"The Simpsons" Treehouse of Horror (1990)

Directors:

Wesley Archer
Rich Moore

Writers:

Matt Groening (creator)
James L. Brooks (developer) ...

TV Series:

"The Simpsons" (1989)

Original Air Date:

25 October 1990 (Season 2, Episode 3)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

In this trilogy of horror-themed Halloween stories, Bart and Lisa attempt to scare each other with tales of the macabre...

Plot Keywords:

Raven | Satire | Halloween | Macabre | Alien

Cast

Dan Castellaneta	...	Homer Simpson (voice)
Julie Kavner	...	Marge Simpson (voice)
Nancy Cartwright	...	Bart Simpson (voice)
Yeardley Smith	...	Lisa Simpson (voice)
Harry Shearer	...	Kang / The House (voice)
James Earl Jones	...	Moving Man / Serak the Preparer / Narrator (voice)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

This episode dispenses with the usual opening credits and cuts straight into the action.

Quotes:

[Homer calls the real estate agent in a rage after finding an Indian burial ground in the basement]
Homer: Mr. Pote, Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house, you forgot to mention one little thing. You didn't tell me it was built on an Indian burial ground!
[pause]
Homer: NO, YOU DIDN'T!
[pause]
Homer: Well, that's not my recollection.
[pause]
Homer: Uh-huh... okay, well all right. Good-bye.
[hangs up the phone and turns to Marge]
Homer: He says he mentioned it five or six times.

Movie Connections:

References Friday the 13th (1980)

The First (and Best) Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Simpson Halloween specials / Treehouses of Horror usually function as spoofs on different types of horror movies / TV programs. The opening features Marge Simpson on an Opera / theater stage platform "warning" the audience about the show's content, much in the fashion of the original 1931 Frankenstein.

The plot centers around Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in a treehouse where Lisa is telling a story about someone in a house where the police call and say "we've traced the call it's coming from the floor below you, get out of the house..." (Black Christmas, 1974 / When a Stranger Calls, 1979) But Bart doesn't think that's scary so Lisa dares him to tell her a story that is scary.

He tells a tale of the Simpsons moving into a great big old-looking house which is a steal at the price they paid (Burnt Offerings, 1976). But immediately, ghostly happenings take place when books start stacking themselves (Ghostbusters, 1984) and the house tells them to "get out!" (The Amityville Horror, 1979) but they just ignore it. In the kitchen, the walls are dripping with blood (Amityville Horror) and there's a portal (Poltergeist, 1982) to another dimension (Phantasm, 1979) in the wall. Marge wants to leave but Homer convinces them to just try staying the night. In the night, Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie (whose head spins around while in her cradle - The Exorcist, 1973) get impulses to kill one other (The Shining, 1980) but Marge stops them just in time. The house is not happy about this and starts telling them how they will die if they don't leave but Marge gets angry and starts yelling back at the house (The Legend of Hell House, 1973). The house asks for a moment alone in private and destroys itself (Phantasm) so it won't have to live with this family.

Back in the treehouse, Lisa is not scared, so Bart surprises her with a severed finger in a box (Phantasm) and another story. This one features the Simpson family yet again as they are abducted by aliens during a barbecue. While in the spaceship, the aliens Kang and Kodos appear friendly and offer to take them on a journey to their planet of origin while feeding them elaborately cooked meals. However, Lisa grows suspicious as the aliens begin weighing them on scales and saying things like "grow large with food" and "when we arrive there will be plenty of time to... Chew The Fat," so she decides to investigate the kitchen and finds a book titled- How to Cook Humans. As she runs to tell her family of her discovery, the alien shows her what the book really says - How to Cook For Forty Humans. The aliens are insulted that Lisa and the Simpson family would be suspicious of them and they return them to their backyard and fly away.

For the third story, Lisa decides to try a school book and reads the immortal Edgar Allen Poe poem, The Raven, in which Homer is alone in his chamber reading when he suddenly becomes frightfully paranoid. He has flashback dreams, hears someone knocking at his door who isn't there when he opens it, and finally opens his window as a raven flies in his chamber and sits on a bust above his door. The Poe story doesn't make much sense to most modern viewers since it's recited in its poetically proper form and would require a lot of trips to the dictionary to figure out just what's going on. As for the images - Homer yells at the raven but it won't go away. He tries to get it but it instead pelts him with books until he falls on the floor, where his soul shall not be lifted.

This is pretty much the only Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode where all three tales are outstandingly smart and funny at the same time. Not that other lesser tales weren't smart, but they don't all have the right combination of horror and humor and can just get boring. But not these 3. I guess it's first-timer's luck. I think further Treehouses of Horror may have just tried too hard. At any rate, the first tale is the coolest since there are a ton of horror movie references. The third tale is the most interesting and classic of the Treehouse series. The second tale is probably the funniest and most smile inducing / most entertaining. As for what that is based on, it IS science fiction oriented, which is my weakest subgenre of horror. But since it has a cannibal subplot, there have been several horror movies that overtly reference cannibalism - Motel Hell (1980), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Make Them Die Slowly (1981 - which may have been an influence since there is a line in the first tale of this Treehouse episode where the house says "you will die slowly!"), and maybe some Hershell Gordon Lewis films (I think Two Thousand Maniacs had cannibals in it).