The Simpsons is one of the longest running series of all time, and that means it has kept releasing new Halloween specials to the present day. The Treehouse of Horror specials have been a mainstay of The Simpsons‘ seasons ever since it kicked off its tradition with its second season. Fans have been treated to nearly 40 Horror specials over the decades since, and that includes some of the best episodes in the entire history of the animated series to date. But it’s not all just limited to just the episodes fans get to see around Halloween each year, however.
Because not only are their scares wrapped up within each Treehouse of Horror special dropped each season, but The Simpsons has actually been expanding its Horror flavor with extra special episodes released outside of the traditional package too. In wrapping up these final few rankings across the many years of the show, it’s best to include them along with the rest of the present day Treehouse of Horror specials launched in the last decade of episodes too.
Read on for our rankings of the best Treehouse of Horror specials from Season 31 to Season 37, along with the many extra The Simpsons specials you might have missed otherwise.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
11). Treehouse of Horror XXX
Treehouse of Horror XXX was the start of the transition between the 20s era and the future to come. This unfortunately means that this entry is the weakest of this generation so far because it continues a lot of the weaker trends from the past ten years like a distance from Horror properties and skewing more towards humor instead. As Episode 666 in the series, you’d hope for something stronger than a lazy Stranger Things parody with “Danger Things,” that comes too long after the Netflix series was first at its peak.
As for the more unique idea, “Heaven Swipes Right” goes for Heaven Can Wait and sees Homer dying over and over again to live in someone else’s body until Marge is happy with it. It’s a funnier premise, but ultimately just doesn’t belong. It’s the same case for The Shape of Water parody with “When Hairy Met Slimy.” Selma and Kang does make for a fun pairing, but it just doesn’t have the bite the better Treehouse of Horror specials have. Even more so for the 666th episode.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
10). Treehouse of Horror XXXII
The “bite” that fans will look for in a Treehouse of Horror special is that sense of death or danger from Horror that you don’t get in The Simpsons otherwise. Even when Treehouse of Horror XXXII parodies an Academy Award winning thriller, Parasite, it decides to really go for grit and gore with a massive fight that leads to the death of many characters (and Maggie using the gruesome display of their bodies as a jungle gym of sorts). So even if the short itself wasn’t great, it came through with consequences.
It’s the same for “Nightmare on Elm Tree” which takes the titular Treehouse of Horror and turns it into a tree that starts a revolution. Treehouse of Horror has dealt with this kind of idea in the past with plant pods and couches, but once again it delivers with a lot of wanton death and destruction. It’s a bit short, however, so we do get an interesting looking interlude about Bart. Then it’s all topped off with a fun new viral video take on The Ring, “Dead Ringer,” that subverts expectations by having Lisa trying to befriend a hilarious take on Sadako from that franchise. There’s just a different when Treehouse of Horror tries to be scary.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
9). Treehouse of Horror XXXV
As one of the more recent releases on the list, Treehouse of Horror XXXV is a bit of a mixed bag. The best short of the year, “The Fall of the House of Monty” feels like an offshoot of the Thanksgiving of Horror special (which we’ll address later) so you can’t really give it full Halloween points despite the visuals being pretty cool. The ghouls of each of Homer and the others are well designed, and it leads to a fun end, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s suited for Halloween. That’s the issue with “The Information Rage” too as politcal arguments form giant kaiju that destroy the town.
It leads to an awesome Pacific Rim parody with Bart and Lisa, but once again it’s more science fiction than horror based. But at least “Denim” brings it back around with a stop motion animated pair of jeans (from Robot Chicken‘s Stoopid Buddy studio) that do bring about some fun gags. It doesn’t end strongly, however, so it’s an unfortunate note to end the year on. Not quite excellent, but nowhere near as bad as some years.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
8). Treehouse of Horror XXXI
The bite we’re really looking for returns with Treehouse of Horror XXXI. Following a very dated 2020 election opening (complete with COVID masks), “Toy Gory” gets the party going with a CG animated spin on Toy Story as Bart’s tortured toys come to life and torture him in turn. The episode gets away with having one of the most shocking and depressing endings in Treehouse history (as Marge and Homer cry over Bart’s lifeless toy body), and it’s rather brutal getting there as we see the toys killing Bart little by little.
“Into the Homerverse” is unfortunately the furthest thing away from Horror with yet another short with multiple Homers, but at least it has some fun with the idea by also revealing different Burnses. But it’s all made up for with the Russian Doll inspired “Be Nine, Rewind” as Lisa and Nelson die over and over again (in hilarious, yet bloody ways) until they figure out they need to kill Gil to escape the loop. It mines a lot of jokes out of the idea (like how Nelson kills Ralph), and thankfully brings this year to a fun close.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
7). Treehouse of Horror XXXIV
Treehouse of Horror XXXIV definitely strikes a great balance between everything you could want with these specials. “Wild Barts Can’t Be Token” ages poorly because it’s about NFTs, but Marge does end up brutally killing them in order to save her son and thus it makes for quite a fun romp. The final segment, “Lout Break,” is yet another Homer clone idea, but it’s probably the most fun version of the idea since Treehouse of Horror XIII’s “Send in the Clones.” As people are mutated into Homers this time around, it’s just one gag after another.
Dan Castellaneta then puts a great envelope on it all with his take on “Homer Marge,” and that visual itself just works wonders. But the standout is undoubtedly “Ei8ght,” where Sideshow Bob successfully kills Bart during Season 5’s “Cape Feare,” and Lisa grows up to investigate a new killer trying to get her attention. It’s violent, it’s creepy, and it has a twist that really feels genius. This one finally makes good on the promise of Sideshow Bob killing Bart, and it’s one of the best stories in Treehouse history because of it. If only the rest of the episode was as strong.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
6). Thanksgiving of Horror
Thanksgiving of Horror is such a great idea, The Simpsons should really make use of the holiday for more scares in the future. Rather than Halloween, this Season 31 episode instead opts for three stories using Thanksgiving as their horror base. “A-Gobble-Ypto” sees Pilgrims brutally murdering turkeys like the natives were slaughtered in Apocalypto. “The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow” sees an A.I. version of Marge trying to kill the original when she doesn’t get the proper credit for Thanksgiving dinner, and “The Last Thanksgiving” sees a cranberry sauce blob eating kids in space.
There are some incredible visuals here that are honestly spine tingling. There’s a sense that the new holiday has given the horror a refreshed since of life in the stories too. This new lens has some of the punchiest kills in recent memory (like the cranberry sauce sucking Martin’s bones out of his skin), and it’s just pure fun.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
5). Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes
Another cool special came outside of the traditional Halloween window with Season 36’s Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes. Three shorts taking on Ray Bradbury’s most famous works, “The Screaming Woman, “Marionettes, Inc.,” and the most famous of the bunch, Fahrenheit 451. Each of these stories is a perfect fit for Simpsons’ various characters, and each of them does have an intriguing story to tell. The highlight of the three is a toss up between its second entry that sees both Skinner and Chalmers replace themselves with robotic doubles (leading to a fun showdown at school) or its Fahrenheit 451 take.
That imagines a future with only prestige television, and it means “dumber” programs like reality shows and more have been outlawed. Homer is a perfect person to tell this new story through as he gets hooked to that material, and soon discovers an entire rebel group trying to keep the past’s terrible television alive. Much like Thanksgiving of Horror, there’s just so much fresh energy apparent here that comes across with each story. Working outside of the bounds of Treehouse of Horror clearly had an impact.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
4). Treehouse of Horror XXXIII
With that being said, Treehouse of Horror XXXIII is undoubtedly one of the best Treehouse of Horror specials ever as it’s three incredibly strong offerings. “The Pookadook” is The Babadook with Marge threatening to kill Maggie, and it feels so much more sinister because it’s a baby being put in so much danger. Sure, Maggie is more capable than any other baby but it’s still a very deadly occasion with Julie Kavner’s Marge being very scary in her performance. Then it goes full anime with “Death Tome,” with the same studio behind Death Note.
“Death Tome” makes the most of it being the first real jump into the world of anime with tons of deaths in very creative and bloody fashion (as Lisa needs to come up with a unique death every time she kills someone). The final segment makes up for its lack of horror with the Westworld influenced “Simpsonsworld” that mines the past of the franchise for tons of Easter Eggs, fun kills, and much more. Its open-ending revealing even more animated show worlds is also just one of the most satisfying Treehouse endings of this era too.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
3). Not It
“Not It” is yet another fun experiment outside of the Treehouse of Horror formula as the entire episode’s runtime is dedicated to taking on Stephen King’s IT in its entirety. The first half of the episode follows a new take on Homer and the others as kids as they fight off an otherworldly version of Krusty. It’s allowed to have much more intensity thanks to this new take on Springfield, and builds a wild love triangle with Homer, Marg and Comic Book Guy. The new IT take on everything feels creative, and it’s clear the team makes the most of these shake ups.
For example, Lisa and Bart switch roles as Bart is the brainy genius and Lisa is the slacker. Homer takes over Moe’s and becomes a bartender who was never able to let go of the past, and it makes for a great line up when the second half takes on the older part of the story. There’s just so much here from being able to spend extra time on a single parody idea, and that extra time allows the story to flesh out and hit better beats than you’d expect from this. Hopefully, The Simpsons takes on another franchise with this extended look in the future.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animatio
2). Treehouse of Horror XXXVI
You might be accusing this list of recency bias, but Treehouse of Horror XXXVI is honestly the strongest Halloween special of this entire new era of the series to date. It’s banger after banger with The Blob and Jaws inspired “The Last Days of Crisco” seeing a massive Fatberg just tear through a festival (and a brutal Bart death). Followed by its Late Night With Devil in “Clown Night with the Devil.” This one not only returns to the 1990s art style, but has the bloodiest kills of the modern era. It doesn’t skimp on the laughs either like with its zombie children’s programming icons.
“Plasticworld” is probably the most divisive thanks to its art style, but it blends its 3D together with the 2D designs in a cool way. It’s then taken to a whole new limit with a return to the Kwik-E-Mart, and a fight for the future of humanity against a mutant plastic version of Homer and Marge. It’s both full of fan service and violence, and ultimately ends in a very fun way that helps to close out the year. It’s just great all the way through with three strong, but different specials. And to be completely honest, that hasn’t been the case in a long time.
Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
1). Halloween of Horror
But even among all of the Treehouse of Horror special episodes we’ve gotten over the decades, and even with all of that death and destruction across that time, the best Halloween episode of The Simpsons isn’t a Treehouse of Horror special at all. Season 27’s “Halloween of Horror” was the very first episode of the series set on Halloween, but not around a Treehouse of Horror special. It gets to explore the spooky holiday within the animated series’ official timeline, and it really sheds new light on the characters in ways we have never seen before.
At the core of its story is Homer and Lisa, and their episodes are some of the best in series’ history. It’s revealed that Lisa used to have a stuffed tail she carried all the time when she was younger, and after a scare at Krustyland, she reverts back to her older self. There’s still some genuine terror to be found within the episode as well when Homer and Lisa are in the midst of a very real home invasion (by some great pop stars) and the ultimate conclusion lets everyone have a happy holiday. It’s such a sweet ending for a holiday that has garnered so many spooky moments over the decades, and really is the best The Simpsons has ever done for Halloween.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!