The Simpsons: 10 Best Treehouse Of Horror Episodes

We now head back to vintage era Simpsons with the second Treehouse special.

The Monkey’s Paw is a standard cautionary tale about wishes that invariably backfire. Lisa’s wish for world peace heralds the second annual appearance of Kang and Kodos as they take over a defenceless Earth, only to be thwarted by Moe brandishing a board with a nail in it.

Next is one of the myriad Twilight Zone pastiches that are Treehouse of Horror staples. Bart here wields limitless physic powers, primarily against Homer, whether it’s sending him soaring into a football goal post mid-match, or turning him into a giant jack-in-the-box.

The scariest moment of the episode actually occurs just after its final tale, If I Only Had a Brain, ends. Homer wakes up from his nightmare to discover that Mr Burns’s head is crudely sewn onto his shoulder. It’s an unpleasant image.

Treehouse II may not be up there with the very best of the rest, but it maintains the playful spookiness of camp-fire ghost stories throughout, an essence that many later years anthologies are devoid of.