Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Today, we dive into one of the most famous animated series of all time, and their annual Halloween special. I do apologize that this one is a bit shorter! However, tomorrow, your boy will be setting foot back at New York Comic Con, and WILL be attending the panel from Blumhouse Productions! Be ready for a full report coming tomorrow! Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…
The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror V
Our tale of the world’s favorite animated family begins in the aptly named “The Shinning”, a ripoff of the Shining. This episode happens to be the most highly rated treehouse of Horror ever made, and for GOOD reason! The Simpsons, just like the Torrances, are enlisted to help our Mr. Burns as the winter caretakers for a hotel that is totally in no way shape or form the Overlook at ALL. While there, Willie (the groundskeeper), discovers that Bart has “The Shinning”. Bart immediately calls it the shining, but is stopped by Willie in fear of legal action (had me dying). In the meantime, all of Homer’s access to T.V. and beer has been eliminated by Mr. Burns, and our boy goes INSANE (maybe even crazier than Jack). Homer goes down into the depths of the totally not Overlook and meets with the ghost of Moe (taking the place of the bartender), who says that if Homer kills his family, he can have a beer. And this is Homer we’re talking about, so of course he obliges. Marge then finds Homer’s writings, and our chase (with callbacks galore) begins. God, this episode was only 20 minutes and this segment only about 5 but it was SO funny. Bart uses his “Shinning” to contact Willie, only for him to get axed in the back (becomes a running gag). FINALLY, the family runs away from Homer and ends up in the hedge maze, only for Lisa to find a small, portable television, and Homer’s will to kill goes away. The family sits together, and eventually, freezes, just like our boy Jack Torrance. (PEAK)
Our next skit is entitled “Time and Punishment”, where Homer accidentally breaks his toaster in the morning, and while trying to fix it, accidentally turns it into a time machine. Because of course. Homer goes back to prehistoric times, but neglects his father’s advice about the dangers of the butterfly effect. He kills a mosquito, and comes back to a world where Ned Flanders is a dictator (SO funny oh my god). Homer then tries several trips back to the past, only for them to result in crazy alternate universes. Some where Lisa and Bart are huge, others where Maggie talks, even one where donuts didn’t exist. AH! Finally, Homer makes it to a universe where the only change is that his family has reptilian tongues, and Homer stays put, saying that the world is close enough.
We enter our final skit entitled “Nightmare Cafeteria”. In this one, Principal Skinner and Lunchlady Doris find the absolute NIGHTMARE of the packed house in detention to be unacceptable. After one random bully trips Doris, the two decide that the next best solution is to CANNIBALIZE the kid and turn them into lunch food, serving them to the entire school who LOVES the kid. (Yeah, this one is actually pretty brutal). After SEVERAL more kids are turned into lunch, Bart and Lisa are the only two standing. (Willie tries to help, but gets axed again). Bart and Lisa (along within Millhouse), fall into a MASSIVE spinning food processor, but Bart wakes up with a start. He is safe, until the “fog that turns people inside out” appears, causing the entire family to turn inside out in a pretty brutal animation, as they do a dance number into the ending credits…
THERE WE HAVE IT! Guys, I KNOW this was short. And I really do apologize. And, coming up these next two days, they may be a bit shorter, literally ONLY because of Comic Con. However, I PROMISE that I will not lose this challenge, and I’ll give it my all to get back to longer movies ASAP. Tommorow, though, the Blumhouse panel WILL be attended by yours truly, and I promise dear readers, I’ll update you on it all! I hope you all enjoyed it! And, before you go, never forget, you may have the Shinning…
