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Published Oct 15, 2026, 6:01 PM EDT
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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While The Simpsons’s annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials have been an iconic tradition for 36 years at this stage, the show’s exciting upcoming outing promises to alter their format for only the second time ever. Some shows benefit from breaking with tradition, while others do not need to. If South Park’s controversial season 29 proves anything, it is that the shocking show’s creators never want viewers to know what their next move will be.
In contrast, the show that made South Park’s success possible, The Simpsons, has a very different relationship with experimentation. It is tough to become the longest-running US scripted prime-time TV series of all time by constantly upending the expectations of your audience, so The Simpsons has instead settled into a fairly reliable niche over the years. The series is also the longest-running sitcom in American TV history and the longest-running animated comedy ever, so clearly, this niche isn’t struggling.
While The Simpsons did start releasing summer specials in 2026, thus dropping its annual hiatus and altering its release schedule, the format of the show’s episodes themselves has not changed in a long, long time. Outside some occasional experiments, The Simpsons typically devotes the first third of an episode’s 21-minute runtime to a lighter B-plot, before moving onto the show’s main episode storyline for Acts two and three. This reliable, predictable format is what makes the annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials so popular.
The Simpsons Season 38, Episode 3 Is A "Treehouse Of Horror Presents" Special
Beginning in 1990 with season 2, episode 3, “Treehouse of Horror,” The Simpsons has produced annual Halloween specials that utilize an anthology format to tell three shorter, non-canon, seven-minute stories, usually with a wraparound segment to tie them together. In early years, the “Treehouse of Horror” were inspired by classic horror anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, as well as iconic works of horror literature like Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic poem “The Raven.”
Soon, The Simpsons started using this format to spoof more recent pieces of horror pop culture, like the movies Child’s Play, King Kong, The Shining, and A Nightmare On Elm Street. By seasons 19 and 20, the original parody setup had been expanded beyond just the horror genre to allow The Simpsons to spoof everything from Mr. And Mrs. Smith to Transformers. However, 2022 saw the show refresh the Treehouse of Horror brand with a killer new premise.
2022’s season 34, episode 5, “Not IT,” was the first episode released under the "Treehouse of Horror Presents” banner. Instead of having between three and five miniature stories like a normal Treehouse of Horror episode, “Not IT” told one full-length horror story, allowing The Simpsons to faithfully parody the IT movies and their adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel of the same name.
To say that “Not IT” was well-received would be an understatement. The episode was a magnificent return to form for The Simpsons, fusing the mile-a-minute humor of early Treehouse of Horror episodes with a more sustained focus that made for a more compelling story. “Not IT” was both a love letter to King’s IT and a solid story in its own right, while the next episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII,” felt creatively reinvigorated by this experiment.
"Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening" Brings Back A 27-Year-Old Story
After the success of “Not IT,” it was no surprise when season 36, episode 7, “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” brought back the "Treehouse of Horror Presents” banner in 2024. Interestingly, though, this Ray Bradbury tribute wasn’t one long story, but rather a collection of three shorter twisted tales with a wraparound segment. Despite the banner’s presence, the episode played like an ordinary, albeit particularly good, Treehouse of Horror episode.
Luckily, four years after the success of “Not IT,” season 38 is now set to bring back this iconic format shift for an all-new original story. Season 38, episode 3, "Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening,” will be a slasher parody whose synopsis warns viewers that no Springfield citizen is safe when a masked murderer descends on the family’s hometown for a killing spree.
The first spoof of slasher movies since "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did” in season 11, episode 4, “Treehouse of Horror X,” this special sounds like something special for longtime fans. Not only is "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did” an iconic Treehouse of Horror segment, but the longer runtime of "Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening” offers The Simpsons an opportunity to take satirical aim at a horror subgenre that has been around for even longer than the show itself.
From its nascent beginnings with early efforts like Black Christmas, Psycho, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to the glory days of the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises in the ‘80s, to the meta-slasher revival of the ‘90s, to the more recent slasher legacy sequel trend of the 2020s, there is a huge array of material for The Simpsons to spoof in this outing. Luckily, the Treehouse of Horror Presents banner gives the show the runtime necessary to pull this off.
The Simpsons' "Treehouse Of Horror Presents" Trend Is Part Of A Bigger Series Overhaul
The very existence of slasher comedies like Totally Killer, not to mention parody movies like Scary Movie and its 2026 franchise reboot of the same name, proves that slashers have been spoofed to death and back many times before. However, the broader creative reshuffle of The Simpsons displays that the show can still find a fresh take on this familiar material.
As noted above, The Simpsons is also releasing Disney+ exclusives year-round now, as well as producing shorter seasons with fewer episodes on Fox. In an era when Family Guy now releases annual Hulu-exclusive Christmas and Halloween specials every year and South Park creates frequent feature-length specials to accompany its far shorter seasons of only five or six episodes, The Simpsons has clearly learned to adapt to the shifting media landscape of the 2020s.
Thus, the return of the “Treehouse of Horror Presents” banner in 2026 is an encouraging one, and not just because this writer has waited years to see what a slasher movie set in Springfield would look like. More broadly, the existence of "Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening” proves The Simpsons is still innovating, even if its experiments may not be as shocking as those of its R-rated competitors.
Release Date December 17, 1989
Network FOX
Showrunner Al Jean
Directors Steven Dean Moore, Mark Kirkland, Rob Oliver, Michael Polcino, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Wes Archer, Timothy Bailey, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Matthew Faughnan, Chuck Sheetz, Rich Moore, Jeffrey Lynch, Pete Michels, Susie Dietter, Raymond S. Persi, Carlos Baeza, Dominic Polcino, Lauren MacMullan, Michael Marcantel, Neil Affleck, Swinton O. Scott III, Jennifer Moeller
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Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)
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Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)
English (US) ·