The Simpsons: Every Treehouse Of Horror Ranked Worst To Best

As this is only the third episode in the series, it still comes with a framing device, with the family sitting round trading horror stories (again, kudos in hindsight for sticking to brief in the olden days).

Clown Without Pity might be the most well-rounded story in the entire series, with the haunted Krusty doll going through an entire arc and being blunted by Homer making him his slave. It's a very charming riff on the Chucky/haunted doll archetype.

Second comes the other Homer monster movie, with him transformed into King Kong, which is more an exercise in testing The Simpsons' cultural appeal by simply straight-adapting a story (in the same vein as The Raven). It proved to be a smart move.

The third chapter is another straight horror, and has some creepy moments, riffing on Pet Sematary and Night Of The Living Dead. It's also the first to start the "Dial X For Y..." title convention that would appear twice more in later segments.