Treehouse of Horror V

So Homer may be a secret idiot savant in the world of quantum mechanics, because after repeatedly trapping his hand in the toaster one morning he repairs the thing and accidentally invents a dang time machine! The first segment is the most lighthearted and moves a mile a minute, and what's really great about it is just how funny and creative it is with the ways in which Homer keeps screwing up the present as he goes back and forth through time - oh if he had only stayed a few seconds longer in the world where it rained doughnuts! Just like the time he was the Devil it was awesome seeing Flanders as a villain, this time as an almighty happy tyrant who hands out forced labotomies at the slightest violation of his impossible decree of constant good behaviour! "The Shinning" is really in a league of its own as far as Simpsons parodies go and it really has it all, great laughs, chills, and a fantastic parody that apes but still somehow captures a little of the spirit and atmosphere of the source material. I love how rather than there being any kind of slow breakdown, Homer is instantly insane as soon as he discovers that he has neither beer nor TV! There's such an excellent blend of scares and comedy put into it, even during the great sequence that every Simpsons fan has probably quoted at some point, when Homer goes crazy "Don't mind if I do!!!" and babbles a lot of hysterical nonsense at Marge before scaring himself into falling down the stairs, it retains the slight darker edge even in the midst of all that laughter. "Nightmare cafeteria" even more so is very funny but has some real horror elements in it that really pushed the limits of what they could do in terms of gore and I just find it the scariest Treehouse story ever. I really love Skinner in it, as he acts like his usual buttoned-down principal self but with an eerie added note of sociopathy as he and the teachers systematically harvest the kids of Springfield Elementary, it's creepy stuff! Even the loony twist ending is kind of unsettling, with everything that happened having merely been Bart's nightmare version of the school...but then there's a final great big screw you to the censors as everybody is grotesquely turned inside out by an insidious fog and sings a happy showtune! It was abrupt but I think it made for one bizarrely charming ending. I find this to be a perfectly done Treehouse of Horror and it's The Simpsons at its funniest, smartest, and of course its scariest. Happy Halloween folks! X