by a stage ventriloquist’s sentient dummy in the 1945 anthology horror Dead of Night, and “Reader Beware” brings back the character. Slappy has been a major player in most adaptations of the novels, with Jack Black playing both RL Stine and Slappy in 2018’s Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. This time, Goosebumps changed Slappy’s new appearance to resemble Dead of Night’s infamously creepy ventriloquist dummy even more closely than his earlier screen incarnations.