31 Days of Horror - Treehouse of Horror

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list.

We’re far from the first site to call out The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror franchise. But, as it became a cultural institution since the first special aired in 1990 and I’m that particularly type of annoying person who can find a Simpsons quote to fit almost any situation, we absolutely must. The specials are almost as old as the show, and the show is well into middle age. One of my favorite Halloween traditions for most of my life has been sitting down and binging some of my favorites, so here’s my three favorites – in no particular order.  

Treehouse of Horror V (1994)

Even though I said we wouldn’t rank these, this is probably the gold standard of Simpsons Halloween episodes. It spoofs three all time scary classics – The Shining, A Sound of Thunder, and Soylent Green. The episode opens with Marge telling the audience that the show is in fact, SO scary, that Congress would not allow it to be broadcast. But Homer and Bart interrupt anyway in a nod to The Outer Limits, giving us three perfect short cartoons and some of the most quotable lines out of any Treehouse of Horror.

The Shining is classic Stephen King, and its parody is classic Simpsons. “No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy” lives rent free in my head, as does “don’t be reading my mind between 4 and 5 – that’s Willie’s time!” It’s a perfect parody that I’ve watched more than its original source material.

My personal favorite of the three is “Time and Punishment.” I don’t think I’d read A Sound of Thunder before then, but I was familiar enough with the butterfly effect to understand Grandpa’s advice on Homer’s wedding day. The dystopia with Fladers at the helm is perfectly nightmarish and would make anyone want to fix the past. I often find myself lamenting how “I wish I wish I hadn’t killed that fish” 32 years after first seeing it. Homer losing it completely and smashing everything in his sight during prehistoric times and Maggie axing Groundskeeper Willie in the back with the voice of James Earl Jones saying “this is indeed a disturbing universe” are things that still make me laugh to this day.

The Soylent Green parody – Nightmare Cafeteria – is a perfectly cromulent bit as well, and I still sometimes find myself craving Sloppy Jimbo’s and Uterbratten. And I also still worry about the fog that turns people inside out.

Treehouse of Horror VII (1996)

I was a junior in high school when this special first aired and just barely dipping my toes into attempting to understand politics. While I’m deeply steeped in them thirty years later, I’m still trying to figure them out. But I credit “Citizen Kang” with piquing my interest in both politics and political satire.

It’s not common for a show like The Simpsons to lock an episode into a particular time by mentioning very specific events, but Citizen Kang specifically lampoons the presidential race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The pair are bio-duplicated and replaced by the aliens Kang and Kodos in a devious plot that ensures one of them will become America’s next president. Homer finds it out, but the pair spray him with booze and he ends up sounding like an average conspiracy crank.

“Citizen Kang” is probably THE most iconic Treehouse of Horror sketch and not only gives us plenty of memorable quotes like “don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos,”  but perfectly describes the American electoral system in its modern era for the last few decades – locked in a two party system where every election is the most important of your lifetime between two choices that aren’t good. Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others indeed.   

Bart’s evil conjoined but separated twin (“The Thing and I”) is a little bit ‘meh’ for me, but it did give us three great gags – Homer singing “fish heads, fish heads, yummy yummy fish heads,” Dr Hibbert punching through an empty picture frame, and the pigeon-rat.  

“The Genesis Tub” might not have as many memorable quotes as other standouts in the specials, but it’s a great and fun representation of a classic episode of The Twilight Zone (“The Little People”), which itself is an exploration humanity’s relationship to religion.

Treehouse of Horror VI (1995)

If you’re too young to remember the 90’s you might not remember how COOL the idea of 3D animation seemed. It was something rare and cool and made it feel like you were really living on the precipice of the future. While “Homer3” is a fine parody of another Twilight Zone Episode (“Little Girl Lost”), what really made it special was we finally got to see Homer enter OUR world. The short really did feel like a parody of that movie no one ever saw – Tron. It delivers some great gags like Frink’s hair bouncing when Chief Wiggum shoots the doorway to the third dimension and some great quips like “do you see towels? If you see towels you’re in the linen closet.”

I had no idea in the mid 90s that by the mid 2020’s, I’d have spent a great deal of my life in media. But “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores” was probably a very formative moment for me. Homer wants a colossal donut and steals the giant one from the Lard Lad statue. This goes poorly for him – and the rest of Springfield – thanks to a freak storm. Every billboard and advertisement comes to life and terrorizes the town until Lisa and Paul Anka sing “Just Don’t Look” to everyone. It’s a bit full of fantastic and hilarious, Rampage like destruction. The Duff Beer cowboy crushing a group of people, the poor Zip Boys dragging their heads across the parking lot, Kent Brockman being eaten by a billboard come to life of himself, the Lard Lad bullying Homer into getting his donut back – it all works flawlessly. To this day I still sing “just don’t look” whenever I hear that Cars 4 Kids commercial.

I was already a teenager by ’95 but the Nightmare on Elmstreet franchise still scared the hell out of me. “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” is another perfect vignette whose parody is just as good as the source material. It gave us the iconic lines “lousy sMarch weather” and “I don’t like the idea of Milhouse having two spaghetti meals in one day” and a great dreamscape visual showdown between a morphing Groundskeeper Willie and Bart.