Welcome back to another week of Lifetime of Simpsons everyone! And Happy Halloween! It’s just a shame that this couldn’t have been next week, when it was actually Halloween in our timeline, but whatever, it got really close this year. Things haven’t really been very great lately here on Lifetime of Simpsons, and it really feels like the show is running out of steam. But, we can always count on a Treehouse of Horror episode to perk things up. Even though this one has a weird start, which is structured like the opening of a Rigelian awards show, but never actually shows anything with the awards, it just springs right into the episode. It’s weird. But here we go!

School is Hell

Our first segment, which is shockingly long, begins with Bart sitting in detention with Principal Skinner, while they awkwardly dance around the fact they still haven’t figured out what to do about the absence of Mrs. Krabappel. Anyway, Bart has been caught putting cement in the sand box and causing a riot of men by claiming there were naked ladies in the lunchroom. Skinner then leaves, and Bart gets to just sit around in the classroom, being bored. And, to entertain himself, he begins looking through people’s desks. Which is when he comes across one of the desks that has some weird carvings all over it. He’s interested in the carvings, and ends up bringing Lisa in to check it out. She recognizes the carvings as ancient Aramaic, and luckily has an app to translate it. Which was a bad call, because as soon as they translate it they activate a spell that teleports both of them straight to Hell.

Luckily it’s a school in Hell where demons are learning how to be proper demons, and the teleportation transformed Bart and Lisa into monsters. They begin wandering around the school, trying to find a way out, when Lisa heads off to find their out. Meanwhile, Bart gets dragged into a classroom where he finds something shocking. He’s great at being a demon. He has lots of ideas of eternal torment, and he really starts loving being a demon. Eventually though Lisa returns, proud that she’s found a portal back to Earth. She’s pretty shocked that Bart wants to stay in Hell, but forces him through the portal, which spits them out in Mr. Burns’ office.

Which is where you’d think that this would be the ending of the segment. But it’s not! Because even though they’re back in the real world, Bart is still obsessed with Hell. And he eventually goes and asks Homer and Marge to let him keep going to Hell Elementary. Homer and Marge are obviously wary about this, but after a meeting with the Hell principals, they decide to let him try out a semester. And he does great! Bart’s even able to ace his final exam, which involves him brutally torturing Homer, and he ends up being valedictorian, having found his true calling.

A Clockwork Yellow

Our second segment is a parody of A Clockwork Orange, with Moe as the Alex role. He’s hanging out with his Droogs, Homer, Lenny, and Carl, and getting into all sorts of dystopian shenanigans, like beating up other gangs and bothering Apu by walking “in and out” of the Kwik-E-Mart automatic doors. It’s a good life, until Homer has to ruin it all. Because one day he meets Marge, and falls in love, even though their sped-up Mozart scene is just Homer being an idiot while Marge is bored in his room. But, he still falls for her, and announces that he’s going to be retiring from the gang to become Marge’s husband. And, shortly after, Lenny and Carl lose interest too, leaving Moe alone. He then decides to get a real job, and becomes the bartender at the Milk Bar, becoming a normal citizen for years.

Until one day Moe’s apartment is invaded by a younger group of criminals, who are just the bullies. They beat up Moe, and he decides that something needs to be done. So Moe heads over to Homer’s house, and floats the idea that they get the gang back together just to feel alive again. Homer accepts, and after squeezing into their old outfits they hit the town, and eventually run into Lenny and Carl, who are cops now. So, with everyone back together, they decide to do something easy, and go to Mr. Burns’ mansion to rough him up. However, when they break into the mansion they realize that they’ve accidentally wandered into the wrong Kubrick flick, because there’s an Eyes Wide Shut sex party going on. They just kind of roll with it though, and start beating the sex partiers up, tossing out a whole bunch of Kubrick references. They see Private Pyle getting ready to shoot himself on the toilet, Homer finds a Monolith, and they even have a Barry Lyndon duel. But, in the end, Moe still feels alive, even though he’s getting beaten up. The segment then ends with Stanley Kubrick deciding that the movie isn’t working, and wants to scrap the whole project, while giving us the creepy “Kubrick Face.”

The Others

Our final segment is probably the most well-known of the trio, and I guess it’s a parody of that Nicole Kidman movie the Others? It starts with the family slowly realizing that their home appears to be haunted. Homer sees “Help Me” written on the shower mirror, Marge finds frosty chocolate milkshakes in the house, and Lisa notices the TV plays nothing but Married with Children. Oh, and Homer gets assaulted by a ghost one night. All of this is enough for them to decide they need to hold a séance to figure out what’s going on. And, if those clues weren’t enough to make you figure it out, we learn who the ghosts are. They’re the Tracy Ullman versions of the Simpsons. They have the weird animation, the old voices, and the Old Simpsons just start tossing out bits nonstop, not talking like actual people.

And then, as if things weren’t weird enough, they kick it up a notch. Because Old Marge starts fliting with New Homer, and it really starts to piss off New Marge. She keeps trying to get Homer to stop being a creep, but he seems into the ghost stuff. So, Marge does the logical thing, and commits suicide so that she’ll be a ghost too. Homer’s kind of into it, until Old Homer shows up and decides to kill New Homer for taking his wife. So now it’s time for everyone to be ghosts. The kids end up dying too, and suddenly both groups of Simpsons are ghosts now, and they decide to just live together in some weird ghost co-op. And, as if that wasn’t enough, a whole slew of other Simpsons start arriving to live in the house with them, such as Dreamworks Simpsons, anime Simpsons, South Park Simpsons, Archer Simpsons, and of course Minions Simpsons.

This is a pretty fun Treehouse of Horror episode. It’s nothing overly special, but things have been a tad rough lately so I’ll take whatever I can get. Even though it went on far longer than I thought it should have, that Hell segment was a lot of fun. I liked the designs of demon Bart and Lisa, and having Bart find his true calling by putting his prank skills to use in a different outlet was a fun idea. Yeah, having that weird third act of the segment was a little needless, but it was still fun. Honestly, the second segments are often throw-away and the weakest, but I really liked the Clockwork Orange parody. Especially that last bit where they just throw a bunch of Kubrick jokes out. It’s fun! And the weakest part of the episode is probably that last segment, even though that was the most publicized part of it. Having the Tracy Ullman Simpsons come back as vengeful ghosts is a really fun idea, and could have been used really well. Instead the Simpsons just all commit suicide to commit ghost adultery. That’s a weird call. But, overall, it’s a really fun Treehouse of Horror episode to start the week out. Now just buckle up and get ready to see how weird this week is as the show starts to scrape the bottom of the “ideas” barrel.

Take Away: Don’t give up on your dreams, don’t go to mansion sex parties, and don’t commit suicide to entice ghost sex.

Treehouse of Horror XXV” was written by Stephanie Gillis and directed by Matthew Faughnan, 2014.