* The man who has half of his face burnt has the surname of Harvey, as in Harvey Dent, aka ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain ComicBook/TwoFace.
* Larry Harvey says that when he murdered his family under the influence of voices, he felt like an obedient child. The character played by Laurence Harvey in ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' murdered people under the influence of [[spoiler: his mother]].
* Larry Harvey is also the name of one of the founders of ''Burning Man''. And what happened to the show's Larry Harvey?
* The Infantata in the basement and Dr. Montgomery's story are very similar to the villain and events in ''Film/TheHouseByTheCemetery''.
* The second episode uses the score from ''Psycho'' and is reminiscent of ''Film/TheStrangers''.
* Charles and Nora Montgomery are a shout-out to Nick and Nora Charles, the famously sassy and devoted couple from ''Literature/TheThinMan'' novels and their [[Film/TheThinMan film adaptations]].
* Vivien is raped and impregnated, gives birth to the spawn of Satan, and eats a brain as in ''Film/RosemarysBaby'' (although it was a liver there).
* In episode five, they reference ''Film/TheBreakfastClub''. Tate and Violet are confronted on the beach by five teenagers: A jock, a cheerleader, a nerd, a goth girl, and a guy dressed in a leather jacket. Violet even calls them "The Dead Breakfast Club".
* Tate axes a serial killer groupie named Bianca. Anyone familiar with the [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson case]] will recognize those names.
* Tate references ''Film/TaxiDriver'' when he says something similar to Bickle's "rain washing away" speech when he first meets with Ben.
** Also when the SWAT team shows up to arrest him, he indicates that they should shoot him by making a gun with his fingers and aiming it at his head, as Bickle does when the police catch him after he shoots up a brothel.
* The show uses the score from ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', particularly in the scene where Nora opens the door to see her "baby" in his room.
* The show also gives a couple of subtle shout-outs to ''Film/TheShining''. Tate's practically an homage to ''Twisted Nerve'', whistling the theme tune and everything. Then there are all of the ''Rosemary's Baby'' references.
** One of those Film/TheShining shout-outs happens with Beau's ball. He rolls it to an unsuspecting person while hidden in the shadows, like how a tennis ball is rolled unsuspectingly to Danny.
* "Twisted Nerve" plays over Tate's shoot out, the theme to the eponymous film about a psychotic boy who does crazy things for a girl he loves.
* When Ben sees Larry for the first time in the first episode, the scene itself is an homage of [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} Laurie seeing The Shape in the Strode backyard for the second time]].
* A more obscure one: Travis' last name, Wanderley, is shared by the protagonist of Creator/PeterStraub's novel ''Ghost Story''. Straub's novels in general are similar in tone and execution to this series.
* The ending of the season when the [[spoiler: family is united in death and stages elaborate hauntings to scare out the new family]] has many shades of ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''.
* The final shot of [[spoiler: the dead Harmons watching the new family running away]] is most likely one to the very similar scene at the end of ''Film/TheOthers2001''.
* Ben and Tate's relationship in the early episodes comes off as one big ShoutOut to the plot of ''Film/TheSixthSense'', though with the twist that [[spoiler: it's the ''patient'' who [[DeadAllAlong turns out to have been a ghost the whole time]], not the doctor]].
* Quite an obscure one -- one of the detectives who come to question the Harmons is named Jack Colquitt, which was the name of the Cigarette-Smoking Man's AuthorAvatar in ''Series/TheXFiles''.
* In "Open House", the prospective buyer of the house bears the last name Escandarian, which is a reference to the Armenian Mardiros Iskenderian, his business (the famous Zankou Chicken), and the infamous Zankou Chicken Murders.
* The murders in "Home Invasion" are very, very similar to those of Richard Speck, although he committed them in Chicago, not LA.
* The Murder House works in a very similar way to Kesandru House in the ''Nothing Dead Here'' arc of ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance''.
* Violet mentions ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'' in the pilot.
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