Ten best classic Treehouse of Horror shorts
The Halloween season is upon us again. Which means Treehouse of Horror is back on The Simpsons. It’s one of the few aspects of the show that remained consistently not terrible during the modern run. But instead of the new stuff, we’re of course going to dive into the classics and pick out ten of my all time favourites shorts.
#10 – Homer Cubed (VI)
On the surface, Homer Cubed seems to be a fairly gimmicky premise for a Halloween special. An excuse to redraw Our Favourite Family in that newfangled 3D computer animation style that was so popular with the kids at the time. Which, yeah, it is, but this short is so much more than that.
What we have here it the very prototype of Futurama. Fish out of water story, strange universe on the other side of a scary door, and packed with enough math and science jokes hidden in the background to tickle the pickle of any STEM PhD. Which isn’t surprising, since the short itself was written by David X. Cohen, who would later go on to co-create the adventures of the Planet Express crew.
The animation doesn’t look great by today’s standards, nor was it the first time computer animation had been used for a television show. Mainframe Entertainment’s groundbreaking ReBoot had premiered a year earlier. However, it was still largely a new and mind melting thing for mainstream prime time audiences.
The actual animation would be subcontracted to Pacific Data Images, a company previously known for film effects work, but had recently dipped its toes into fully CGI rendered cartoons. The characters would be modelled after existing vinyl figures of Homer and Bart.
Partly due to their work on the Simpsons, DreamWorks contracted PDI for their first feature length animated film, Antz, in 1998. They would later go on to make smash hit CGI movies like Shrek and Madagascar. Though the studio has sadly gone defunct due to restructuring.
I also love how this short wraps up with Homer in real world Los Angeles, which he bills as the “worst place yet”. Which isn’t too far off given the dumpster fire LA has become in the last two decades. While Erotic Cakes was never a real store, you’ll be glad to know the building still exists. It’s located 13569 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, California. It’s now a coffee shop, where yes, you can in fact buy cakes. Just not the erotic variety. It seems to be well rated on Google, so it might be worth checking out for Simpsons fans in the area. I’m sure they’d appreciate the business.
9 – Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace (VI)
This Freddie Kruger parody might actually be one of the few straight up scary Treehouse shorts. It’s also one of the few direct parodies of a fairly recent (for the time) horror movie from the early seasons. What better one to pick schlocky 80’s slasher hit Nightmare on Elm Street.
Groundskeeper Willie takes the role of Freddie Kruger, a man burned alive in a horrible accident only to come back and start killing kids in their dreams.
It was really a tough choice between this and Nightmare Cafeteria. Both are downright scary in their own right, but this one really hits harder on the funny factor than the Soylent Green parody. There’s a lot of really great, quotable gags in here, plus some really great animation with during the dream sequences.
8 – The Genesis Tub (VII)
Most of the earlier Treehouse of Horror shorts drew inspiration Rod Serling’s groundbreaking pulp fiction anthology The Twilight Zone. This one is based on a 1962 episode titled The Little People. Two astronauts land on an alien world and discover a civilization populated by people the size of ants. A moral dilemma erupts between one who wants to treat them with benevolence, and the other who likes to torture them like an bug under a magnifying glass. Of course there’s a great twist at the end that the series was known for, but I won’t spoil it here.
In this short, Lisa inadvertently ends up creating a tiny civilization in a margarine tub as part of a science fair product. While Lisa takes the godlike approach, the devil Bart takes delight in terrorizing the populous. Well, until the tiny people decide to fight back. Lisa is eventually shrunk down so here people can venerate her on their level. Something which she doesn’t take too kindly too. Bart meanwhile entres the tub into the science fair, and wins first prize.
It’s fair to say that Futurama did a much better take on this premise in the episode Godfellas. However, this is just a fun short. Especially in how it explores the dynamic between Bart and Lisa. In the end, evil prevails over good, as it often does. We also see the moralistic Lisa quickly turn into a demanding monarch as soon as she’s given any real power. Which, let’s be honest, is exactly what the Lisas of the world would do.
7 – Terror at 5 1/2 feet (IV)
If you haven’t seen the original Twilight Zone episode this is based on, you really should. Even just to see William Shatner ham it up before he was Captain Kirk.
Gremlins are mythological creatures that WWII pilots attributed mechanical failures. In the original episode, one was taking apart a commercial airliner mid-flight. However only Shatner’s character, who was already afraid of flying, could see it. People assumed he had gone crazy with fear, until the twist ending reveals unexplained damage to the plane’s engines.
This episode just replaces Shatner with Bart, and a passenger plane with the school bus. Otherwise, the plot plays out almost identically to the Twilight Zone episode. Where this really excels at is in its sight gags. Bart getting sucked out the bus window (even though it’s on the ground), or Hans Moleman having his AMC Gremlin driven off the road by Otto. There’s also some great interactions between Bart and the the ever stern Principal Skinner. A solidly hilarious segment in what’s arguably one one of the best overall Treehouse episodes.
6 – The Devil and Homer Simpsons (IV)
This one is a loose parody of Stephen Vincent Benét serial The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which a farmer sells his soul and is defended in an infernal court by the titular former Secretary of State.
In Homer’s case, he sells is soul to the Devil Flanders for a donut, but Flanders only gets his prize on condition that he actually finishes eating it. Homer thinks he’s successfully cheated Satan himself by leaving a chunk of the donut uneaten. Well, until his gluttony gets the better of him. Marge however, demands a trial first before Homer is condemned to Hell.
Rather than being defended by a famed statesman, the Simpsons hire their usual incompetent lawyer Lionel Hutz, who ends up going AWOL in the middle the trial. Marge takes over by offering proof that she, and not the devil, has legal ownership of Homer’s soul. The Devil Flanders departs disappointed, but not without making Homer live with that ill gotten donut on his head for all eternity.
Let me just say that the whole premise of Flanders being Satan in disguise is just great. It’s unexpected, it’s brilliantly animated, the whole thing just works far better than it has any right to. The scene in Hell with James Coco’s torture chamber is just some classic Simpsons humour perfectly combined with an obscure reference. There’s really nothing too deep here, it’s just straight up one of the funniest Treehouse has ever delivered.
5 – Clown Without Pity (III)
There’s just something about clowns that’s always scary. Dolls too. So why not do both?
Homer forgets to buy Bart a birthday gift, so he rushes out at the last minute. He ends up at a shop run by a mysterious merchant from the far east, who sells various cursed items, and frozen yogurt, which is also cursed. Homer ends up taking home a talking Krusty doll, which is, as you guessed it, cursed. It’s now trying to kill Homer, except nobody believes him.
Part of the joke here is that Homer was originally supposed to be Krusty, which he did as a side gig that he kept secret from his family. The irony being that Bart idolizes the clown while disrespecting his father, even though they’re the same person. Indeed, Homer and Krusty do share a similar appearance and a lot of personality traits. Krusty is basically a more intelligent and jaded version of the Simpson patriarch. The premise was quickly abandoned, but the show has touched on it a couple of times. This being one of them. You rarely see the two characters interact with each other, and it’s always fun when they do.
4 – Bart’s Nightmare (II)
Oh look, another Twilight Zone parody. I swear this is the last one on our list, but it’s a good one. Probably one of the best episodes in the classic series.
A 6-year-old boy develops godlike powers that allows him to put an entire remote town under his control. Anyone who displeases him is punished by being banished to an otherworldly dimension called “The Cornfield”. This is probably one of the few Twilight Zone episodes that’s just straight up horror, without having any sort of twist or moral to the story.
Here we have Bart taking the role of little Anthony Fremont. He forces Springfielders to think happy thoughts, otherwise they get turned into all sorts of grotesque creatures. Homer ends up getting turned into a Jack-in-the-Box after he gets upset at Bart for losing a football bet. Marge finally forces them all into family therapy to sort this nightmare out.
Like most Treehouse shorts, there’s a lot of great visual gags here. I love the callback to classic Looney Tunes short Duck Amok, where Snowball II gets turned into the same type of… thing, that Daffy does. There’s also some subtle references to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which are easy to miss, but land perfectly.
Fun fact, Bart’s voice actor Nancy Cartright plays Ethel a remake of the original episode featured in Twilight Zone: The Movie.
3 – The Raven (I)
The Raven is an abridge retelling of Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name about a grieving lover’s descent into madness.
The Simpsons second season is criminally underrated, as is the very first Treehouse of Horror. The Raven is wonderfully animated retelling of the classic tale of psychological terror featuring Homer as the lover and Bart as the titular raven, an ominous omen of death. All of it beautifully narrated by James Earl Jones. Which, I honestly can’t think of any better person to read Poe.
2 – Hungry are the Damned (I)
Remember how I said we weren’t going to have any more Twilight Zone parodies? Well, I lied.
Here we have our first appearance of Kang and Kodos, the giant octopus/Spock like aliens that have appeared in every Treehouse since. Through they never appeared in Futurama for some reason, which was a bit of a missed opportunity.
The original Twilight Zone episode centres on a group of seemingly benevolent aliens who come along and solve world hunger. The hapless humans later discover they’re being fattened up for slaughter, when one skeptical woman discovers a cookbook for preparing the long pig onboard one of their spaceships.
The Simpsons version is a pretty straight retelling of this, with Lisa playing the role of the skeptic. The twist here is that the cookbook isn’t for preparing humans, but how to prepare banquet meals for 40 humans. Showing that Kang & Kodos only had good intentions all along, and the Simpsons were the bad guys for taking advantage of their hospitality.
Overall a fun sort that laid out a lot of the groundwork that others would build upon, while also providing us with a smart retelling of one of the Twilight Zone’s best episodes.
1 – The Shinning (V)
The 1980 version of The Shining is widely regarded as a masterpiece of American cinema. So it may be surprising to learn that the movie received mixed opinions on its premiere. Like most of Stanley Kubrick’s films, a lot of it is left up to interpretation, making it perhaps a little too cerebral for its own good. That and I think a lot of folks were expecting it to be a slasher when it’s really more of a psychological thriller.
The Simpsons version does away with a lot of the interpretive stuff. After all, this isn’t a show that dives too deep into metaphysics. What we get though is a classic parody of a classic film that really highlights Simpsons humour at its best.
Homer is made winter caretaker of Mr. Burns’ mountain lodge. It’s not the crippling loneliness or crippling writers block that drives him insane. Rather we learn that the only thing holding Homer from the brink of madness is TV and beer. Two things that Burns’ took away in order to make the caretakers work harder. Bart meanwhile discovers he has a psychic connection with Groundskeeper Willie, who fills the role of Dick Halloran. This “Shin” (quiet, want to get sued?) allows him to call for help should his father ever go off the deep end.
As far as parodies go, this is where the Simpsons hit perfection. It’s a brilliant combo of classic Simpsons humour backed up by staying true to its creepy source material. Treehouse of Horror V was named one of my best Simpsons episodes of all time a couple years ago, and this is the reason why.
