By Shayne McClora, MTSU Sidelines Contributing Writer // John Connor Coulston MTSU Sidelines Lifestyles Editor
The Simpsons premiered the 25th iteration of the “Treehouse of Horror,” the show’s annual Halloween special.
The first segment, “School is Hell,” begins with Bart discovering a desk possessing demonic runes upon its surface while serving time in detention. He gets Lisa to translate it using an app and upon reading it, they both are transported by a giant flaming hand to a hellish version of their school. Lisa ends up being popular, causing a cold day in hell, and Bart finds his passion in torture and demonic arts.
The second segment was called “A Clockwork Yellow,” a parody of A Clockwork Orange. Moe has a crew humorously similar to the crew in the novel/movie, played by Homer, Lenny and Carl. Their usual activities consisted of beating down people who opposed them and messing with automatic doors at the local shop like lovable idiots. The gang eventually disbands, but years later, when a gang of rag-tag delinquents come and raid Moe’s house with his own techniques, he seeks out his motley crew for one last bit of gang-violence. They decide to invade Mr. Burns’ Mansion, which leads to an all-out brawl filled with a plethora of Stanley Kubrick references.
The final segment was called “The Others,” and centered around the Simpson family being haunted by the ghosts of their former selves, taking the form of the characters’ original animation styles. This segment was filled with references to the show’s hey-day, including Bart’s 90s catchphrases and the trademark gag of Homer strangling Bart. While this short felt a bit rushed, it was sure to please long-time fans of the show and even gave viewers a glimpse of the family in the animation styles of South Park, Archer, Despicable Me and more.
All in all, “Treehouse of Horror XXV” was one of the strongest in recent memory and was perfect for long-time Simpsons fans or someone just looking to kill time and have a chuckle or two.
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To contact Lifestyles editor John Connor Coulston, email [email protected]
