It's one of scariest times of the year. With Halloween now only days away, it's time to turn on the TV and find what will tingle your spine and make you have nightmares for nights on end. Among the most iconic of the horror-themed entertainment is The Simpsons' annual Treehouse of Horror anthology series; where pop culture meets violence and surrealism with hilarious results. Over the next six days, join me as I count down all 78 of the current installments from the absolute worst (That's bad), to the absolute best (That's good) of the golden years; with a very unlucky 13 entries at a time. Who will come out on top? Well, there's only one way to find out. Click the button below, if you dare.
78. "The Diving Bell and the Butterball"
Episode: XXII
The One About: Homer becomes paralyzed, communicates through farts, becomes Spider-Man.
The Good: An enjoyable nod to the problematic production of the Broadway show "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."
The Bad: Parodying The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in a Halloween episode is one of the most ill-conceived things in the show's history. While this is passable for those who still find fart jokes funny, it's still a bare bones story that lacks anything scary or inventive. The last minute reveal of Homer being a paralyzed Spider-Man who farts webs is a terrible pay-off. It's the show at its lowest. Hopefully, it will never get lower.
77. "Master and Cadaver"
Episode: XXI
The One About: Marge and Homer murder a man while at sea only to find that maybe he wasn't such a bad guy.
The Good: There's some humorous, juvenile jokes in which Marge in a bathing suit is met with comical sound effects that are actually Homer's various ringtones.
The Bad: The story is baffling in ways that just don't work. Upon murdering the man, they discover a ship with murdered passengers. There's poisonous pie and the guilt of seeing our favorite yellow family as murderers never quite feels earned. It is a parody of Dead Calm (remember that?) that never feels like more than filler. From the start, Homer is in typical jerk-ass self as he tries to help this man into his boat by placing a hook into the man's mouth. The entire thing is revealed to be a dream in Maggie's (dressed in A Clockwork Yellow garb) head, raising questions on what value anything had.
76. "Mr & Mrs. Simpson"
Episode: XVIII
The One About: Marge and Homer discover that they both are spies, end up arguing through violence.
The Good: It's an accurate Mr. & Mrs. Smith parody.
The Bad: Is there any value in having a Halloween segment that serves more as an action story than horror? Much like "Master and Cadaver," it seems like the later episodes were keen on making Homer and Marge sexually attracted to sadomasochistic behaviors. It's only funny if you know the movie, which even this is undermined by the lack of the comedic premise. All you get is a loving couple shooting at each other. There's not really a joke there.
75. "Hex and the City"
Episode: XII
The One About: Homer annoys a gypsy that places a curse on his family.
The Good: When looking for a leprechaun, Homer throws cereal into a hole that attracts rabbits. It turns out to be Trix. When he throws Lucky Charms into the hole, he gets a variety of Irish cliches, with humorous results.
The Bad: It's an episode in which The Simpson family is cursed in comical fashion, but don't really have any payoff. The episode ends with a hairy, blue Marge mentioning Bart's death, which doesn't faze Homer at all. The leprechaun character is a little too eccentric, serving more as a loud, obnoxious gag than a compelling character. And finally, the leprechaun and the gypsy begin making out, thus ridding Homer of his problems, but not his family's curses.
74. "Wiz Kids"
Episode: XII
The One About: Bart plays a prank on Lisa while attending a magic school.
The Good: It's a "Harry Potter" parody that came out before the movies. In a great moment of casting, Mr. Burns plays a Voldermort-esque figure. Lisa uses her magic to have more time before school.
The Bad: The plot isn't all that exciting and while there's nods to the J.K. Rowling property, the jokes are lowbrow and lack any punch. It's the familiar sibling rivalry that results in a very predictable plot in which not a lot happens. The two kids bond together and save the day. Even if the jokes about magic can sometimes have their charm, they still don't compare to the show at its best. Also, Bart creating a creature that does nothing but vomits is plain wrong.
73. "Married to the Blob"
Episode: XXIV
The One About: Homer becomes a giant blob who won't stop eating everything.
The Good: There's an MC Hammer parody of "Baby Got Back" that works in context.
The Bad: It's a terrible parody of The Blob. It's Homer doing nothing but eating everything in sight, which is a tired gag from the show's nearly three decade run. The ending in which he eats all of the hobos is also a little uninspired and dark. There's a cameo from Dr. Phil, who rank among the series' more dated guest stars, mostly used for a gimmick that doesn't quite work. Also, this segment's name was used for a later, better episode of the series in which Comic Book Guy marries his new girlfriend Kumiko.
72. "Reaper Madness"
Episode: XIV
The One About: Homer becomes the Angel of Death.
The Good: There are several great gags revolving around Homer killing people just to get his way, specifically at a sports game.
The Bad: Much like "Dial D for Diddly," it's the reveal of God's involvement that gets a little agitating. It also ends with Homer, while on a motorcycle, outrunning God after refusing to kill Marge. The curse of playing the Grim Reaper somehow just vanishes after that in a rushed fashion. The ending is anticlimactic and lacks any cathartic repercussions.
71. "Homerzilla"
Episode: XXVI
The One About: Homer is a Godzilla-type creature in Japan, of whom Hollywood wants to make a movie about.
The Good: Instead of going for the obvious Godzilla parody from the 2014 film, it goes back to the original Gojira. The set-up works well enough, considering that it is in keeping with Homer's character. Comic Book Guy appropriately makes jokes about bad dubbing. The first reveal that Homer is just a guy in a suit. Professor Frink getting crushed right before announcing the cure is always comical. The closing title cards are a nice reference to the waning interest in Godzilla that moviegoers have.
The Bad: It's almost too faithful to the Gojira interpretation. It chooses to give everyone vague Asian accents and names The Simpsons as Simp-san. It's a tad offensive because it never feels justified. The episode devolves from a decent, straightforward parody into a cumulative commentary on American adaptations of Godzilla. There's not a lot of horror in the back half, and the jarring shift ends up feeling inappropriate and dishonest. It ends up sabotaging whatever good will the first half of the episode had built up by being at least tonally accurate to a Gojira parody.
70. "E.T. Go Home"
Episode: XVIII
The One About: An alien comes to Earth and befriends Bart.
The Good: It's always nice to see Kang and Kodos get a central story, especially with a parody of lovable alien film E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.
The Bad: Besides the title being on the nose, the segment doesn't do much with the premise that's not expected. While it plays some of the E.T. beats nicely, the payoff is ruined when it is revealed that the aliens only used Bart so that more aliens could invade Earth. It creates one of those morality twists that the show is great at, but adds nothing of value.
69. "You Gotta Know When to Golem"
Episode: XVII
The One About: The Simpsons come into possession of a loyal Golem, who in returns wants a girlfriend.
The Good: It raises attention to a very good film from 1920 called The Golem. In theory, Richard Lewis as The Golem and Fran Drescher as the Jewish girlfriend was smart casting.
The Bad: The episode doesn't do much with the premise beyond introduce a goy audience to the idea of an obedient creature from Jewish folklore. The rest is mostly Jewish stereotypes in which the two Golem figures are seen in a state of romance. What starts off as a promising plot quickly devolves into a lackluster series of gags that only qualify as Halloween material because of the supernatural elements.
68. "Tweenlight"
Episode: XXII
The One About: Lisa falls in love with a vampire
The Good: Casting Daniel Radcliffe as the vampire felt like subversive franchise commentary. Having his father love Dixieland jazz was also a nice touch. There's a couple nice jabs at Twilight. Even if you'd consider some of the animation to be "bad," I think that it perfectly fits the visual aesthetic of its source material.
The Bad: It doesn't do much with its Twilight premise besides turn Milhouse into a poodle. It strays into a more traditional young love story where the parents are embarrassing. Even then, it's the finale that dampens things a bit. As Homer is being gnawed on by vampires, he manages to kill them because of his high cholesterol. Predictably, he turns into a fat bat that can't fly long distances. While one of the more comprehensible stories in the bottom 13, it doesn't do much with its fun premise.
67. "B.I. Bartificial Intelligence"
Episode: XVI
The One About: Bart is abandoned after a coma thanks to a robotic replacement.
The Good: It focuses on the better half of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.
The Bad: While a clever twist on the film's original premise, it's frustrating that the segment feels rushed. It builds to the abandonment moment only to rush through a quick murder of Bart's robotic replacement. The remaining episode's jokes of Homer being repaired with the robot's body was not worth it. Thinking out a plot that was more clever would've done the segment wonders beyond a few clever gags.
66. "Scary Tales Can Come True"
Episode: XI
The One About: Bart and Lisa are abandoned in the woods and are taken in by a murderous witch.
The Good: When Homer comes to rescue his children, he is turned into a series of comical creatures, including a chicken with a fish's head.
The Bad: While it's nice to see the show tackle literary classics like "Hansel and Gretel," I don't know that it's done justice here. The gimmicks revolve around not cleverly reinventing fairy tale stories, but throwing them into immediate peril. Goldilocks is murdered by bears. Rapunzel loses her hair after Homer tries to climb it. Even the main focus results in a witch being thrown into a furnace. The finale is also way too lowbrow and anticlimactic for this show.
UP NEXT: Time travelling, robots fighting, and a quest to retrieve Hilarium.
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