All ‘Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror Episodes Ranked

EPISODE: Season 16, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/7/04
DESCRIPTION: Every show, even a first ballot Hall of Famer like The Simpsons, is entitled to a few dud episodes. This is one of them. Even a can’t miss premise like Ned Flanders turning into Christopher Walken’s character from The Dead Zone falls flat, and “Four Beheadings And A Funeral,” a From Hell parody, turns out to be exactly as forgettable as its source material. (Gotta give a slight tip of the cap for the sight of Disco Stu as an opium denizen, though.)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Ned Zone” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Four Beheadings And A Funeral” / 👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “In The Belly Of The Boss” / 👻

TOTAL SCORE: 4 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 19, Episode 5
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/4/07
DESCRIPTION: “Trick or treat isn’t just some phrase you chant mindlessly, like the Lord’s Prayer. It’s an oral contract!” This line, from the “Heck House” installment, is the only time I chuckled during this episode. If you were curious if a Mr. And Mrs. Smith parody would work in a “Treehouse Of Horror” episode, the answer is a resolute “n’oh!”

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “E.T. Go Home” / 👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Mr. and Mrs. Simpson” / 👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Heck House” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 4 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 14, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/3/02
DESCRIPTION: “Isn’t vacation sex always the best?” The standout segment from “Treehouse of Horror XIII” is the Dr. Moreau parody “The Island Of Dr. Hibbert,” which features Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa trying to avoid Dr. Hibbert’s “manimal” experiments. Marge gets turned into a hellcat, which Homer appreciates when it comes to the boudoir, and Disco Stu becomes Disco Shrew. There’s even a joke that involves a deragatory slur about Italians, one which probably would not make it to air in 2020, but reminds you how edgy the show once had the freedom to be. The other two segments, the snoozy Multiplicity knock off “Send In The Clones” and the 2nd Amendment referencing “The Fright To Creep and Scare Harms,” are each underbaked, and the latter uses an overworked trope from “Treehouses” past (Lisa’s good deeds come back to haunt her).

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Send In The Clones” / 👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “The Fright To Creep And Scare Harms” / 👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “The Island Of Dr. Hibbert” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 5 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 17, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/6/05
DESCRIPTION: The best thing there is to say about this uninspired batch of “THOH” installments is that we very much applaud them spending most of the budget for this episode to license “New Kid In Town” by the Eagles. (And not just a short snippet, either — this song plays uninterrupted for almost 2 full minutes.) In the negative column, the Most Dangerous Game parody (“Survival of the Fattest”) features another cringey joke about violence and hip hop, labeling the inter-installment Running Man parody The World Series Of Manslaughter as “the most violent TV spectacle since the Hip Hop Image Awards.” Yipes.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “B.I. Bartificial Intelligence” / 👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Survival Of The Fattest” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “I’ve Grown A Costume On Your Face” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 5 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 24, Episode 2
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/7/12
DESCRIPTION: Season 24’s “Treehouse Of Horror” was pretty blah across the board, taking cues from Paranormal Activity and Back To The Future for its last two segments (respectively). Ever so slightly better was “The Greatest Story Ever Holed,” about a black hole that develops in Springfield, and a cold open bit revolving around the Mayan prediction that the world would end in 2012 (remember that nonsense?).

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Greatest Story Ever Holed” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Un-Normal Activity” / 👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Bart & Homer’s Excellent Adventure” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 5 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 11, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/31/99
DESCRIPTION: This uneven episode features one clunker (the I Know What You Did Last Summer parody “I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did”), one fun but frustrating segment starring an evil Comic Book Guy (“Desperately Xeeking Xena”), and one installment about what hell the dreaded Y2K virus might unleash. “Glitch” is the best of the three segments, most notably for Homer’s line that works quite well whether or not you know the context: “Just like the dead clown promised!”

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did” / 👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Desperately Xeeking Xena” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Life’s A Glitch, Then You Die” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 6  👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 13, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/6/01
DESCRIPTION: “Trusting every aspect of our lives to a giant computer was the smartest thing we ever did!” The Simpsons gets a lot of credit for predicting the future, and in “House Of Whacks” (which doesn’t have anything to do with House Of Wax), the Simpsons envisioned our 2020 reality thanks to their installation of a voice-activated computer that is Alexa by way of HAL (but voiced by Pierce Brosnan!). This is the strongest of the three segments, not merely because we learn that Patty and Selma are huge Enrique Iglesias fans. The other two, “Hex And The City” and the Harry Potter parody “Wiz Kids,” are fairly forgettable. (That said, in “Wiz Kids,” a reptilian Smithers fully devours the corpse of Lord Montymort, a mashup of Montgomery Burns and Voldemort, while sobbing, some of the kinkiest psychosexual imagery in the show’s history.)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Hex And The City” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “House of Whacks” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Wiz Kids” / 👻

TOTAL SCORE: 6 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 8, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/27/96
DESCRIPTION: “The Thing And I,” in which Bart learns that he has a Siamese twin (“I believe they prefer to be called conjoined twins,” Lisa lectures) that’s been living in the attic, is the standout episode here, largely thanks to Dr. Hibbert’s brilliant one-liner describing the Siamese conjoined twin: He’s “too crazy for Boys Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town.” The other two segments, “The Genesis Tub” and “Citizen Kang,” are both middling fare, the latter made less relevant due to its reliance on topical humor (the installment is about Kang and Kodos becoming replicants of 1996 Presidential contenders Bill Clinton and Bob Dole).

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Thing and I” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “The Genesis Tub” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Citizen Kang” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 7👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 20, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/2/08
DESCRIPTION: “All pumpkins are racist, the only difference is I admit it!” It took 20 seasons, but the “Treehouse Of Horror” series finally turned its attention to the Peanuts Halloween classic, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. And you know what? “It’s The Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse” is … whispers … a lot better than The Great Pumpkin! For starters, the virulent and violent Grand Pumpkin is an unapologetic racist (against yellow pumpkins, specifically), and his line delivery of “You roast the unborn?!?” when he sees Groundskeeper Willie roasting pumpkin seeds works on multiple levels. The other two installments, though, are very skippable, especially the Mad Men parody “How To Get Ahead In Dead-vertising,” which makes not one but TWO different jokes at the expense of Abe Lincoln’s alleged homosexuality.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Untitled Robot Parody” / 👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “How To Get Ahead In Dead-Vertising” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “It’s The Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 7 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 32, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/1/20
DESCRIPTION:  In true Simpsons fashion, the real life horrors of the 2020 Presidential Cycle were predicted in the cold open of this episode. While it’s true that an army of Terminators didn’t take over Washington after the election went awry, there was that whole January 6th thing … so score one for the writer’s room.

This edition of THOH was not without its charms — any appearance by Comic Book Guy is worth a few 👻s in our book — but it wasn’t exactly inspired. The standout segment, “Be Nine, Rewind,” was inspired by the Netflix hit show Russian Doll, which landed on Netflix a full 21 months before this episode aired, making it feel a bit dated.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Toy Gory” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Into The Homerverse” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Be Nine, Rewind” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 8👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 22, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/7/10
DESCRIPTION: “They should call this one ‘Recipe For Murder’!” Nice suggestion Homer, but the middle segment ended up being called “Master And Cadaver,” despite being a tribute (of sorts) to Dead Calm. “Tweenlight” is a fairly straightforward homage to Twilight, albeit one that already felt dated by the time this episode was released (as it aired almost 2 years after Twilight first premiered in theaters). And “War In Pieces” is not topshelf “Treehouse of Horror” by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s fun to see how the Simpsons writers tinkered with the names of classic board games to avoid copyright infringement.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “War And Pieces” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Master and Cadaver” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Tweenlight” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 8 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 25, Episode 2
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/6/13
DESCRIPTION: When you think Halloween, you don’t normally think of Dr. Seuss. However, when you’ve been tasked with writing an annual Halloween episode for twenty-four consecutive years, Dr. Seuss starts to make a lot of sense by the time Year 25 rolls around. “Oh The Places You’ll D’oh” is an exquisite late-period “THOH” episode, featuring a script that rhymes in Seussian fashion and centers around Homer as (mild groan) The Fat in the Hat. As good as it is, though, the highlight of this episode is the stunning cold open couch gag, masterminded by none other than Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Oh The Places You’ll D’oh” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Dead And Shoulders” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Freaks No Geeks” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 8 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 28, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/16/16
DESCRIPTION: When you consider that this is the 27th edition of “Treehouse of Horror,” this one’s not too shabby! Parodies of The Hunger Games, Mad Max Fury Road, Goldfinger and Kingsman all appear in this episode — the 600th of The Simpsons run — but the standout line is uttered by Chief Wiggum: “The only invisible killer I believe in is God.”

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Dry Hard” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “BFF R.I.P.” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Moefinger” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 8 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 7, Episode 6
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/29/95
DESCRIPTION: “It all started on the 13th hour of the 13th day of the 13th month…” After getting an axe to the back in three consecutive segments of “Treehouse Of Horror V,” Groundskeeper Willie takes center stage as the Freddy Krueger-esque villain at the center of “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace,” one of the stronger segments in “THOH” history. There’s a great deal of visual inventiveness on display here; just take a look at the photo above, where Willie has turned into a giant bagpipe spider monster thing! There’s also a lot of visual inventiveness at play in “Homer³“, a segment which featured Homer traveling into Professor Frink describes as the fictional “third dimension.” Employing state of the art animation in 1995, a three-dimensional, computer-animated Homer Simpson stumbles into the “real world” —and discovers a bakery called Erotic Cakes— but as you might expect, the visual gimmick has aged poorly. And the less said about “Attack Of The 50-Foot Eyesores,” a one-note joke about the pervasive influence of advertising stretched out into 6 excrutiating minutes, the better. (That said, there is one great line that Marge delivers in this segment: “These monsters are destroying everything and everyone we hold dear … and you kids should have jackets on.”)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Homer³” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 10, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/98
DESCRIPTION: “You’ll be seeing lots of nuns where you’re going … HELL!” This episode bounces around a lot, but contains some hallmarks of the show: criticism of the programming at FOX by way of a televised execution, some trenchant social commentary (“I told you capital punishment isn’t a deterrant”), and a flurry of visual homages. Plus, we get appearances from Regis Philbin (R.I.P.) and Kathie Lee Gifford, and even Jerry Springer. (“I can’t believe it. Jerry Springer didn’t solve our conflict.” To which Lisa deadpans, “And now he’s dead.”)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Hell Toupée” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “The Terror of Tiny Toon” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Starship Poopers” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE:

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EPISODE: Season 12, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/1/00
DESCRIPTION: This is a mid-tier episode of “Treehouse Of Horror,” with one very good segment (“G-G-Ghost Dad”), one moderately entertaining segment (“Night Of The Dolphin,” a parody of the fairly obscure 1973 political assassination thriller The Day Of The Dolphin), and one stinker (the Grimm-riffing “Scary Tales”). If we’re being honest, the best part of the episode is the cold open that parodies The Munsters, which takes on even greater relevance these days now that it’s universally acknowledged that Herman Munster was a secret champion of civil rights.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Scary Tales Can Come True” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Night Of The Dolphin” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 23, Episode 3
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/30/11
DESCRIPTION: For an episode that features parodies of Avatar (huh?), 127 Hours (double huh?) and The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (triple huh?), this episode contains more laughs than you would think, especially when a paraplegic Homer (guess which parody this is from!) gets bitten by a radioactive spider and turns into an assweb-slinging crime fighter. As Chief Wiggum says, “They say no two asswebs are the same.” Ain’t that the truth.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Diving Bell and Butterball” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Dial ‘D’ For Diddly” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “In The Na’Vi” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 27, Episode 5
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/90
DESCRIPTION: Coming just one year after the home run that was “Treehouse Of Horror XXV,” “THOH XXVI” was bound to be a bit of a letdown. Fortunately, it wasn’t too much of a letdown, thanks to a great couch gag courtesy of John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy) and some meta, self-aware commentary on the “THOH” phenomenon itself in both “Homerzilla” and “Telepaths of Glory” (the latter of which is a riff on Chronicle, go figure!). Oh, and if you just so happen to be flipping to Season 27, don’t forget to check out “Halloween Of Horror” (S27, Ep 4), which is not technically part of the “THOH” series but is plenty spooky on its own.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Wanted: Dead, Then Alive” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Homerzilla” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Telepaths of Glory” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 29, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/22/17
DESCRIPTION: “Maybe deep down that’s why I ate myself … because I hate myself.” Of the three segments in “Treehouse of Horror XXVII,” the standout is “Mmm…Homer” (despite the appearance of the now EXTREMELY canceled Cooker Upper Mario Batali). After Marge takes the kids out of town, Homer is left alone to his own devices, which inspires him to sing “Left Alone Again” (to the tune of “On The Road Again”), a hilarious ode to the joys of having a house to yourself. Unfortunately, though, Homer’s lack of self-sufficiency in the kitchen leads him to become a “me-gan,” which means the only thing he eats is himself. Self-cannibalization has never been so funny! The other segments pay tribute to The Exorcist (hail Pazuzu!) and Coraline.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Exor-Sis” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Coralisa” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Mmm…Homer”  / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 30, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/21/18
DESCRIPTION: Of the many remarkable things about the record-setting run of The Simpsons, the thing that’s perhaps most surprising is the consistency of the show over the years. Even here, 29 “THOHs” into its run, there are multiple LOL moments (a dinosaur-fied Agnes Skinner to her son Principal Skinner, just as she’s eating him: “You even taste disappointing!”) and visual gags a-plenty. The best of the four segments here is “Geriatric Park,” which combines our society’s fears of retirement homes with, well, our fear of dinosaurs. (It works on multiple levels!) Also worth noting: Cthulu loses an oyster-eating contest to Homer in the show’s cold open.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Intrusion Of The Pod-Y Switchers” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Multiplisa-ty” / 👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Geriatric Park” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 9 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 2, Episode 3
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/25/90
DESCRIPTION: The very first “Treehouse Of Horror” episode begins with Marge directly addressing the viewing audience at home, issuing the following warning: “Tonight’s show, which I totally wash my hands of, is really scary. If you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them into bed early tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow.” That proclamation became prophecy, of course, as Fox was besieged by complaints by angry parents. (It’s almost impossible to fathom here, as we sit in the Hellscape that is 2020, exactly how controversial Bart and the rest of the Simpsons were in the year 1990.)

This episode, organized by three segments lasting 5 to 7 minutes each, established the template that all future “THOH” episodes would follow. “Bad Dream House,” the first segment, riffed on haunted house movies like The Amityville Horror and the terrifying collapse of familial dynamics (a la The Shining), and is far and away one of the scariest segments in the 30-plus years of these episodes. “Hungry Are The Damned” is a spin on the famous Twilight Zone story “To Serve Man,” and introduced audiences to Kang and Kodos, the two slobbering space aliens who have made appearances in every single “THOH” episode to date. And Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem, “The Raven,” serves as the basis for the episode’s final segment, winning rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Creator Matt Groening was worried that the inclusion of this segment would be considered too “pretentious,” but with the benefit of hindsight, what “The Raven” really accomplished was the cementing of The Simpsons legacy of skillfully threading the needle between highbrow and lowbrow sensibilities.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Bad Dream House” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Hungry Are The Damned” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “The Raven” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 10 👻s (out of a possible 15)

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EPISODE: Season 15, Episode 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/2/03
DESCRIPTION: “This is for Snowball I and JFK!” Why is The Simpsons one of the greatest shows in television history? 15 seasons in, they were still capable of turning out stone classics like “Reaper Madness,” easily one of the best “THOH” segments ever. In it, Homer kills the Grim Reaper (“You were the busboy in the restaurant of life”), but then realizes that he has to take over his duties. Highlights include Homer attending career day at Lisa’s school as the Reaper, and then tricking God by killing Patty instead of Marge. Oh, and there’s a happy ending, too!

The other two installments are less satisfying, but “Frinkenstein” —in which we meet Professor Frink’s swashbuckling father (who later becomes Frankenstein’s monster) contains one line that would get it canceled in 2020 (“This is more violent than the Hip Hop Awards!”).

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Reaper Madness” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Frinkenstein” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Stop The World, I Want To Goof Off” / 👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 10 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 33, Episode 2
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/10/21
DESCRIPTION: “In Disney Cartoons a parent dies / Life will be full of pain.” Season 33’s “Treehouse Of Horror” starts off strong with “Barti,” a cold-open parody of Bambi that skewers the Mouse House for continuing to inflict trauma on every new generation with their myriad tales of orphaned children. (This one’s got a good twist, though!) Speaking of skewering, midway through the episode (in the “Nightmare On Elm Tree” sketch), Homer looks out at the elm tree in the Simpsons’ back yard and skewers the whole “Treehouse of Horror” franchise: “Lousy treehouse. Every year, three scary stories: two of them good, and a lame one in the middle!” Well, the good news is that Homer got it all wrong, as “Treehouse XXXII” is one of the better entries in franchise history, with nods to everything from The Ring to, well, Lord Of The Rings! (Plus there’s a delightful “Poetic Interlude,” which tips its cap to Edgar Allan Poe, just like the very first “Treehouse of Horror.”)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Bong Joon Ho’s This Side of Parasite” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Nightmare on Elm Tree” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Dead Ringer” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 10 👻s (out of 15)

EPISODE: Season 18, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 11/05/06
DESCRIPTION: A late season entry for one of the best “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, there’s great consistency across these three sketches. “You Gotta Know When To Golem” is a hilarious spin on the golem myth from Jewish folklore, featuring the guest voices of Richard Lewis and Fran Drescher, and serves up this gem of a line from Lisa, after Bart uses the golem to take revenge on his enemies from school: “Did your mystical Jewish monster beat up those bullies?” Meanwhile, “The Day The Earth Looked Stupid” translates “pompous radio ham” Orson Welles’ “War Of The Worlds” and updates it some Iraq War parallels (Kang to Kodos, after taking over the Earth: “You said we’d be greeted as liberators!”). Also, you know by now how much this author loves his Disco Stu, who here appears as “Big Band Stu” (“23 skidoo!”). And while there are plenty of mean-spirited fat jokes in “Married To The Blob” —the dig against The Facts of Life reunion tour feels especially harsh— you can’t go wrong with Sir Mix-A-Lot reworking the lyrics to “Baby Got Back” into “Baby Likes Fat.”

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Married To The Blob” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “You Gotta Know When To Golem” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “The Day The Earth Looked Stupid” / 👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 11 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 26, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/19/14
DESCRIPTION: “Bart, you went to hell and came back a winner … like Jesus!” Beelzebart Simpson goes to hell in the first of these three segments, and surprise! He’s an ace student and valedictorian. “A Clockwork Yellow” is, you guessed it, a parody of A Clockwork Orange; at least, that’s how it starts out. However, by the time it wraps, it has made reference to just about every single Stanley Kubrick project, including Barry Lyndon (!) and the fake moon landing. And “The Others” takes the twist ending of The Others and gives it a Simpsons feel, having the original, Tracey Ullman Show incarnation of The Simpsons living in the same house as the 2014 Simpsons. Why can’t every year be an anniversary year?

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “School Is Hell” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “A Clockwork Yellow” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “The Others” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 11 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 9, Episode 5
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/26/97
DESCRIPTION: “The HΩmega Man” segment, which is clearly a play on the 1971 Charlton Heston film The Omega Man (which itself was an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 zombie/vampire novel I Am Legend), is one of the best and funniest “THOH” segments ever made. There are about 7 laugh out loud Homer moments in this short segment —his reaction to a Far Side day calendar (“Don’t get it. Don’t get it. Don’t get it.”), him dancing naked in church to Edwin Starr’s funk-rock classic “War,” him going to a post-apocalyptic movie theater to watch a Chris Farley/David Spade movie, his decision to run Edgar Winter over with his car (“Die you chalk-faced goons!”) even though Winter is clearly not a mutant zombie— but it’s perhaps most memorable for capturing Comic Book Guy’s lament when he realizes he’s about to be obliterated by a nuclear warhead: “Oh, I’ve wasted my life.”

“Fly Vs. Fly” is a MOR parody of David Cronenberg’s adaptation of The Fly, while “Easy Bake Coven” is a memorable riff on the insecurity of the male chauvanists at the center of the Salem Witch Trials.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The HΩmega Man” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Fly Vs. Fly” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Easy-Bake Coven” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 12  👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 21, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/18/09
DESCRIPTION: “Lighten up ladies, it’s not cheating when you’re wearing a costume!” From the cold open (where the Universal Monsters get caught cheating on their brides) to the myriad Hitchcock references in the gorgeous “Dial ‘M’ for Murder” installment, from the zombiefest of “Don’t Have A Cow, Mankind” (the outbreak is a result of cannibal cows infecting the supply of Krusty Burger) to the Sweeney Todd homage “There’s No Business Like Moe Business,” this is a late example of The Simpsons firing on all cylinders. A bravura episode across the board!

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Dial ‘M’ For Murder or Press # To Return To Main Menu” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Don’t Have A Cow, Mankind” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “There’s No Business Like Moe Business” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 12  👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 31, Episode 4
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/20/19
DESCRIPTION: Episode 666 of The Simpsons (yes, it’s true!) is the single best “Treehouse of Horror” episode in a decade, with all three segments earning a coveted 4 👻 ranking. “Danger Things” (you can probably guess what this installment uses as inspiration without me typing it out) takes the Simpsons to the Over/Under, where a plethora of ’80s jokes are delivered in a flurry of funny. Special shouts to Disco Stu as a breakdancing teacher, to Chief Wiggum’s detective work after the disappearance of Milhouse (“Over here is his final pee-stain”), and to the writing staff for acknowledging critic complaints of “THOH” episodes past by way of the Comic Book Guy (“It seems like someone hasn’t seen very much of Season 3.”) And while The Shape of Water is an Oscar-winning Best Picture, “When Hairy Met Slimy” has better value as a repeat watch.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Danger Things” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Heaven Swipes Right” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “When Hairy Met Slimy” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 12 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 3, Episode 6
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/31/91
DESCRIPTION: “This year’s episode is even worse. It’s scarier, more violent, and I think they snuck in some bad language, too.” After the runaway success (and myriad complaints) that followed “THOH I,” The Simpsons came back the following year with an even better lineup of stories, each centered around the nightmare of a particular protagonist. “Lisa’s Nightmare” is a riff on the legendarily creepy short story “The Monkey’s Paw,” while “Bart’s Nightmare” spins new life into one of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone (show AND movie), “It’s A Good Life.” Both segments are full of witty jokes and scary moments, but “Homer’s Nightmare” is one of the best stand-alone segments in the entire 30 year history of “THOH.” Wisely, The Simpsons writing staff decided to inject Mr. Burns, the most nightmarish figure on the show, into this segment, and Burns more than delivers (“Smithers, to the laboratory!”) in this Frankenstein homage. There’s a twist here that still sends shivers up my spine, even all these years later.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Lisa’s Nightmare” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Bart’s Nightmare” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Homer’s Nightmare” / 👻👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 13 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 34, Episode 6
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/30/22
DESCRIPTION: There’s been a Simpsons resurgence, of sorts, brewing for a few seasons now, as evidenced by this uniformly excellent episode. “Death Tome” (source material: Death Note) sees many favorites from the extended Simpsons universe rendered in anime form — did you spot Disco Stu? — and can easily be considered one of the more visually inspired segments in all of Treehouse Of Horror history, right up there with “Homer³” (from “Treehouse Of Horror VI”). “Simpsons World” takes its inspiration from Westworld — more the HBO series than the original movie — and offers up some smart critiques of the corners of meme culture that The Simpsons occupy. However, it’s “The Pookadook” that really excels here. Less so because the culture was demanding a parody The Babadook some 8 years after the movie first came out, but more so because the single most terrifying thing in any “Treehouse” segment is when the always loving, always caring Marge turns to the darkside. We all know Marge puts up with a lot as the matriarch of the Simpsons clan, and here all of her mental load and repressed rage boils over (with the help of a vengeful demon) — but it’s not Lisa, Bart, or even Homer that she takes it out on. No, her victim here is sweet, innocent Maggie!

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Pookadook” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Death Tome” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Simpsons World” / 👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 13👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 4, Episode 5
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/29/92
DESCRIPTION: “There are some cry babies out there — religious types, mostly — that might be offended.” The third installment of “THOH” is certainly one of the series best, gleefully referencing everything from Gremlins to Pet Sematary to Night Of The Living Dead. The confidence of the ace writing staff is on full display throughout the entirety of this episode, from boundary-pushing asides (at the sight of a naked Homer, Selma proclaims “There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality”) to a plotline where an evil Krusty doll gets uncomfortably date-rapey with (a possibly underage?) Malibu Stacy Doll. Plus, in “Dial ‘Z’ For Zombie,” Homer gets to kill both Zombie Flanders (“He was a zombie?”) and Zombie Albert Einstein (“Eat lead, Einstein!”). Grab your free frogurt —hopefully it’s not cursed!— and watch this one over and over and over again. “Treehouse Of Horror” doesn’t get much better than this.

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “Clown Without Pity” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “King Homer” / 👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Dial ‘Z’ For Zombies” / 👻👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 13👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 6, Episode 6
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/30/94
DESCRIPTION: The Simpsons‘ writers were near the peak of their powers in Season 6, and this “Treehouse Of Horror” episode is nearly the best in the show’s history. The throughline of these three segments is, in a hilariously unpredictable turn of events, Groundskeeper Willie; sadly for our Scottish friend, his back is on the receiving end of an axe in each installment. “Time And Punishment” takes Ray Bradbury’s famous short story “A Sound Of Thunder” and gives it an absurdist spin; the time travel device here is Homer’s broken, hand-eating toaster (really). “Nightmare Cafeteria” references everything from Soylent Green to A Chorus Line (really!), while many folks (including ourselves!) feel strongly that “The Shinning” (we don’t want to get sued!) is the single greatest installment in the storied history of “THOH.” This bit improves significantly on the scariest part of “Bad Dream House” from the first “THOH” episode, focusing on Homer’s deadly rage as he goes full Jack Nicholson in The Shining. (See also: The 25 Best “Treehouse of Horror” Segments Ever.)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Shinning” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Time And Punishment” / 👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Nightmare Cafeteria” / 👻👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: 14 👻s (out of 15)

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EPISODE: Season 5, Episode 5
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 10/28/93
DESCRIPTION: Diehard Simpsons fans often argue that the show’s creative zenith was in Season 5, which contains a veritable Murderer’s Row of Hall of Fame episodes (“Homer’s Barbershop Quartet,” “Cape Feare,” “Rosebud,” “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy,” “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song”). And, well, you’ll get no arguments from me on that front, because this is the single best episode in the 30-year history of “Treehouse Of Horror,” with all three segments earning a perfect score of 5 👻s. Bold, inspirational choices abound everywhere you turn, from casting Flanders as the Devil (in the episode’s first segment) to Principal Skinner’s steadfast refusal to acknowledge the gremlin destroying Springfield Elementary’s school bus in the show’s second installment (“The only monster on this bus is a lack of proper respect for the rules!”).

Meanwhile, the show’s third and final installment, “Bart Simpson’s Dracula,” pokes good-natured fun at Francis Ford Coppola’s hysterically overwrought Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a movie that dominated the box office during Halloween 1992, while also containing the single-most horrifying image in the history of “THOH” — Marge, foregoing all of her maternal instincts, bearing her fangs at her precious daughter, Lisa. (Oh, and this line from Marge to Homer after Bart turned into a vampire was too choice to ignore: “Homer, we gotta do something. Today he’s drinking people’s blood. Tomorrow, he could be smoking!”)

SEGMENT 1/SCORE: “The Devil and Homer Simpson” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 2/SCORE: “Terror at 5 1/2 Feet” / 👻👻👻👻👻
SEGMENT 3/SCORE: “Bart Simpson’s Dracula” / 👻👻👻👻👻

TOTAL SCORE: A perfect 15👻s (out of 15)

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