Treehouse of Horror
- Episode aired Oct 25, 1990
- TV-PG
- 30m
The Simpsons move into a cursed house, then are abducted by aliens, before Homer is ensconced in a tale by Edgar Allen Poe.The Simpsons move into a cursed house, then are abducted by aliens, before Homer is ensconced in a tale by Edgar Allen Poe.The Simpsons move into a cursed house, then are abducted by aliens, before Homer is ensconced in a tale by Edgar Allen Poe.
- Homer Simpson
- (voice)
- …
- Marge Simpson
- (voice)
- Bart Simpson
- (voice)
- Lisa Simpson
- (voice)
- Evil Laugh
- (voice)
- …
- Moving Man
- (voice)
- …
- Directors
- Wesley Archer(segment Bad Dream House)
- Rich Moore(segment Hungry Are the Damned)
- David Silverman(segment The Raven)
- Writers
- Jay Kogen(segment Hungry Are the Damned)
- Wallace Wolodarsky(segment Hungry Are the Damned)
- John Swartzwelder(segment Bad Dream House)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMatt Groening was nervous about "The Raven" because it did not have many gags, and felt it would be "the worst, most pretentious thing [they had] ever done" on the show.
- GoofsThe Krusty doll in Bart's bed at the end of the episode is very noticeably off-model.
- Quotes
[Homer calls the real estate agent in a rage after finding an Indian burial ground in the basement]
Homer: Mr. Pote, Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house, you forgot to mention one little thing. You didn't tell me it was built on an Indian burial ground!
[pause]
Homer: NO, YOU DIDN'T!
[pause]
Homer: Well, that's not my recollection.
[pause]
Homer: Yeah, well... all right. Good-bye.
[hangs up the phone and turns to Marge]
Homer: He says he mentioned it five or six times.
- Crazy creditsUnlike later Halloween specials, there are no "funny" names for the cast members - everyone is just credited normally.
- ConnectionsFeatured in My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Dead House: This is one of my personal favorites in "Treehouse of Horror" tales. It's pretty much a parody on "The Amityville Horror", "Poltergeist" and many other haunted house films you can think off. Not much to this one as it's the simple Haunted House formula only it's The Simpsons under the haunted roof. It's funny how there are certain things happening but one member or another is too oblivious to notice mainly Marge. There a dryly funny moment when it looks like Marge might do something horrific but then it turns to something else.
I really like how the tale is both spooky and funny at the same time, along with some of the other tales. One moment that creepy and blackly funny is when we see each of the Simpsons members (except for Marge for some reason), all of them get unhinged by the home's demonic influence and each have a weapon to kill each other with. It's blackly funny as we see Bart, Lisa, Homer and Maggie are trying to kill one another but are very unsuccessful as their each moving very slowly in probably the slowest game of ring around the rosy, I've ever seen.
"Hungry are the Damned" is a sold tale, it's a parody on "The Twilight Zone" tale, "To Serve Man" not a whole lot I can say, this is the first interaction "The Simpsons" have with the Space Mutants. There are a lot of funny moments like the first abduction and their having a hard time picking Homer up which shows some advantage to being heavy. But like I said some, this doesn't last. And even a moment where the mutants introduce the Pong game, which is dryly funny, despite their advanced technology they're not quite up to the times of ours. Really like the twist ending in the episode which is funny as it's a parody on the concept of twist endings.
The Raven: This tale is another honorable mention in my book; as a kid I knew about Edger Allen Poe and the poem, which made this tale even more surprising made me wonder how the heck could you make a comedic take on an old gothic poem; well knowing the show there is always a way. I really like the ongoing narration from James Earl Jones, as usual he has that golden booming deep voice, really like that he does it with unwavering seriousness which is how the poem should be and it really adds a spooky flare to the tale especially at the end which has that ominous sinisterness.
The humor is visual, and it works well as it's sort of almost like a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon as it's mainly Homer trying to simply kill this Bart Raven. One favorite visual gag for me is the Edger Allen Poe reference joke which I thought was a nice touch.
So, see where it all started and Happy Halloween.
Rating: 4 stars.
- hellraiser7
- Nov 18, 2021