History NightmareFuel / Riverdale

"Chapter 96: Welcome To Rivervale". The episode ends with Archie being knocked upside the head with a rock, strung up shirtless and covered with blood by a fire to be used as a human sacrifice and then Cheryl approaches, stabs Archie, and ''rips his heart out'' as a sacrifice to the Maple Maiden..

"Chapter 122:Tales in Jugular Veins". Each of Jughead's stories have a NightmareFuel twist:
* At the end of ''Keep Your Head in the Game'', Dilton [[AxeCrazy decapitates the other basketball players with an axe]] and uses their heads as basketballs.
* In ''Love You to Pieces'', [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/riverdalearchie/images/0/0d/RD-Caps-7x05-Tales-in-a-Jugular-Vein-62-Cheryl.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20230429213226 Cheryl's leprosy]] isn't pretty to watch.
* ''Beehive'' ends with Betty ''dropping dead'' with ''foam coming out of her'' because a black widow spider laid eggs in her hair. Even worse, Dr. Curdle Jr. opens Betty's cranium and runs in terror from the spiders coming out.
* ''My Better Half'': Betty and Veronica kill Archie by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cutting him in half with a large table saw]].

* ''My Better Half'': Betty and Veronica kill Archie by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cutting him in half with a large table saw]]

* ''My Better Half'': Betty and Veronica kill Archie by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cutting him in half with a large table saw]].

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* The fact that Fred unknowingly had an extended conversation with his son's rapist (about Archie) can be very unsettling, especially through an AdultFear perspective.

* Penelope Blossom strategically gathering information to try and take away Polly's baby has a severe dose of AdultFear. No doubt that if she could get away with tearing the baby straight out of Polly's arms immediately after labour, she'd do it.

** At the very least, as of season 2, [[spoiler:she isn't out there anymore]].

** Although it turns out that the Coopers [[spoiler: just want Polly to give up the baby for adoption]], the way they lie straight to Betty's face about how [[spoiler: Polly agreed to the adoption, not knowing that Polly had told Betty she wanted to keep the child, is quietly chilling.]]

* Jughead's [[spoiler: arrest as a suspect of Jason Blossom's murder]] after he's spent so much time investigating the crimes with Betty and getting further than the actual police have - it instills fear in the audience because Jughead has done ''everything'' right but seeing him [[spoiler: interrogated by Sheriff Keller is very anxiety inducing. Plus, Sheriff Keller uses the kind of evidence that doubles as an [[TearJerker emotional gut punch]] to poor Juggie, like: how Jughead is a bullied loner, has a bad [[AlcoholicParent family situation]], spent time in a juvenile detention centre and his student record isn't straight A's]]. Jughead's [[NotSoStoic trembling]] and quiet voice when he talks to Betty really hits home how scared he really is.
--> '''Jughead:''' [[spoiler: Those ''Paradise Lost'' kids went to death row because they wore black and listened to Metallica...I don't want to become a scapegoat.]]
* Penelope Blossom strategically gathering information to [[spoiler: try and take away Polly's baby]] has a severe dose of AdultFear. No doubt that if she could get away with [[spoiler: tearing the baby straight out of Polly's arms immediately after labour]], she'd do it.
* [[spoiler: Polly moving in with the Blossoms, because she still doesn't trust her parents enough that they won't force her to give up her baby. While Penelope Blossom ''seemed'' genuine when she told Polly she would be safe in Thornhill, keep in mind that she'd tried to declare Polly an unfit mother so she could take the baby by force.]]
* Episode 9 ends with Cheryl Blossom [[spoiler: using angry red marker to wipe out Archie and Polly's faces from the Blossom get-together earlier in the episode. She erases Archie because he'd rejected her burgeoning crush on him, and erases Polly because she's pregnant with Jason's baby and is being treated much better by her parents. Hell hath no fury...]]

** [[spoiler: With the reveal that Hiram Lodge was set up by Clifford Blossom, the possibility of Hiram taking his revenge on Jason becomes terrifyingly real. If he's ruthless enough to terrorize his own wife for dating another man, he certainly has no qualms about having the teenage son and heir of his sworn enemy killed.]]
** On top of that, Polly reveals [[spoiler:her true reasons for moving in with the Blossoms: she suspects ''they'' had something to do with Jason's death.]]

** The episode isn't much better. [[spoiler: After the Blossoms find out about Polly's snooping (and once she confronts them about having her engagement ring in their possession when Jason still had it at the time of his disappearance), Penelope gives her a sob story about how Jason threw the ring in her husband's face before he left...and then ''drugs her'' so she can't tell Betty or her mother at the homecoming dance.]]
** [[spoiler: It get worse when you realize the only reason Penelope didn't use a stronger sedative on Polly was because of the unborn babies she's carrying. The only reason Polly wasn't drugged to potentially ''lethal'' levels is because she just happens to be carrying Jason Blossom's children.]]

** [[spoiler: The actual episode is even worse. The video shows Jason being murdered ''by his own father.'' There's also Clifford threatening Jughead's life, two dead bodies (both supposedly having committed suicide) shown on screen, and Penelope's terrifying reaction to Cheryl questioning if she or Clifford killed Jason. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the reveal that the Blossoms and the Coopers are actually related, making Jason and Polly's babies the result of incest, and that Penelope and Clifford not only knew about the incest, but are downright ''delighted'' by it.]]

* In the Season 1 finale, [[spoiler:the highly realistic portrayal of Cheryl's suicidal mindset after her father was discovered as Jason's killer. She's eerily calm about everything, and puts her affairs in order before heading out to die in the river where Jason's body was found, but everything is still just vague enough that the others don't figure it out until it's almost too late. And being rescued doesn't cure her SanitySlippage, as she burns her house down and watches with a borderline SlasherSmile.]]
** Her vision [[spoiler: as she drowns, of Jason's decaying corpse beckoning her, deserves special mention]]
** The ending is also pretty grim. [[spoiler:Archie meets with his dad for breakfast, and goes to wash his hands. While he's doing so, he suddenly hears a loud bang, and comes back out to find a masked assailant holding a gun on the manager. Then his dad gets shot, while the narration says there's no way this could be mere coincidence.]]
*** [[spoiler:Season 2's premiere hints that the assailant was actually a hitman, so Fred's life is in danger.]]
* Penelope Blossom in general, from how little she seems to care about her daughter's mental health (to the point that when [[spoiler:Cheryl burns down the family home, Penelope is more upset over that than she is about the fact that her daughter nearly committed suicide]]), to her seeming apathy towards the fact that [[spoiler:Clifford]] was responsible for the death of their son.

*** And then [[spoiler:the assailant who tried to kill Fred breaks into her house undetected and strangles her with her own cello bow. Not only do we see him choking her to death, but also slitting her throat.]]

* The ending to episode 15 has [[spoiler:Moose and Midge making out in a car, only for the Black Hood to suddenly show up. He shoots them multiple times, while Jughead's narration states that Archie would "wake up to a horrific nightmare." ''After his first sleep in days, no less.'']]

* The realization towrds the end of season one and the start of season two, that [[spoiler:Hiram and Hermione are ''still'' involved in criminal activities, and lying to Veronica's face about just about ''everything'', and apparently have no remorse or misgivings about this whatsoever.]] Hermione's BitchInSheepsClothing act is especially unnerving, as she at first came off as such a good, loving mother, but we're now seeing her true colors. Even Veronica, who's suffering some BrokenPedestal as it is, still doesn't realize just what a nasty piece of work her mother is, though she's getting there. If you can't trust your own ''mother'', who ''can'' you trust?

** Following being ambiguous up to this point, we actually get an insight into the Black Hood's mind (through the letter he sends Alice), and its not [[AxCrazy a pretty]] [[KnightTemplar picture]]. Listening to him not just admitting but bragging to trying to murder [[spoiler:Fred, Moose and Midge]], denouncing them as sinners and Riverdale as a mess of sin, crime and hypocrisy is utterly terrifying.

** Out late for a casual hook up, Kevin meets up with a man wearing a titled hat. He causally gets in, only for the guy to plunge a knife into his stomach. [[spoiler: Its only an ImagineSpot but the image is still horrible to see.]]

** In the same episode, Nick's attempt to date rape Cheryl simply cause how disturbing realistic it is. He acts charming, then slips a drug into her drink, and uses the distraction of the party to pull her away to his hotel room. Then whilst she is unconscious tries to rape. Thankfully Veronica and the Pussycats rescue her, but its horrible to watch, especially how shaken Cheryl is afterwards.

** In Jughead and Archie's story, the two of them [[spoiler: are forced by Penny Peabody to make a drug drop in the neighboring town of Greendale in the middle of the night, when Archie's dad's truck breaks down. An old man drives up in a beat up pickup and offers to give Jughead a ride to the delivery point. The entire scene in the truck the man seems more and more off, between telling Jughead not to look under the tarp in the back of his truck, listening to a voice on the radio praise the Black Hood for killing "sinners", and gravelly voice talking to Jughead about the "Riverdale Reaper". Ultimately the man is just a fanatic deer hunter who wasn't actually trying to hurt Jughead but merely abandon him and try to steal his drugs, but it was still a terrifying buildup.]]
*** Not to mention the [[spoiler: ''zombie deer'' that looks directly at Archie while he's stuck on the border between Riverdale and Greendale. That and the warning of not to be in Greendale after midnight really implies that something about that town is [[EldritchLocation not right]]]].
** In Josie's story, she consistently stays late after school to practice for a solo career, and begins feeling like someone is watching her. Her mother tells her that she's been getting letters, one of which threatening Josie, and since Josie has been getting gifts from a secret admire she begins getting so paranoid that she begins having nightmares and the stress begins to make her lose her voice. She suspects that it's Chuck after he asks her out, and after Cheryl convinces Josie that Chuck is behind it Sheriff Keller gives him a warning to stay away from her, [[spoiler: but it's implied that Cheryl in fact framed Chuck to keep Josie safe, and the school janitor who has been letting Josie use the recording studio after hours may in fact be the real stalker and is still on the loose.]]
** Following the incident with Chuck, we see Josie alone at school after hours practicing her music again. The Black Hood appears in the doorway, and approaches her with a large hunting knife. Grabbing her from behind, Josie has just enough time to turn around before [[SlashedThroat he slits her throat]]. [[spoiler: Thankfully its only a nightmare, but it lasts just long enough for us to think it's legit and its a gruesome image to watch, demonstrating how much the stress of all this is affecting Josie.]]
** In Betty and Veronica's story, Betty is convinced that [[spoiler: Sherriff Keller]] is the Black Hood due to how strange he's been acting lately, with Veronica believing [[spoiler: he's having an affair. Veronica later sleeps over at Kevin's house for support, where she sees Keller leave at 1 in the morning and returning at 4. Betty breaks into his house and finds a murder board with all the killings on his wall, and a black hood in his desk. Keller provides Betty and her father with his alibis, but she isn't convinced and still believes him to be the killer. The suspicion on Keller really becomes built up, but thankfully it's revealed that his shadiness is because he really is having an affair. However, the Black Hood then makes a phone call to Pops, informing Riverdale that they failed his test to prove they were free of sin and that the reckoning would come for them.]]

** Then next episode confirms that the Reaper, [[spoiler:successfully got away with his brutal crime.]]

** Made all the worse by the reveal that [[spoiler:the man they killed was innocent and the real Reaper was never caught.]]

** Archie and Betty have to deal with the Black Hood kidnapping Mr Stevenson, and even [[{{Fingore}} cutting his finger off]] to motivate them to unearth the "towns first sin" or he'll kill him. Made worse when its revealed [[spoiler: Svenson is the Black Hood and he cut his own finger off]].

** It's less than the other examples, but the ending implies [[spoiler:that someone is now stalking Archie and Veronica.]]

** Also, the constantly hovering Chic becomes total paranoia fuel at the end of the episode, when Jughead is talking to Betty about Chic. And you can't help feeling like he's going to be appearing at the top of the stairs listening in on them. The camera even looks down at them from the top of the stairs more than once to further fuel that feeling.
* Chapter Thirty-One: The final scene, in which [[spoiler: Midge's body, stabbed with multiple knives like Margaret White's in the 1976 ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' movie , with the ominous message "I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD / PEOPLE WHO ESCAPED ME WILL DIE B.H." written in what is most likely her blood is revealed by a stage scenery change and everybody - well, except Chic - starts panicking]].

* The Sisters of Quiet Mercy, good Lord, ''The Sisters of Quiet Mercy.'' One character mentions that they’ve violated every humanitarian code, and it’s very easy to see why. It’s implied that parents send their teenagers there to be inculcated to complete obedience, and it’s revealed in Season Two that they [[spoiler: secretly perform conversion therapy- which as we see with Cheryl entails intense physical labor, gaslighting, and gay bashing “educational videos.”]] By Season Three they’ve taken to [[spoiler: covertly '''testing hallucinogenic drugs''' on unconsenting patients and brainwashing them into subservience to the Sisters and allegiance to The Gargoyle King.]]

"Chapter 96: Welcome To Rivervale". [[spoiler: The episode ends with Archie being knocked upside the head with a rock, strung up shirtless and covered with blood by a fire to be used as a human sacrifice and then Cheryl approaches, stabs Archie, and ''rips his heart out'' as a sacrifice to the Maple Maiden.]].

"Chapter 96: Welcome To Rivervale". [[spoiler: The episode ends with Archie being knocked upside the head with a rock, strung up by a fire to be used as a human sacrifice and then having ''his heart removed'']].

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[[index]]

* The fact that Fred unknowingly had an extended conversation with his son's rapist (about Archie) can be very unsettling, especially through an {{Adult Fear}} perspective.
* The times we see Jason Blossom's corpse.

* Chapter 14

** We get a double dose in the last scene:

-->'''Cheryl:''' Do you know whose blood this is, Mummy? This is Jason's blood... This is Daddy's blood... And the next blood to be spilt will be yours. You've been in cahoots with Daddy's twin, you tried to kill Nana Rose, and then you shipped me off to a ghoulish nunnery. But your depraved gambits are finished. If you so much as pluck one hair from Nana Rose's little head, I'll end you. I burned one house down, I'll happily burn another {...} I want to be emancipated. I want Thistlehouse all to my self and my Nana... Start packing, Mummy. You and Uncle Claudius are pig-people. And should live amongst the pigs.
* Chapter 20: Tales from the Darkside is basically a whole episode of this:

* Chapter Thirty-One
** The final scene, in which [[spoiler: Midge's body, stabbed with multiple knives like Margaret White's in the 1976 ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' movie , with the ominous message "I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD / PEOPLE WHO ESCAPED ME WILL DIE B.H." written in what is most likely her blood is revealed by a stage scenery change and everybody - well, except Chic - starts panicking]].

!! Meta

[[folder:Season 4]]
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[[folder:Season 5]]
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[[folder:Season 5]]

** Cheryl enters Thistlehouse holding lit candles while drenched in blood. She approaches her mother and tells her that she's covered in Jason and Clifford's blood. The next blood to be spilled is Penelope's. Cheryl confronts her mother for being in cahoots with Claudius, trying to kill Nana Rose and shipping her off to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Penelope's depraved gambits end here. If she ever tries to harm Nana Rose again, Cheryl threatens to end her. She burned one house down, she'll gladly do it again.

-->"You were cruel to me, Mother. It was abuse, plain and simple. ''(cuts off her air tube)'' So henceforth, if you breathe, it is because I give you air. If you drink, it is because I poured your cup myself. And if you move, it is quietly and with my blessing. ''(releases the tube)'' Things are going to be different now, Mommy. Better. You'll see."

* [[FalseReassurance Good news]]! That masked demon-thing from the trailer? It has a name now. Or rather, ''he'' has a name. [[https://twitter.com/WriterRAS/status/1045088048227074048/photo/1 Say hello]] to the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Gargoyle King.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riverdale101_2715.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"''Oh my God''. It's Jason. He was shot!"]]

*** Makes it even creepier if this happened to you in a dream and you dyed your hair by dropping in Jason's blood.

* In episode 8, the reveal that Hal Cooper [[spoiler: had not only tried to force Polly to abort her unborn baby because it has 'Blossom blood,' he'd also forced Alice to abort an earlier pregnancy because 'she wasn't ready.']]
** [[spoiler: Polly moving in with the Blossoms, because she still doesn't trust her parents enough that they won't force her to give up her baby. While Penelope Blossom ''seemed'' genuine when she told Polly she would be safe in Thornhill, keep in mind that she'd tried to declare Polly an unfit mother so she could take the baby by force.]]

* Some of the promos on the show's Website/{{Facebook}} are pretty surreal and disconcerting.
** [[https://www.facebook.com/CWRiverdale/videos/1302466656499392/ Jughead]] chewing on a pen hard enough to make ink drip out of his mouth (and the audio distortion in the background doesn't help).
** [[https://www.facebook.com/CWRiverdale/videos/1305409609538430/ Betty]] gluing her lips shut. "She's screaming on the inside" indeed.
** [[https://www.facebook.com/CWRiverdale/videos/1305537719525619/ Veronica]] being strangled by a growing pearl necklace.
** [[https://www.facebook.com/CWRiverdale/videos/1307463262666398/ Archie]] throws on his letterman jacket, only for it to turn into a straightjacket.