Treehouse of Horror: every Simpsons Halloween special

SPRINGFIELD'S HALLOWEEN RITUAL

Treehouse of Horror: every Simpsons Halloween special

Thirty-six editions, more than a hundred segments, one single rule: none of this ever happened.

numbered editions, from 1990 to 2025

25 Oct. 1990

first broadcast, season 2 episode 3

36/36

editions in which Kang and Kodos appear

666th

episode of the series for edition XXX

Once a year, Springfield goes completely off the rails. Since 25 October 1990, The Simpsons has treated itself to a Halloween episode where anything goes: the family can die, the town can burn, the pupils can end up as a school-canteen dish. It is the Treehouse of Horror, "Simpson Horror Show" in the French version, and it has become the most eagerly awaited appointment of every season.

The principle has barely moved in thirty-five years: three short stories, unconnected, outside all continuity, numbered in Roman numerals. Each segment loots a classic — Kubrick, Poe, Bradbury, The Twilight Zone, Stephen King — and puts it through the Springfield mincer. The result owes as much to the cinephile's catalogue as to the funfair.

This guide takes the full tour: the format's user manual, the birth certificate of 1990, the six segments that made the legend, the hidden traditions most viewers miss, who voices whom, and where the franchise stands after thirty-six editions and two specials outside the numbering.

📋 Contents

🎃 How a Treehouse of Horror works 🕯️ The birth certificate of the ritual 🪓 The six segments that made the legend 🪦 The hidden traditions of the Treehouse of Horror 🎙️ Who plays what in the Treehouse of Horror 📼 Twelve segments to know in the rest of the catalogue 🧟 The modern era: the format blows up its own rules

THE FORMAT

🎃

How a Treehouse of Horror works

Three stories, zero consequences, one Roman numeral

Before diving into the segments, you have to understand the rules of the game. The Treehouse of Horror is not an episode like the others: it is a parenthesis officially disconnected from the rest of the show. The writers allow themselves there what they forbid themselves the rest of the year: killing main characters, blowing up the town, changing universe halfway through.

Homer raises the axe in The Shinning, the kind of scene impossible outside Halloween

Out of canon, completely

NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED

This is THE founding rule, claimed by the team: the segments take place outside the show's continuity, and what happens there has no consequence on the following episode. Homer can die in October and be quietly having lunch in November. Hence a level of violence unthinkable in a normal episode.

The poster for Treehouse of Horror XXXII, the first edition to line up five segments

Three segments, with exceptions

THE HOUSE TRIPTYCH

Each edition cuts its twenty minutes into three independent stories, each with its own title, its own genre and, for a long time, its own writer. The rule held for thirty-one years before giving way: edition XXXII, in 2021, is the first to line up five at once.

The poster for Treehouse of Horror XX and its giant Roman numeral

The Roman numerals

FROM I TO XXXVI

The very first episode, in 1990, carries no number: it is simply called Treehouse of Horror. From the following year, Roman numbering settles in and never lets go. A handy marker: the edition number is always one below the season number. XXXVI therefore belongs to season 37.

Bart's treehouse in the garden, which gave the Treehouse of Horror its name

A French title of its own

TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IN THE ORIGINAL

In the original version, the franchise is called Treehouse of Horror. The name comes from the first episode, where the children tell each other scary stories in the treehouse in the garden. France preferred Simpson Horror Show, Quebec Spécial d'Halloween.

Freddy Krueger, Springfield version, a film classic put through the Simpsons mincer

Parodies above all

WE LOOT, WE DO NOT COPY

The Treehouse of Horror is rarely frightening: it makes you laugh with other people's fear. Kubrick, Poe, Bradbury, Stephen King, The Twilight Zone, EC horror comics, 1950s monster movies: each segment picks a target and replays it in Springfield.

The poster for Treehouse of Horror V, the edition where the dose of blood was deliberately increased

Gore is allowed

BLOOD, AND PLENTY OF IT

For the fifth edition, showrunner David Mirkin deliberately increased the dose of blood, in response to criticism from the American Congress about violence on television. He wanted to put in as much blood and guts as possible, and calls it the most disturbing Halloween show ever produced.

Treehouse of Horror VII, the first edition to open its season outright

A shifting place in the season

SOMETIMES THE FIRST EPISODE

There is no fixed slot. Six editions open their season outright: the seventh, then the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth. The others arrive in third, fourth, fifth or sixth position, according to the Fox calendar — and above all according to the baseball.

25 OCTOBER 1990

🕯️

The birth certificate of the ritual

Season 2, episode 3: the day Springfield invented its Halloween

The very first Treehouse of Horror, broadcast on 25 October 1990

You have to put yourself back in the context: in the autumn of 1990, The Simpsons has only one season behind it. Nobody imagines yet that this experimental episode — three short stories, a radically different tone, a prestigious guest — will become an institution renewed every year for more than three decades. Here is exactly what that very first box of chills contains.

A terrified Homer outside the treehouse after listening to the children's stories

The treehouse in the garden

THE ORIGINAL FRAME

The device is simple: Bart, Lisa and Maggie are settled in the treehouse on Halloween night, and the two eldest tell each other scary stories while Homer listens in. The punchline: the children find it all very tame, and it is Homer who ends up terrified.

Marge warns parents in person before the credits of the first Treehouse of Horror

Marge's warning

WHAT FOLLOWS WILL BE FRIGHTENING

Before the credits, Marge appears in person to warn parents that what follows may frighten children. Al Jean has told the story: the warning was sincere, James L. Brooks felt one was needed. It is also a pastiche of Edward Van Sloan's introduction to the 1931 Frankenstein.

Bad Dream House

THE HOUSE THAT TELLS THEM TO LEAVE

The first segment in the franchise's history. The family moves into an eighteen-bedroom house bought for a pittance, which orders them to get out and drives its occupants to chase each other with an axe in hand. Written by John Swartzwelder, directed by Wes Archer, somewhere between Poltergeist and Amityville.

Serak the Preparer, one of three roles carried by the same voice in the 1990 episode

James Earl Jones everywhere

THREE SEGMENTS, ONE VOICE

The voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa is present in all three stories: the removal man in Bad Dream House, Serak the Preparer among the aliens, and the narrator of The Raven. His appearances in the show rank seventh in IGN's ranking of the best cameos.

Kang and Kodos welcome the Simpson family aboard their saucer in 1990

Kang and Kodos are born here

TWO ALIENS FOR THIRTY-SIX EDITIONS

The second segment introduces the two green, drooling Rigellians dreamed up by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, drawn after an EC comic cover. Since then, the duo from the planet Rigel VII has featured in at least one segment of all thirty-six editions.

Alf Clausen comes on the scene

THE MUSIC STARTS HERE

A detail almost nobody notices: this is the first episode whose music is composed by Alf Clausen. He would go on to write the scores for nearly thirty years. The Treehouse of Horror is therefore also the birth certificate of Springfield's musical identity.

France as seen by The Simpsons, a country that only discovered the first Horror Show in March 1991

France waited until March 1991

FIVE MONTHS BEHIND

The first Treehouse of Horror came out in the United States on 25 October 1990, and in France on 30 March 1991 — a very long way from Halloween. That gap would remain the norm: several editions landed here in February, September or April, which for a long time blurred the ritual side of it.

THE PANTHEON

🪓

The six segments that made the legend

Six short stories that weigh more than whole seasons

The Simpson family dressed as creatures from past editions of the Treehouse of Horror

Out of more than a hundred segments produced since 1990, a handful have stood out to the point of becoming more famous than most of the show's regular episodes. They are cited in the rankings, rerun on a loop, and have produced lines that entered everyday language. Here are the six essentials.

NO TV, NO BEER

The Shinning

Treehouse of Horror V, 1994

Broadcast30 October 1994

EpisodeSeason 6, episode 6

Parody ofThe Shining, by Stanley Kubrick

Treehouse of Horror V, broadcast on 30 October 1994. Mr. Burns hires the family as caretakers of his mountain lodge for the winter, then cuts the cable and empties the beer supply to be sure the work gets done. Within days, Homer loses his mind. The segment is regularly cited as the absolute high point of the franchise.

The pitch

Isolated in a lodge cut off from the world, the family settles in for the winter. Willie discovers that Bart can read his thoughts: he has "the Shinning", and will have to call him telepathically in case of trouble. Homer, deprived of both his crutches, ends up papering the walls with a single sentence: "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy".

What it parodies

The Shining, Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, from the Stephen King novel. It all goes in: the manuscript going off the rails, the endlessly repeated sentence, the great empty building. The title itself is distorted: Willie says "the Shinning", Bart corrects him, and Willie tells him to shut up if he does not want a lawsuit.

Why it is a cult favourite

Because it is high-precision parody: the segment follows Kubrick very closely, but the comic mechanics are purely Simpsons. Homer does not go mad from metaphysical vertigo, he goes mad because someone confiscated his remote control and his six-pack. Vulture named it the best segment in the whole franchise.

Worth remembering

Season 6, episode 6, first broadcast on 30 October 1994, written by Bob Kushell and directed by Jim Reardon. Entertainment Weekly ranked the episode the ninth best in the whole show. Willie, taken out here with an axe in the back, suffers the same fate in the other two segments: that is the gag that links them.

Ned Flanders, master of the world in the present Homer brings back from the age of the dinosaurs

THE TOASTER THAT BREAKS HISTORY

Time and Punishment

alias "Temps & Châtiments"

Broadcast30 October 1994

EditionHorror Show V, segment 2

AfterRay Bradbury

Second segment of Treehouse of Horror V. Homer wrecks his toaster, repairs it badly and ends up with a time machine. Shipped off to the age of the dinosaurs, he remembers his father's advice about the butterfly effect too late, squashes a mosquito, and returns to a present in which Ned Flanders rules the world.

The pitch

Every round trip into the past produces a different present, and every attempt to correct things makes them worse. Homer passes through an all-smiles Flanders dictatorship, with its re-education by lobotomy, a world where Bart and Lisa are giants, another where the family is immensely rich but nobody knows what a doughnut is.

What it parodies

"A Sound of Thunder", the Ray Bradbury short story that popularised the butterfly effect: an insect crushed in the age of the dinosaurs is enough to rewrite the whole of human history. The title, for its part, is a pun on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment — the French version rendered the segment as "Temps & Châtiments".

Why it is a cult favourite

For the rain of doughnuts, which became the segment's most reproduced image: Homer leaves the doughnut-free world at the exact second it starts raining them. And for the ending — the family has finally gone back to normal, except that everyone now has a reptile tongue. Homer shrugs.

Worth remembering

Written by Greg Daniels and Dan McGrath. James Earl Jones voices a parallel-universe Maggie there: her line, "It is indeed a disturbing universe", is one of Matt Groening's favourites. It is one of the very rare times the family baby expresses herself other than by sucking her pacifier.

HOMER GOES THREE-DIMENSIONAL

Homer³

Treehouse of Horror VI, 1995

Broadcast29 October 1995

EpisodeSeason 7, episode 6

AwardOttawa grand prize 1996

Treehouse of Horror VI, 29 October 1995. To escape a visit from Patty and Selma, Homer hides behind the bookcase and discovers an empty space where everything has volume. He tips into it, the flat universe becomes a three-dimensional one, and the show delivers one of the technically most audacious sequences in its history.

The pitch

Stuck in a geometric world of which the family perceives only his voice, Homer stamps about and panics. He plants a cone in the ground, pierces the fabric of space-time and opens a black hole. Bart ties himself to a rope and dives in to retrieve him; the universe collapses, Homer is sucked in, and the animation stops dead in favour of live-action footage.

What it parodies

"Little Girl Lost", the Twilight Zone episode in which a child falls into another dimension through her bedroom wall. The segment also makes heavy nods to Tron and to the video game Myst, two references instantly legible to anyone who grew up in front of a cathode-ray screen.

Why it is a cult favourite

Because it contains the very first live-action scene in Simpsons history: Homer lands in a skip, in a set filmed on Ventura Boulevard, in Los Angeles. The three-dimensional animation is by Pacific Data Images, and the segment won the grand prize at the Ottawa animation festival in 1996.

Worth remembering

Written by David X. Cohen, from an idea thrown out by Bill Oakley. The equations floating in the set are not decorative: Euler's identity, the P = NP problem, and a near counter-example to Fermat's last theorem, 1782¹² + 1841¹² = 1922¹². The equality is false, but close enough to fool a pocket calculator.

DON'T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR KODOS

Citizen Kang

Treehouse of Horror VII, 1996

Broadcast27 October 1996

EpisodeSeason 8, episode 1

ScriptDavid X. Cohen

Third segment of Treehouse of Horror VII, broadcast on 27 October 1996, a few days before the American presidential election. Kang and Kodos abduct Homer, then take on the appearance of the two candidates in the race, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The joke is devastating: absolutely nobody notices the difference, and the campaign carries on.

The pitch

Homer discovers the real candidates held aboard the saucer and manages to unmask the impostors in front of the entire nation. Americans therefore learn that they are about to elect an alien. They vote anyway, on the unanswerable grounds that there are only two names on the ballot.

What it parodies

The 1996 presidential campaign and, more broadly, American two-party politics: when a system offers only two options, voters line up behind one of the two whatever happens. The title is a pun on Citizen Kane. Phil Hartman lends his voice to Bill Clinton.

Why it is a cult favourite

For Homer's closing line, "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!". It comes back at every American election on social media, and a ska punk band even named itself I Voted for Kodos. IGN made it the best segment in the anthology.

Worth remembering

Season 8, episode 1: it is the first time the Treehouse of Horror opens a season. Written by David X. Cohen, future co-creator of Futurama, and directed by Mike B. Anderson. The fake candidates' speech — moving forward, not backward; upward, not forward — was even quoted by Kamala Harris in 2013.

HOW TO COOK FOR FORTY HUMANS

Hungry Are the Damned

Treehouse of Horror I, 1990

Broadcast25 October 1990

EpisodeSeason 2, episode 3

1st appearanceKang and Kodos

Second segment of the very first Treehouse of Horror, on 25 October 1990. The family is abducted from its own garden and ends up aboard a flying saucer with two very welcoming green aliens. Too welcoming: they stuff their guests with gargantuan meals all the way to their planet.

The pitch

Lisa is the only one who finds the situation suspicious. She searches the ship and comes across a book covered in space dust entitled "How to Cook Humans". The accusation is made, the hosts are deeply offended, and the misunderstanding is cleared up in a ballet of successive puffs on the book's cover.

What it parodies

"To Serve Man", the Twilight Zone episode in which a supposedly benevolent alien book turns out to be a recipe book. The dust gag is the Simpsons version: "How to Cook Humans" becomes "How to Cook FOR Humans", then "FORTY Humans", then "How to Cook For Forty Humans".

Why it is a cult favourite

Because this is where Kang and Kodos enter the show. The duo would then return in all thirty-six editions without exception. Al Jean confirmed it in 2022: it is an unwritten but scrupulously respected rule, even if it means adding them at the last minute for a second in the background.

Worth remembering

Written by Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky, directed by Rich Moore. Serak the Preparer, the segment's third alien, is voiced by James Earl Jones. The abductors sincerely wanted to offer the family paradise: the real moral is that Lisa's suspicion spoils everything, and they hold it against her.

POE'S POEM, AS IT STANDS

The Raven

after Edgar Allan Poe, 1845

Broadcast25 October 1990

AdaptationSam Simon

NarratorJames Earl Jones

Third and last segment of 25 October 1990, and the greatest audacity of that first Treehouse of Horror: instead of parodying, the team adapts "The Raven", the Edgar Allan Poe poem published in 1845. The text is followed closely, with Homer as the inconsolable narrator, Marge as Lenore in a portrait, and Bart as the mocking raven.

The pitch

A man alone, at night, mourns the woman he has lost. A raven comes in through the window, perches and answers all his questions with a single word. The descent into madness is Poe's; the grumbling, the final chase across the study and Homer's growing exasperation are the show's.

What it parodies

Nothing, precisely, and that is the whole point. The segment subverts no work: it illustrates one. It is a virtually unique case in the franchise, and it stands apart from the logic of pastiche that governs the other segments. The comic gap arises purely from the contrast between the solemnity of the text and the yellow characters.

Why it is a cult favourite

Because the gamble was enormous and the team did not believe in it. Matt Groening has said he feared it would be the most pretentious thing the show had ever produced, for want of enough gags. The result did the opposite: it is the proof most often brandished that The Simpsons could aim at something other than the wisecrack.

Worth remembering

Adapted by Sam Simon, co-creator of the show, and directed by David Silverman. The reading of the poem is entrusted to James Earl Jones, whose voice carries most of the segment. Thirty-four years later, the franchise would return to Poe by titling a segment of edition XXXV "The Fall of the House of Monty".

THE DETAILS THAT COUNT

🪦

The hidden traditions of the Treehouse of Horror

Eight rituals half the audience watches without seeing

Treehouse of Horror II, the edition that launched most of the ritual's traditions

The Treehouse of Horror is not only a collection of parodies: it is a ritual with its codes, its obligations and its internal constraints. Some of these rules are visible for only three seconds on screen, others can only be explained by the broadcast calendar. Once you know them, you never watch a Halloween episode the same way again.

The Treehouse of Horror title card, where the whole team takes a horror pseudonym

The distorted names in the credits

NOBODY KEEPS THEIR NAME

Since the second edition, everyone takes a horror pseudonym in the credits: Matt Groening becomes "Bat Groening", James L. Brooks "Chains Hell Brooks". Al Jean, who came up with the idea, cites EC comics. Groening's rule — the fake name must not be longer than the real one — is never respected, as the credits show.

Springfield cemetery, setting for the opening tracking shot of the first five editions

The tombstones

THE OPENING CEMETERY

The first five editions open on a tracking shot through a cemetery where the epitaphs are so many jokes. You can read the names of series cancelled the previous season, dead celebrities such as Walt Disney or Jim Morrison, and a "TV violence" grave riddled with bullets.

Treehouse of Horror XXIX, the edition where the cemetery gag briefly came back

The grave that announces the end

"AMUSING TOMBSTONES"

The gag stops at the fifth edition, and the team flags it itself: that year, one tombstone bears the inscription "Amusing Tombstones". Two reasons — the epitaphs were getting hard to write, and the cancelled series being mocked started to be produced by former Simpsons writers. The cemetery came back briefly for edition XXIX.

Kang and Kodos, present in at least one shot of all thirty-six editions

Kang and Kodos compulsory

THE UNWRITTEN RULE

No edition does without the two aliens. Sometimes they carry a whole segment, sometimes they spend a second in the background of a wide shot. Al Jean confirmed in 2022 that this is an internal rule kept since 1990, often honoured at the last minute. Spotting them has become a game.

Treehouse of Horror III and its Halloween party, one of the last wraparounds of the format

The abandoned wraparounds

NO MORE TRANSITIONS

The first four editions linked their stories with small connecting scenes: the treehouse, nightmares, a Halloween party, a gallery of paintings. The fifth is the first to do without them, for lack of airtime, and the team never reinstated them — except for the 2024 Bradbury special.

Alfred Hitchcock, Springfield version, a nod to the openings that pastiche television

Openings that parody television

HITCHCOCK, NIGHT GALLERY, THE OUTER LIMITS

Each edition takes care over its opening. The third has Homer present the episode in the manner of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The fourth entrusts Bart with a gallery of paintings, Night Gallery style. The fifth pastiches The Outer Limits. Since edition VII, these openings often run over a minute.

Treehouse of Horror XI, the first edition broadcast in November because of the baseball

A Halloween episode in November

BLAME THE BASEBALL

Fox broadcasts the baseball World Series, and the final eats the Sunday evening slot at the end of October. Edition XI, in 2000, is the first to come out in November. The show mocks it: in edition XIV, Kang grumbles about Halloween being scheduled in November while Kodos has already got his Christmas decorations out.

Mr. Burns, default antagonist of most Halloween segments

Mr. Burns, villain on duty

THE DEFAULT BAD GUY

When an antagonist is needed, the team nearly always reaches into the same drawer. The plant owner funds the expedition that captures the giant ape, receives the family as a vampire in his Pennsylvania castle, cuts off the beer at the lodge, and ends up carried off to hell in edition XXXV.

AT THE MICROPHONE

🎙️

Who plays what in the Treehouse of Horror

The voices, the double roles and the prestigious guests

The complete Simpson family, whose voices multiply with every Horror Show

The Treehouse of Horror is a playground for the actors: they voice monsters, aliens, demonic versions of their own characters. It is also the appointment where the show goes looking for its most unexpected guests, film actors, presenters, talk-show hosts, sometimes as themselves.

Kang is Harry Shearer

THE SAME VOICE AS MR. BURNS

Harry Shearer, one of the pillars of the cast, lends his voice to Kang. He also voices Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner. In a single segment, he can therefore feed himself lines three or four times over without anyone noticing.

Kodos, the second Rigellian, voiced by the official voice of Homer Simpson

Kodos is Dan Castellaneta

THE VOICE OF HOMER

The other alien is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson since the very beginning. He also voices Krusty, Grampa and Groundskeeper Willie. On a Treehouse of Horror, he often holds several speaking roles in a single segment on his own.

The Devil in the guise of Ned Flanders in The Devil and Homer Simpson

The Devil has Ned Flanders' face

THE NICEST OF NEIGHBOURS

In "The Devil and Homer Simpson", the fourth edition broadcast on 28 October 1993, Homer sells his soul for a single doughnut. The Devil appears in the guise of the most harmless neighbour in Springfield, and it is Harry Shearer who voices both versions of the character.

Groundskeeper Willie the Scot, a regular in the Treehouse of Horror's dirty jobs

Willie as the bogeyman

THE SACRIFICED GROUNDSKEEPER

In "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace", the sixth edition, the Scottish groundskeeper comes back to haunt the children's dreams after burning to death in the school while their parents looked on. Willie is a regular in the dirty jobs: in edition V, he takes an axe in the back three times in a row. In the French version, Gilbert Lévy lends him his voice.

Krusto, the killer version of Krusty the Clown in the parody of It

Krusty as a killer clown

THE OBVIOUS ROLE

When the show parodies Stephen King's It in 2022, the casting picks itself: the Springfield clown becomes Krusto, redrawn to resemble Pennywise from the 2017 film. Marge, the Comic Book Guy, Carl and Moe form the gang of terrified teenagers. Stephen King, for his part, declined the gravedigger cameo he was offered.

Freddy Krueger in The Simpsons, a character taken up by his screen performer in 1998

Robert Englund comes back as Freddy

THE REAL ONE, THIS TIME

For the ninth edition, on 25 October 1998, the show treats itself to the actor who has played Freddy Krueger on screen since 1984: Robert Englund takes up the role for a cameo. A direct nod to the Willie parody three years earlier, and a fine catch for the opening ritual.

Treehouse of Horror IX, an edition packed with cameos by television presenters

The TV studios invite themselves in

SPRINGER, REGIS, ORSON WELLES

The franchise loves presenter cameos. Jerry Springer voices himself in "Starship Poopers" to arbitrate an alien custody battle. Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford appear in a live-action sequence in the same edition. Maurice LaMarche, for his part, lends his voice to Orson Welles.

Homer Simpson, voiced in French by Philippe Peythieu since the show began

The French voices

THE DUBBING TEAM

On the French side, we find the same actors as the rest of the year: Philippe Peythieu for Homer, Véronique Augereau for Marge, Aurélia Bruno for Lisa as for Maggie. Bart was voiced by Joëlle Guigui for twenty-two seasons before Nathalie Bienaimé took over the role. Peythieu and Augereau, married in real life, met through the show.

THE COLLECTION

📼

Twelve segments to know in the rest of the catalogue

From the monkey's paw to the ghosts of the Tracey Ullman Show

The Simpsons in costumes from the Halloween segments of past seasons

Beyond the pantheon, the franchise has produced more than a hundred segments, and a good half would deserve an article of their own. Here are twelve stories that come up again and again in fan conversations, in chronological order, from 1991 to 2014. They cover three decades of parodic targets, from the cruel Victorian tale to an old cartoon from 1987.

The monkey's paw

THREE WISHES, THREE DISASTERS

Second edition, 31 October 1991. The family brings back from Morocco a monkey's paw that grants wishes, but always the wrong way round. Bart asks for fame and fortune, and the Simpsons end up overexposed; Lisa asks for world peace, which disarms the Earth and hands it on a plate to Kang and Kodos.

Treehouse of Horror III, where the Krusty doll tries to kill Homer

A clown without pity

THE DOLL THAT WANTS YOUR HIDE

Third edition, 29 October 1992. Homer buys Bart a Krusty doll in a shop run by a distinctly unsettling salesman. The doll spends the segment trying to kill Homer, until a repairman finds the explanation: the toy's switch had been left set to "evil".

King Homer

MARGE AND THE GIANT APE

Still in the third edition. Mr. Burns funds an expedition to Ape Island, with Marge as bait; the giant ape they bring back has Homer's face. The King Kong parody takes respect as far as going black and white, which worried Al Jean: he feared people would think their television had broken.

Bart Simpson's Dracula

THE PENNSYLVANIA CASTLE

Fourth edition, 1993. The family is invited to Mr. Burns' house, in a Pennsylvania castle, and discovers soon enough that their boss is a vampire. The segment eyes Coppola's Dracula and The Lost Boys, with an ending that reveals Marge as the real head of the pack.

Lunchlady Doris, who puts the pupils in detention on the canteen menu

Nightmare Cafeteria

THE PUPILS ON THE MENU

Third segment of the fifth edition. Caught between inedible food and an overcrowded detention room, Principal Skinner and Lunchlady Doris find the solution: serve the pupils in detention in the canteen. It is the first script David X. Cohen wrote for the show.

Springfield's giant advertising signs woken up by the storm

Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores

THE MASCOTS COME TO LIFE

Sixth edition, 1995. An electrical storm wakes up all of Springfield's giant advertising signs, starting with the Lard Lad doughnut Homer had just stolen. The solution? Ignore them: deprived of attention, the mascots collapse. Paul Anka appears in person to sing the instructions with Lisa.

Lisa Simpson, worshipped as a creator by the miniature civilisation in her petri dish

The Genesis Tub

LISA BECOMES A GODDESS

Seventh edition, 1996. Lisa drops one of her teeth into a petri dish full of cola for her science project; a static shock from Bart triggers the appearance of a miniature civilisation there. Its inhabitants worship her as their creator and see Bart as the Devil. A nod to "The Little People".

The Homega Man

SOLE SURVIVOR BY ACCIDENT

Eighth edition, 26 October 1997. Mayor Quimby cracks a joke about France, which retaliates with a neutron bomb. Homer, under cover at the right moment, thinks he is the last man on Earth, until the mutant residents come out of the shadows. His family survived thanks to the layers of lead paint in the house.

Marge Simpson, accused of witchcraft in the Springfield of 1649

Easy-Bake Coven

THE ORIGIN OF HALLOWEEN

Still in 1997. The Springfield of 1649 hunts witches, and Marge is accused by Moe. Thrown off a cliff, she flies away: she really is one. With Patty and Selma, she sets up the barter that will found Halloween, sweets in exchange for the children's safety.

Starship Poopers

MAGGIE IS HALF ALIEN

Ninth edition, 1998. Marge admits that Maggie's biological father is not Homer, but Kang. The custody battle is settled on the set of the Jerry Springer Show, with the audience in uproar and the host as himself. The franchise here fully embraces its taste for bad taste.

Treehouse of Horror XVII, edition of the War of the Worlds hoax

The Day the Earth Looked Stupid

SPRINGFIELD, 1938

Seventeenth edition, 5 November 2006. The residents panic listening to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast, then learn it was fiction and swear they will not be caught out again. When Kang and Kodos land for real, nobody moves. Maurice LaMarche voices Welles.

The Tracey Ullman Show Simpsons, back to haunt their own successors

The Others

THE GHOSTS OF 1987

Twenty-fifth edition, 19 October 2014. The family is haunted by spectres that are none other than its own versions from the Tracey Ullman Show era, badly drawn and grating. The segment then runs through other graphic styles, from digital rendering to LEGO bricks.

SINCE 2019

🧟

The modern era: the format blows up its own rules

Whole episodes, outside studios, and an Emmy at the end of it

The poster for Treehouse of Horror XXXV, illustration of the franchise's modern era

After thirty years of well-regulated triptychs, the franchise started breaking its own codes. It now produces single-story parody episodes, subcontracts certain segments to specialist studios, and sometimes stacks five stories instead of three. Far from running out of steam, the Treehouse of Horror has once again become the show's testing ground.

Treehouse of Horror XXX, which fell exactly on the show's 666th episode

The 666th episode

A COINCIDENCE TOO GOOD TO MISS

Broadcast on 20 October 2019, the thirtieth edition fell exactly on the show's 666th episode. The team was obviously not going to let that pass: the opening stages a demonic Maggie in the style of The Omen, and a caption mischievously specifies "666, or 667 if Fox changes the schedule".

Treehouse of Horror XXXII, the first edition to stack five stories

Five segments at once

NO LONGER JUST THREE

The rule of three stories is no longer inviolable. Edition XXXII, broadcast on 10 October 2021, is the first to line up five, including a poetic interlude inspired by Poe and a parody of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite. The segments are becoming shorter and more numerous.

Not It

A SINGLE STORY, TWENTY MINUTES

On 23 October 2022, the fifth episode of season 34: for the first time, the franchise devotes a whole episode to a single story. "Not It" parodies Stephen King's It, the 1986 novel and its 2017 and 2019 adaptations. Written by Cesar Mazariegos, directed by Steven Dean Moore.

Treehouse of Horror XXXIII, broadcast only a week after Not It

Two editions in the same season

OCTOBER 2022, A DOUBLE HELPING

A week after "Not It", on 30 October 2022, Fox broadcast Treehouse of Horror XXXIII. It is the first time a season has contained two Halloween episodes. Since then, the label "Treehouse of Horror Presents" has designated these specials outside the numbering, distinct from the Roman-numeral editions.

Lisa Simpson, who picks up the death note in the Death Note parody

Death Tome

LISA AGAINST THE DEATH NOTE

The central segment of Treehouse of Horror XXXIII: a parody of Death Note in which Lisa picks up a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. The stroke of genius is in the production, since the animation was entrusted to DR Movie, the South Korean studio that had worked on the original anime.

Treehouse of Horror XXXIII, awarded the Emmy for outstanding animated programme

An Emmy at the end of it

THE TWELFTH STATUETTE

Treehouse of Horror XXXIII won the Emmy for outstanding animated programme at the 75th Creative Arts Emmy Awards, in 2023. It is the show's twelfth award in that category, and the first since "Mad About the Toy" in 2019.

Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes

BRADBURY IN NOVEMBER

The second special outside the numbering, broadcast on 24 November 2024 as the seventh episode of season 36. It strings together three stories drawn from Ray Bradbury's work — "The Screaming Woman", "Marionettes, Inc." and Fahrenheit 451 — and revives the linking interludes along the way.

The poster for Treehouse of Horror XXXVI, broadcast on 19 October 2025

Where things stand today

THIRTY-SIX EDITIONS ON THE COUNTER

The thirty-sixth edition was broadcast on 19 October 2025, as the third episode of season 37 and the show's 793rd episode. On the menu: a political opening entrusted to a guest cartoonist, then "The Last Days of Crisco", "Clown Night with the Devil" and "Plastic World".

Frequently asked questions

We answer your questions

What is the Treehouse of Horror?

The show's Halloween special, called "Simpson Horror Show" in the French version. It has been broadcast every year since 1990, is made up of three independent segments and sits outside continuity: the characters can die there with no consequence for what follows.

How many Halloween episodes are there?

Thirty-six instalments numbered in Roman numerals, from the first in 1990 to the most recent in 2025. Each brings together, in principle, three short stories, which amounts to around a hundred segments parodying horror films, novels and social affairs.

Which are the most cult segments?

"The Shinning", a parody of The Shining, comes well out in front, followed by "Time and Punishment" and "Homer³", which projects Homer into a third dimension in computer graphics. "Citizen Kang", which stages the aliens Kang and Kodos, also remains a reference.

What are the traditions of the Horror Show?

The team's names are distorted into frightening versions in the credits, the tombstones at the start slip in hidden gags, and the aliens Kang and Kodos appear in nearly every instalment. A delicious detail: the episode was for a long time broadcast after Halloween, in November.

Is the Treehouse of Horror part of the official history?

No. That is precisely what gives it its freedom: nothing there is canonical. The writers can turn Homer into King Kong, kill the whole family or parody a manga without it affecting a single regular episode.

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Treehouse of Horror: every Simpsons Halloween special