Actress Tuesday Knight's character of Dr. Harris is named after scream queen Danielle Harris. Knight and Harris both starred in the fourth installments of genre franchises Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Both sequels were released in 1988 and were both number one at the box office.
Actor Chris O'Brocki based his character of The Ringmaster off of 'Elsa Mars' played by Jessica Lange in American Horror Story: Freakshow.
The film playing in the background of the second segment is the 1962 classic 'Carnival of Souls'.