It’s Halloween season which means Animation Domination Season has just begun and that only means one thing… Halloween Specials! Every year our favourite adult cartoons such as Family Guy, The Simpsons and Bobs Burgers will bring us spooky and bizarre tales!!! While Family Guy and Bobs Burgers (especially Bobs Burgers) are fairly new to the game, The Simpsons have a back log of Halloween themed episodes!
The Simpsons have 27 Halloween specials and each Halloween episode will have three separate stories as well as a Halloween themed opening. Also Kang and Kodos make a special appearance. The episodes will have a direct parody of certain horror films eg in season 24 they made a story parodying Paranormal Activity. With so many Halloween episodes to choose from I thought I would show you my top ten Simpsons Halloween specials!! They are not in any chronological order, it’s just these ten will happen to my favourites!!
Now, let’s get started!
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXIII
This is one of my favourite Halloween Horrors Each story is fun and completely different even in terms of genre. Favourite story is Un-Normal Activity – Based on the Paranormal Activity franchise. Homer buys a video camera to find out what evil spirit is haunting them. They find out that it’s a more-like demon who Marge made a plea with to save her sister who summoned the Demon through a Satanic Ritual. In return for saving her sisters the demon says that he will return back in 30 to take Marge’s favourite child.
If you love the Paranormal Activity franchise then you will love this episode!
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXV
It’s a well known fact that Matt Groening is a huge Stanley Kubrick fan and he showed his love for the cult director by paying homage to his work in the story ‘A Clockwork Yellow‘. Moe is the leader of a Clockwork Orange-style gang in London along Lenny, Carl and Homer. Homer falls for a girl (Marge) and quits the gang, afterwards the whole gang disperses. Years later, Moe is attacked in his house in the style of the gangs former ways and asks Homer to bring the gang back together one last time. Lenny and Carl, who are now officers, join them. I love Clockwork Orange so I was in love with parody, very cleverly written and really funny!
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVIII
This is such a good episode!! They parody everything from ET to Mr and Mrs Smith while the last story is inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights which is a Renaissance painting by Hieronymus Bosch. I absolutely love the ET story, it had my stitches but I do believe that the last story is my favourite story. Heck House starts with the kids getting ready for Trick-or-Treat. They become angry with Agnes Skinner who instead of giving them candy, spits in Milhouse’ pumpkin which is full of candy. They decide to honour the true meaning of trick-or-treat and begin pulling pranks on everyone, which eventually turns into vandalism. Everyone begins to complain so Ned suggests turning the church into a ‘Heck House’ and simulates to the kids what could happen to them for their sins. They scoff his attempts. Ned turns to the Lord and asks for help to scare them so God turns him into the Devil and he sends the kids to Hell. He shows the kids the Seven Deadly Sins. Such a great episode!
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII
An oldy but a goody, The jokes come thick and fast and the timing of each joke is just perfect! Nothing beats the old Simpson horrors. My favourite story is definitely ‘The Thing and I’ which is a parody of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Basket Case. Lisa and Bart start hearing weird sounds in the attic and suspect that something is up there. They ask Marge and Homer but they claim they have no idea what their talking about. Bart and Lisa investigate and soon find out that there is definitely something up there. Homer and Marge head to the attic where Homer declares ‘it’s escaped’. Marge calls Dr Hibbert who explains to Bart had a conjoined twin that was so evil he couldn’t live in society. Such an awesome episode and definitely a must-see for fans of the older episodes.
The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XI
The opening credits made me fall in love with this episode, I mean who doesn’t like The Munsters. Even though I’m not that much of a fan of the first story, I thought the other two were imaginative and hilarious. When Lisa utters the words ‘Son of a …’ I still find myself howling. My utmost favourite story is Scary Tales Can Come True which has a fairy tale setting and The Simpsons are living in a pumpkin cottage. Homer has lost is job as a village oaf and he abandons the children in the woods to solve the family food shortage. When Homer returns Marge is furious and makes Homer go back to the forest to look for them. Whilst Homer is a one man search party, Lisa and Bart manage to elude the many dangerous creatures in the forest with the help of Lisa’s book Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They avoid a troll-like Moe and the three bears but they eventually seek shelter in the gingerbread house with an evil old witch. After this story make sure you check out ‘Night of the Dolphin’ a fantastic end story.
Hope you enjoyed part one of two on my Simpsons Halloween Horror special
