Halloween Special: Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #5 Review

The Halloween season is upon us my friends, and as such, I bet many of you are breaking out your favorite horror flicks like Friday the 13th, Frankenstein, or the Stephen King classic Carrie. Even though that particular film was remade not too long ago, today, we're talking a more... lighthearted interpretation for the original masters of horror parody, The Simpsons.

Ah, The Simpsons Treehouse of horror. Even those like myself who have long since given up on The Simpsons still tune in to The Simpsons annual horror anthology. So, what do The Simpsons have in store for us this time, let’s read on and find out.

We open in the school cafeteria with Lisa demanding that she be provided with a vegetarian alternative. However, lunch-lady Doris’s moronic assistant doesn’t quite grasp the concept and serves her some strange looking fish chili. Upon realizing that she’s eaten meat, Lisa makes a run to the bathroom and encounters a group of girl bullies who are about to torture her for being a vegetarian. Lisa escapes but her torment doesn’t end there. In gym class, when Lisa loses a volleyball game for her team, Bart is beaten up by Nelson for having “a wimpy vegetable-eatin’, chili-hatin’ sister!” Bart, in retaliation, pranks Lisa by filling the pipes with chili while Lisa’s showering. As she runs through the locker room in horror, the bully girls continue to torment poor Lisa for her vegetarian ways. In the principal’s office, Skinner tries to discipline Lisa but his utter shock that he’s dealing with Lisa and not Bart causes him to keep calling her by the wrong name. Out of anger, Lisa somehow shatters Skinner’s coffee cup with her mind.

When she gets home, Lisa finds Ned Flanders waiting there for her. It seems Bart has been forced into “reform-diddly-orm” school for his chili antics and Lisa will be staying at Flanders’ house while Homer and Marge try to find a school at a bargain price. In an homage to the original Carrie, Flanders shoves Lisa into a closet but, in a twist, it’s rather spacious and filled with bible themed Malibu Stacey Dolls.

The next day is the school dance, and Lisa, wearing a ridiculous looking dress, is picked up by her date, Nelson Muntz. Lisa, being smarter than Carrie, is able to deduce Nelson’s plan to humiliate her, causing the Bully to run off in fear and confusion. On the way Nelson bumps into Milhouse who drops his stack of comic books. Seeing a comic with a non-copyrighted stand-in for Dark Phoenix on the cover, Lisa gets the idea to use her new dark powers to fly to the dance and wreak a just vengeance on the bullies who tormented her. However, Lisa gets carried away and ends up murdering the entire school. Wrought with guilt, Lisa flies home.

The next day, Mr. Burns, disguised at Professor X, abducts Lisa and reveals that Lisa’s power is due to Burns sending out Nuclear processed fish to schools in order to trigger such a mutation. And so our comic ends with Lisa being used as a power source for Burns’ power plant.

What Works:

All the tropes of the Simpsons are present in this comic. The jokes are top-notch and the homage/parody to Carrie is done fairly well. Also, the Artwork of Lisa in her all powerful mode is very cool.

What Doesn’t:

I would have liked to see a bit more from the rest of the Simpson family. I admit, I like the bits with Lisa and Flanders, but I think there’s some comedy to be had by putting Homer in that position. Also, the ending is really abrupt, even for a Treehouse of Horror story. For that matter, why would Lisa even fall for Mr. Burns’ ploy. His disguise is less convincing than Dr. Wily’s Mr. X costume in Mega Man 6.

Overall:

4/5

As is to be expected with the Simpsons, this comic was solid laughs and great bit of Halloween fun.