‘Simpsons’ Fans Share the ‘Treehouse of Horror’ Scenes That Actually Freaked Them Out

The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episodes may not seem so scary today compared to *gestures to literally everything going in the world*. But for those of us who grew up with the show, the horror-themed programming often exposed our impressionable minds to macabre themes that were wholly new to us. For example, there are a whole lot of people who saw “The Shinning” as kids long before they ever saw The Shining. 

Recently, a Simpsons fan on social media asked their followers: “Is there a Treehouse of Horror moment that genuinely scared you?” The answer was a resounding “yes.”

One person shared that they were frightened when “Devil Flanders gets pissed” in the “Devil and Homer Simpson” segment of “Treehouse of Horror IV.” After Homer taunts Lucifer/Flanders, he turns into a giant Fantasia-esque demon. The suddenness of the transformation, and the revelation that Flanders’ devilish alter-ego is genuinely threatening, was pretty alarming. 

Another part of the very the same episode was similarly cited as an early childhood fear: the little gremlin guy who torments Bart during a hellish school bus ride in “Terror at 5½ Feet.”

Not only is the pint-sized monster creepy, he’s arguably way creepier than the monster from “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” the classic Twilight Zone episode that the segment was parodying. The original creature looked like a dehydrated mime in an off-brand Fozzie Bear costume (the one in the movie adaptation was far scarier).

Others noted the particularly “nasty” scene where Milhouse gets gooified to death by a giant blender operated by the cannibalistic Springfield Elementary staff. 

One fan claimed that they were “actually freaked out” by the opening of the slightly more recent “Treehouse of Horror XIV,” which found the Simpson family randomly murdering each other, ultimately culminating with Marge blowing Homer away with a shotgun, and torrents of blood forming the title. 

And not so long ago, 2020’s “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” included a Toy Story parody (the aptly named “Toy Gory”) that ended with Bart’s playthings tying him up, stabbing him in the head and surgically replacing all of his internal organs with toy parts. Then we get a folksy song in the style of Randy Newman. Positively bone-chilling.

More terrifying still, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Simpsons-inflected nightmares. there’s also the Bart-fly mutant, axe-wielding Homer from “Bad Dream House” and Groundskeeper Willie as a giant spider.

Speaking of Willie, as one person pointed out, perhaps the scariest “Treehouse of Horror” scene of all came from one of the Simpsons comic books. In “Willie: Portrait of a Groundskeeper,” the Scotsman goes mad and forces Homer to watch him eat Marge’s corpse. Holy shit.

Why didn’t they put one of Marge’s parental advisory warnings on that?

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