Riverdale Is Going Full Stephen King Horror Movie In This New Promo

Season 6 of Riverdale is looking more and more like a superhero movie, but the next new episode is going to be full horror. The genre-jumping teen drama has taken inspiration from tons of horror classics in the past, and it’s very clear Episode 12 will be full of references to a particular Stephen King classic. So get ready for a fright, because the Riverdale Season 6, Episode 12 promo reveals a new terror is looming.

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Riverdale Season 6, Episode 11. The battle against Percival Pickens is scarier than ever after Tabitha traveled through time to confirm he is very close to destroying Riverdale for good. Archie and the gang may have finally learned Percival’s plan, but fighting against him still seems like an uphill battle, even with super strength, time travel, aura detection, and mind reading on their side. The newly arrived big bad has most of the town brainwashed, after all, and the teaser for the next new episode indicates his stranglehold on Riverdale’s residents is only going to become more powerful.

In the teaser, Percival’s right-hand woman Alice Cooper warns Riverdale that a dangerous fog is encroaching on the town, as the power goes out and citizens begin to panic that something is hiding in the fog. Any horror fan will immediately catch the reference: The story is clearly mirroring Stephen King’s 1980 novella The Mist.

In The Mist, a cloud of mysterious mist slowly overtakes a small town in Maine, and it brings with it a whole host of terrifying monsters that slaughter everyone in sight. So, could fans be seeing actual monsters show up in Riverdale for the first time? The show has toyed with the sci-fi concept with villains like the Gargoyle King, but so far, all the “monsters” on the show have turned out to be human. Then again, pretty much anything seems possible after the “Rivervale” event tore open the door to the supernatural.

However, the episode’s synopsis reveals the fog may not be as dangerous as it sounds, but rather a tool Percival and Alice are using to cover up a big move they’re making:

After uncovering what Percival has planned for the town, Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Tabitha devise a plan to oust the current town council and instate their own. But when Percival catches wind of their secret meeting, he and Alice use an upcoming weather event to scare the town into staying in their homes… while they carry out the next step of Percival’s master plan.

Get ready for a foggy night when Riverdale Season 6, Episode 12 airs on Sunday, May 1, at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.