When “Shining Vale” creators Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan first met they knew they had a delicate job on their hands. The series, following a novelist played by Courteney Cox, who is haunted by the ghost of a 1950s housewife (Mira Sorvino), had to strike the right tone between horror and comedy. What they knew they wanted to do was directly reference some of the classic horror and noir movies that inspired them. “The tone was being able to do references and homage without making it a spoof,” Astrof told IndieWire via Zoom.

Initially pitched by Horgan to Astrof as “‘The Shining’ but a comedy,” the creators and crew reveled in inserting references to their favorite horror features. So much so that the series almost requires repeat viewings to find everything. Something as minor as the wallpaper that papers the interior closet where Cox’s Pat Phelps finds a hidden...