Twin Lakes is reminiscent of Twin Peaks, another town with more than its share of spooky nonsense. At one point, McQueen expresses his views on the importance of a fine cup of coffee, echoing Agent Cooper's views.
Each case has a name that is a pun, often on a famous film, including Malice in Wonderland, Tome Alone, Disorient Express, Don of the Dead, and Buy Hard.
The end credits include a credit for Gozer the Gozerian as "On-Set Extraplanar Entity".
Malice in Wonderlandys
The "Malice in Wonderland" case features a magical nanny whose name is almost, but not quite, Nanny McPhee.
Tome Alone
The name is evidently a play of words on Home Alone.
The "Tome Alone" case is set in a haunted library and includes several shout-outs to Ghostbusters, including the librarian's suggestion that if McQueen can't sort things out she might have to resort to calling in "a questionable ghost-busting startup".
The "Disorient Express" case features a cameo by a purple tentacle that looks a lot like Purple Tentacle from Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle. (It reappears in "Missing, Presumed Darkside", which reveals that its name is... Dave the Tentacle.)
The warning "don't cross the streams" appears in a very different context from the original.
One of the holding cells at the police station has a Raquel Welch poster on the wall like the one in The Shawshank Redemption. Dooley says it was put up by a prisoner to hide the escape tunnel he was making, which failed because the other end came out still inside the station.
While visiting the police station's shooting range, McQueen compares the marksmanship of his fellow officers to storm troopers.
Sally the police dispatcher is seated in a wheelchair, which might be a reference to the DC Universe's favorite Voice with an Internet Connection, Oracle, who is also a wheelchair user.
In a greyhound race being called on the radio, the hounds all have names that are terms from Dungeons & Dragons, such as "Critical Hit" and "Thaco".
Discworld: One of the items in the precinct house's evidence room is a red pointy hat with gold stars on it, which McQueen says is from the "walking luggage that ate everything" case.
The X-Files: Dooley owns a guitar with "The Truth Is Around Here Somewhere" written on it, and a cheap knock-off edition of Mulder's favorite poster which reads "I Want To Be Leaves".
BETI the AI has the same red camera eye as HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Her name is a reference to the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al".note I can call you BETI, and BETI when you call me, you can call me HAL.
To hammer home the 2001 reference, BETI at one point tells McQueen "I'm afraid I cannot let you do that, Dave— I mean, Detective."
In perhaps the most direct Twin Peaks shout-out in a game already full of them, McQueen can, if he completes a secret objective, find a strange cabin in the woods. Upon entering it, McQueen finds himself seated in a chair in a room that has red decor and a dancing dwarf who talks backwards and a giant who tells him that "The owls are not what they seem..."
The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at the city museum has a placard claiming that it drowned while attempting to swim to the mainland from a theme park on an island off Costa Rica.
In "Don of the Dead", a friendly (well, temporarily well-disposed) zombie comments, "Grr! Arg!"
Buy Hard
The robot mall cop looks like the robot from Lost in Space.
The games at the mall arcade include Zombie Munch (Pac-Man, but he's a zombie and the ghosts are ordinary humans), Faith Invaders (Space Invaders, but you're a priest defending a row of churches from an oncoming zombie horde), and Rampaging Monkey (not shown in detail, but the name suggests a variant of Donkey Kong).
Examining the radio in the electronics store results in Dooley assuring it that he's investigating video's crime against it.
"Buy Hard", in a reference to its namesake, features a sequence where McQueen has to crawl through the building's air vents with no shirt and no shoes.
Dooley's reaction when McQueen loses his shoes in "Buy Hard" is a reference to Hemingway's Six-Word Story.
Baits Motel
The name of the mission and the presence of a seedy roadside hotel managed by a man who had a oddly attached relationship to his deceased mother ( though he's just weird and annoying here) are references to Psycho.
The decor in Dooley's motel room includes a ship's steering wheel, which reminds Dooley of the steering AI in WALL•E.
Missing, Presumed Darkside
The auction house is named "Yog-Sotheby's", combining the name of a real famous auction house with one of the eldritch horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos.
One of the attractions on Pier 13 is a fortune-telling automaton like the one in Big.
When McQueen and Raxa find a loom in the auction house, they have a conversation about whether it's a weaving tool or a musical instrument, namechecking the protagonist of Loom.
Upon seeing a S.A.D lamp Dooley (misinterpreting its name) comments "Cheer up, it can't rain all the time.", which prompts the lamp to ask "...Eric?" (the protagonist from The Crow (1994) being a man called Eric Draven).
Stan, one of the inhabitants at the retirement home, used to play a Red Shirt in the classic science fiction series SpaceHop, with the catch phrase "Grow Old And Be Content."
A seal (possibly a selkie) sings a line from Seal's "I Can't Stand the Rain".
Cheers: The pub bills itself as a place where nobody can remember your name.
RoboCop (1987): During a discussion of currency differences between America and Ireland, the barman quotes Bixby Snyder's catchphrase "I'd buy that for a dollar!".
The Lord of the Rings: While extolling the range of plants to be found on the Dooley estate, the gardener claims there's even an ent about the place somewhere.
Plants vs. Zombies: The gardener claims he once held off a horde of zombies using only plants.
Monkey Island: While examining a banner, Dooley says, "That's the second largest green banner I've ever seen!"
While examining a set of salt and pepper shakers, Dooley quotes Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It".
Twin Peaks: While examining a nightstand, McQueen sees a woman's screaming face in one of the drawer knobs.
Back to the Future: A key plot point involves a vehicle that teleports when it travels at 88 meters per hour, powered by a Y-shaped doohickey called the Duck's Capacitor.
The Sixth Sense: Raxa reveals that she's now dating a ghost, and sums it up by saying, "I see dead people... romantically."
The "knowledgeable" Hookman seen in front of the haunted house is based on common urban legends of a hookman killer, but the specific brown coloring of his cloak (and the fact he just vanishes after giving you the hook) seems reminiscent of Candyman.
One of the puzzle involves dressing the detective as something like a Elvis impersonator, at which points he's referred to as the Honky Tonk Detective.
If McQueen examines the locked cabinet, Dooley makes a reference to The Muppets.
A (unseen) teacher with a habit for collecting human teeth is called "Mr. Cenobite".
After the first microphone attempt, Dooley keeps asking McKing to crank the volume up to eleven, a reference to This is Spın̈al Tap. If you check the sound board after that, Dooley will comment "I never thought eleven would work", prompting McQueen to quip "Stranger Things have happened" (its main character being a psychic girl called Eleven).
One subplot involves retrieving Battlehammer42 figurines (complete with a parody of its famous tagline: "In the underlit future, there is only war over the meaning of life").
The way Dooley sings "Turn Back the Clocks" is a spoof on the 1980s MTV music videos.
Ghost of Christmas Passed
Mr. Wang is seen with what is clearly a Mogwai. He brushes it off as his cat.
In the past, we meet a Witchfinder General trying to burn Bridget the witch who is pattered of Vincent Price's turn as The Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins.
