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| "This is, indeed, a disturbing universe." |
The annual holiday tradition is back, with a few minor changes. No more tombstones, with this year being the last year of that. No more segways between stories, the only things between the three now are commercial breaks. Also, these three stories are more graphic and bloody than your average Treehouse of Horror, but luckily its still as funny as the best.
The Shinning
An obvious parody of The Shining (but lets keep that on the down low, lest we wish to be sued), Homer and the family head to a winter mansion owned by Mr. Burns to maintain it during the cold months. An odd, haunted mansion, Burns only complicates matters by cutting off TV and beer from the house and its residents, a move intended to keep them honest towards work but, as Smithers suggests, has driven previous tenants insane and murderous in the past. Regardless, Burns only states that he'll owe Smithers a Coke if it happens again and the two make their departure. Meanwhile, Bart messes up the hedge garden with Groundskeeper Willie nearby, and Willie soon realizes Bart has the "shinning", an ability to contact Willie telepathically. Willie informs Bart of this and tells him to contact Willie in the inevitable case of Homer going on a murderous rampage.
Upon learning about the lack of TV and beer, Homer quickly goes mad. At the bar, a ghost of Moe appears, telling Homer he'll only serve alcohol after Homer kills his family. Homer scribbles "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the walls in one room, and his tries to go after Marge, knocking himself out after looking at himself in a mirror and falling down stairs. Marge puts him in a food locker, but Moe and the other ghouls get him out (after prying him away from the food there). Grabbing an axe, Homer makes a more honest attempt at murder, prompting Bart to "shin" Willie over. Willie runs from his shack during a snowstorm, dropping his portable TV along the way, but as soon as he arrives, Homer hits him in the back with an axe, killing him. The family makes their way outside in the storm to escape Homer, when Lisa finds the TV and displays it to Homer. Homer's urge to kill eventually fades, and the family gets back together to watch TV out in the frozen snow. Then they freeze over and find themselves unable to change the channel when the Tony Awards come on. True terror.
Individual Score: +1.5
Time and Punishment
After getting his hand stuck in the toaster - twice - Homer has to repair it. Somehow, he fits the toaster with all sorts of weird gadgetry, and upon testing it out, Homer is sent back to pre-historic times. Recalling now-vital advice from his father, who informed him to not touch anything on trips to the past, Homer still accidentally kills a bug. Upon his return to the present (which happens when the toast is done), Homer finds out in horror that the world is now completely ruled by Ned Flanders, who forces obedience via lobotomies and "re-Neducation". Homer is barely able to escape this world by returning to the past. This time, Homer is forced to escape from a T-Rex, but falls onto a walking fish, killing it. The new present has Bart and Lisa as giants, opening up the house to kill Homer, who they mistake as a bug.
A third return to the past really messes things up for Homer, as he sneezes on the T-Rex, causing it to die while spreading the cold all over the place, essentially killing the dinosaurs. On the return trip this time, everything seems better than expected: the family and the house are extra classy, they own a top of the line car, and Patty and Selma are dead. However, upon asking Marge for a donut only to learn she doesn't know what that is, Homer can't deal with that and goes back in time again, just as it starts to rain donuts. Willie pops in the next time around offering to help, but is hit in the back with an axe by Maggie, who sounds disturbingly like James Earl Jones.
Angry and with nothing to lose, Homer's subsequent trips have his roughing up anything and everything in the past to return his former present. Eventually he thinks he's done it, but there's just one glaring difference in this world: people have lizard tongues with which they eat. Homer no longer cares.
Individual Score: +1.7
Nightmare Cafeteria
With detention rooms overstuffed and the low budget reducing lunches to Grade F meat, Principal Skinner has a big set of problems. However, when a pot of some kind of sauce falls on Jimbo, Skinner takes a taste and likes what he finds. Soon he lures Jimbo into a trap, and serves his remains as a burger to the faculty, who do not care and even like how the burgers came to be.
Soon, nearly every kid in school is going to detention for flimsy reasons so that Skinner and the staff can eat them. Bart and Lisa try to get their mother to help, but she insists they solve the problem on their own. With nearly every kid in detention, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse try to make their escape, but are caught by Lunch Lady Doris and are forced to flee. Again, Willie tries to help, and again Willie is hit in the back by an axe, by Skinner this time. The kids are cornered above a giant blender and are ultimately forced to fall into their liquefied fates.
Turns out, though, Bart was just having a nightmare, and Marge reassures him that he's safe... except for that fog that turns people inside out, which happens to seep into the Simpsons house. Now with everyone inside out, they've got nothing better to do but to sing their way to the episode's conclusion.
Individual Score: +1.1
Quick Review
This is one of the best Treehouse of Horrors in the series, with all three parts bringing some good humor and horror to the table. The joke about Willie getting axed in every segment was brilliant, and James Earl Jones' cameo was well done too. An excellent episode from top to bottom.
Final Score: 10
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