TL;DR: A consistent, gory-enough Halloween anthology with no weak segments and a welcome Marge-focused angle. It never reaches classic Treehouse heights and lands in the shadow of Season 38’s better feature-length special.
Thirty-seven Halloween anthologies in, the existence of another “Treehouse of Horror” episode on FOX is about as surprising as a jump scare in a Blumhouse trailer. Season 38 already gave us something unusual this October with “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening,” a single feature-length slasher story built around Homer and friends. “Treehouse of Horror XXXVII” goes back to the classic recipe: one opening gag and three short horror spoofs. The result is enjoyable, consistent and rarely more than that. It’s a solid batch of Halloween candy, though it arrives right after a much bigger treat.
A return to the anthology format after the feature-length experiment
The context matters here. “The Revengening” showed what the writers can do when a horror premise gets room to breathe, with real setup, escalation and a payoff that feels earned. Going straight from that back to three compressed segments feels a bit like trading a full campaign for a set of side quests. Each short does what it needs to, but none has the space to build momentum or surprise you twice. Watching the two specials back to back, I couldn’t help thinking the longer format may be the healthier future for this tradition. If the show plans to keep doing both every year, I’m not going to complain about double the Halloween content. I just know which one I’ll rewatch first.
The opening is a highlight. It’s a claymation riff on The Nightmare Before Christmas, and that handmade, stop-motion look is a nice change from the show’s usual style. It also sets the tone well: playful, a bit grotesque, and clearly made by people who love horror. Lisa even reminds viewers up front that none of this is canon. That’s a handy warning, because a couple of these segments make choices that would ruin Springfield continuity for decades.
Bride’s Shed Revisited hands Marge the keys to chaos
The first segment has the best title of the night, and the premise matches it. Marge builds a backyard shed that randomly swaps out her husband, so she ends up working through Springfield’s eligible men like a cursed dating sim with no save points. The fun comes from Marge slowly enjoying the power instead of panicking. That’s an angle the show rarely gives her, since she usually serves as the patient anchor of the family. The rotation of replacement husbands works as a series of quick character jokes, and the final pick is a celebrity cameo absurd enough that I’ll leave it unspoiled.
The segment doesn’t push its premise to anything darker or more inventive. It sets up the gag, plays it out and ends. Still, it rests on a genuinely funny idea about marriage, boredom and wish fulfilment, and it gives Marge a rare chance to be the agent of chaos rather than the person cleaning up after it.
Dog Boy Afternoon digs up Pet Sematary with bloody enthusiasm
The middle short is the most “Treehouse” of the three. It’s a loose Pet Sematary parody in which Homer accidentally kills both Santa’s Little Helper and Bart, then manages to bring them back with their brains swapped. Body-swap comedy is an old gag, but giving Bart a dog’s instincts and the dog Bart’s brain plays well to Nancy Cartwright’s strengths and to the show’s appetite for slapstick. A recurring joke about Homer working through liquor themed for morning and afternoon adds a dry, ongoing punchline on top of the main premise.
This segment also brings the gore, and I’m glad it does. One sequence has Homer torn apart by hungry dogs, and it’s nastier than you’d expect from a modern prime-time special. “Treehouse” works best when it remembers that it’s a horror show, not just a costume party, and this is where the episode most clearly embraces its Halloween side. It’s the segment I’d point to if someone asked whether the anthology still has teeth.
Vehicular Dad Slaughter fast-forwards into DMV purgatory
The final story moves forward in time: teenage Bart and Lisa discover that Patty and Selma have trapped Homer inside a DMV training video. As horror premises go, being stuck forever in a driver’s-ed safety film is perfectly Simpsons. It’s mundane bureaucracy treated as a circle of hell, which is the kind of satire this show has done well since the ’90s. Writer Tim Long’s choice to age up the kids gives the segment a slightly different energy, even if the story would work just as well with the usual versions of the characters.
Patty and Selma are natural fits as the witches here. Their long-standing contempt for Homer finally gets a supernatural outlet, and their dry delivery suits spooky villainy surprisingly well. The time jump feels more like a costume than a real idea, but the DMV-limbo concept is strong enough to end the episode on a good note.
Julie Kavner quietly takes over the episode
Looking at the whole episode, two threads connect the segments. The first is time: the family appears at different stages of life across the three stories, which gives the anthology some shape. The second is Julie Kavner. Between Marge’s shed adventure and Patty and Selma’s witchcraft, this is effectively her episode, and she handles the extra load well. Long-running voice casts naturally change over decades, and Kavner’s performances had sounded strained in some recent seasons. Here Marge sounds closer to her classic self, and her sisters keep their familiar gravelly menace.
Putting the focus on her characters feels like a deliberate change from the usual Homer-and-Bart-first approach, and it pays off. Marge especially gets material that goes beyond worried throat noises, which is something longtime fans should appreciate.
Verdict
“Treehouse of Horror XXXVII” is a reliable modern Halloween special. There are no bad segments, the claymation opener is charming, “Dog Boy Afternoon” delivers proper gore, and the focus on Julie Kavner’s characters gives the episode an identity. Its biggest weakness is that none of the three stories are memorable enough to rank with the anthology’s all-time classics. It also suffers from coming right after “The Revengening,” which made a stronger case for what Simpsons horror can be with more room. Longtime fans and annual Treehouse viewers should still watch it. Anyone hoping for a new Golden Age-level segment should keep their expectations in check.
