The Simpsons Halloween recap: Treehouse of Horror III

On the third installment of Treehouse of Horror, the Simpsons battle zombies and a killer toy doll.

Treehouse of Horror III begins with Homer talking to the audience. In a parody of Alfred Hitchcock, he warns them about what is to come. After this brief interlude we get a brief walk-through of the Springfield cemetery, featuring the graves of I’m With Stupid and American Workmanship.

The episode officially begins with the Simpsons having a Halloween party. When Marge’s attempts to scare the children don’t go as planned, she asks if anyone has a scary story. As it turns out, Lisa has one in mind and the first Treehouse of Horror story begins .

Clown Without Pity

On Bart’s birthday Homer forgets to get him a present, so he rushes out to get one. He winds up at the House of Evil, which sells forbidden objects from where men fear to venture and frozen yogurt. When Homer asks for something his son will like, the man in charge (a parody of the storekeeper from Gremlins) gives him a Krusty doll. He warns Homer that the doll comes with a curse, but also a free frozen yogurt.

Homer returns home and gives Bart the talking Krusty doll. Bart loves it, but Grampa Simpson immediately proclaims the doll is evil. Unfazed, Marge says that Grampa said that about all the presents. Grampa meekly replies that he just wanted attention and the subject is dropped.

One day Homer pulls the Krusty doll’s string and the doll says that it doesn’t like him and is going to kill him. At first it makes Homer laugh, but the doll actually comes to life and tries to kill him with a kitchen knife. His screams get everyone’s attention and they come back to see Homer rattled and the Krusty doll sitting on the couch. The rest of them shrug it off, while Homer is terrified to be alone with the doll.

After the doll tries to kill Homer in the bathtub, he comes up with a plan to get rid of it. He sneaks up on it, throws it in a sack with his old socks (which successfully make the doll dizzy), ties it up, puts it in a suitcase, chains it up, and throws it into a pit out in the woods where other people dump things they want to get rid of.

But of course the doll comes back and Marge sees that the doll is actually trying to kill Homer. She calls an extermination who discovers that someone accidentally set the doll to evil. So he simply flips the switch and the doll becomes kind to Homer, even waiting on him while watching TV.

King Homer

Back at the Simpson’s Halloween party, Grampa Simpson says he’s coughed up scarier stuff than Homer’s attempt at a story. When Bart says he’s lived an interesting life and should tell a story, Grampa says that’s a lie, but he has seen a lot of movies.

Grandpa’s story for Treehouse of Horror is a King Kong parody with Marge arriving on a ship run by Smithers and Mr. Burns. They land on an island where the natives capture Marge and offer her up to the giant ape they call “Homer.” Homer takes Marge and is captivated by her. Seeing an opportunity, Mr. Burns orders they capture Homer, which they manage to do after some difficulties.

They take King Homer and put him on Broadway, where he escapes and tries climbing a skyscraper with Marge clutched in one hand. But he gets tired on the way up and after setting Marge down, he collapses after a brief fall. Marge says she’ll take care of Homer and the two get married.

Dial Z for Zombies

After Ned Flanders walks in with a prank and gives Grampa a coronary, Bart says that he’s got a story that’ll make everyone wet their pants. After Grampa says “too late,” the story begins.

Bart stumbles across a new section in the library containing a book with a spell that can raise the dead. Attempting to bring back Snowball the cat, Bart and Lisa go to the cemetery to try the spell out. Instead of bringing back Snowball, they instead raise a bunch of zombies that begin walking the streets of Springfield.

While the zombies attack Ned Flanders, Bart and Lisa tell Homer what happened. After checking that they didn’t wreck the car, he’s pretty nonchalant about them raising the dead. Eventually the zombies force the Simpsons to barricade themselves in, but they get in since Homer didn’t barricade the door. Throwing himself in their path to spare his family, the zombies reject Homer when he has no brains they can feast on.

After Homer grabs his gun, the Simpsons flee to the library to reverse the spell. Running to their car, they see zombie Flanders who Homer shoots. After being told he killed zombie Flanders, Homers replies with one of his best lines ever “He was a zombie?”

They make it to the library where Homer shoots zombie versions of Washington, Einstein, and Shakespeare. Barney Gumble is also there eating an arm, but isn’t a zombie yet. Bart manages to reverse the spell and everything goes back to normal.

With that, Treehouse of Horror III ends with the family all lazily watching TV, while Marge says she’s glad they didn’t turn into mindless zombies.