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.
39. "Wanted: Dead Then Alive"
Episode: XVI
The One About: Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart Simpson.
The Good: For a novelty premise, it actually plays out as a great parody of Re-Animator. The ecstatic singing as Bob carries around Bart's dead corpse is the kind of jubilant response we've been waiting for Bob to show for over two decades. The subsequent reversal is also a lot of fun in which Bart does similar things to Bob. Great work as always from Kelsey Grammer.
The Bad: The aforementioned role reversal takes away some of the fun, even if it continues the duo's antagonistic relationship. Even if this serves more as a great revenge fantasy, it's still not canon, so some of the impact is lost for those hoping that this is Bob's big moment.
38. "Lisa's Nightmare (The Monkey's Paw)"
Episode: II
The One About: The family comes into possession of a monkey's paw, which will grant them three wishes.
The Good: The joke of the disappearing market booth from which Homer gets the paw. Lisa's wish for world peace causes Homer to think she's selfish. Homer losing his mind when the sandwich is a little dry. When Earth is invaded by aliens, the answer is to attack them with a large wooden board with a nail in it. Ned ends up getting the best wishes with a large house. The meta commentary about how people are tired of The Simpsons.
The Bad: It is nice to see the show being self-referential after only three seasons, but the cheesy merchandise jokes are something that the show would do better later.
37. "Hell Toupee"
Episode: IX
The One About: Homer gets a hair transplant that turns him into a killer.
The Good: Snake's death being treated as a big celebration via TV broadcast. The set-up for why Homer kills who he does actually makes sense. "Dibs on the liver." The slow reveal of Apu's unfortunate, gruesome death, causing Chief Wiggum to have regret about his Squishee. The police shooting the hairpiece, which has a mind of its own and somehow dies like a regular human. Homer coming to grips with ripping the homicidal hairpiece out is a great visual motif. Marge slowly getting the joke after everyone else did.
The Bad: It's among the first of the segments to begin being really violent for no reason. I think that it inspired an unpleasant trend in segments for the next few seasons of being mean spirited and making that the butt of the joke.
36. "The Island of Dr. Hibbert"
Episode: XIII
The One About: The family visits an island where Dr. Hibbert turns everyone into animals.
The Good: The animal characters are spot on parodies of the actual characters. Homer's acceptance with being turned into a walrus. Homer singing a parody of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as he rides Ned. "Gobble, gobble, gobble. Death."
The Bad: Homer milks Ned in a way that is a little homoerotic. Kang and Kodos feel tacked onto the segment for contractual reasons.
35. "Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off"
Episode: XIV
The One About: Bart and Milhouse find a watch that can freeze time.
The Good: It's not often that we get to see Bart and Milhouse at the center of the episode. There's plenty of great visual gags, including two angry parents, frozen in time, taped together in a hugging position. The strange acceptance that everyone has with Bart freezing time after he unfreezes it after an unknown time frame.
The Bad: The finale seems strange, as Lisa is allowed to try it out, but ends up just making everyone look goofy. There's another gag in which both Homer and Nelson end up naked for no reason which is more strange than funny.
34. "Desperately Xeeking Xena"
Episode: X
The One About: The Collector steals Lucy Lawless and leaves Bart and Lisa to rescue her.
The Good: It's a fun superhero parody. The "Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl" theme song is very memorable. Lucy Lawless is great in her cameo. "Xena needs xex." The Collector is on point with obsessive nerd culture. "I'm not Xena. I'm Lucy Lawless." The background features various pop culture nerd figures that will please factions of the audience. The Collector's disappointment when the collectible light saber has been ruined.
The Bad: Comic Book Guy is a caricature in a lot of ways here. The reason that Bart and Lisa get their powers is on point, yet dumb.
33. "Easy-Bake Coven"
Episode: VIII
The One About: Marge is a witch.
The Good: There's an awful lot of mileage Marge being a witch. It dives into the realities of having to leave her family to live with her sisters. It's also a strong Selma and Patty segment in which they crack jokes about stealing children's shoes. Even if it's only vaguely a Salem Witch Trial parody, it's still rather effective.
The Bad: While the reveal that this was the story of the first Halloween, it doesn't really amount to much. The finale may work as a joke, but it doesn't make a lot of sense regarding Marge's character. It's a fun segment full of great gags, but I wonder what would've happened if the story ended anywhere but in a flash forward.
32. "The Raven"
Episode: I
The One About: Homer becomes frustrated with a bird in his house.
The Good: It's a faithful to Edgar Allen Poe's classic "The Raven."
The Bad: This is among the most divisive segments in the show's history. While the visuals are fun, I don't understand the point. Were the writers just out of ideas? Was adapting classic literature going to be a regular thing? This feels like an idea that was mostly done to fill time. Considering the clever ideas that came in every other episode, it's kind of a shame. There's no real comedic value or tonal consistency either, which makes it more confusing. Even if it's well done, it leaves me wondering "Why was this necessary?"
31. "Send in the Clones"
Episode: XIII
The One About: Homer buys a hammock that creates clones.
The Good: A lot of great clone humor, especially having Lenny pay for the Homers' beer. A cheap but timely jab at Family Guy plagiarizing the show's ideas. The final strategy in which the clones are driven to death by following a donut over the gorge. The anticlimactic realization that the real Homer died and Marge is fine being married to a clone.
The Bad: It gets a little crass at times. Homer checks inside a clone's pants to see if his genitals are still intact. One of the clones mistakenly kills Ned. The clones attend a brewery only to later urinate behind the building. The lack of say that Bart and Lisa have in the manner despite noticing something is wrong is also suspicious.
30. "Don't Have a Cow, Mankind"
Episode: XX
The One About: After Krusty Burger sells tainted meat, the town turns into zombies.
The Good: While zombies aren't new territory for the show, they make the most out of this update with action set pieces. It's a fun parody of 28 Days Later. The zombie character designs have vastly improved over the show's existence. Apu's cameo as one of the last survivors is a great callback to his vegetarian lifestyle.
The Bad: In keeping with the show's later seasons, the ending feels like a cop-out. Where the episode's jokes about zombies are a lot of fun, the cure for the epidemic is unfortunately uninteresting. It involves Bart soaking in juices to cure the masses. It feels more like a nod to how bratty Bart is than a genuinely thought out conclusion.
29. "War and Pieces"
Episode: XXI
The One About: Bart and Milhouse must finish a game in order to break its curse.
The Good: It's a clever Jumanji parody. The various jokes about the confusing nature of board games is a nice touch, especially regarding Mouse Trap.
The Bad: While it is keeping in character for Milhouse to screw up hang man, it's still a very obvious and annoying way to end the segment for him to say numbers instead of letters.
28. "Bad Dream House"
Episode: I
The One About: The Simpsons move into a haunted house.
The Good: It's a solid Poltergeist parody. The rejection letter sent to them after they throw trash into a black hole is a nice touch. The slow decline into madness that each family member has as they carry knives. The house saying that "terrible stuff" will happen to Maggie, as if to sanitize the threat. Marge is the aggressor in the situation is a unique approach that rarely has been done since. Lisa's final analysis of the entire situation is wonderfully macabre.
The Bad: Like most early season segments, it's very slow and lacks the madcap vibe of the best segments.
27. "Bart's Nightmare (The Bart Zone)"
Episode: II
The One About: Bart, who has limitless powers, turns Homer into a jack-in-the-box
The Good: Jasper as a dog is really fun. Bart managing to rewrite history has some clever moments. When Homer is mistaken for agreeing with a psychiatrist, he blames the air conditioning for swaying him. The final scream as Bart wakes up is the perfect conclusion.
The Bad: While the sight of Homer as a jack-in-the-box is great, there's nothing beyond that to help the episode be either funny or scary. There's family bonding, but it is undermined at every turn and Bart's character never gets a valuable lesson or change.
UP NEXT: Killer dolphins, killer pumpkins, and Paul Anka.
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