So here we are at the annual 'Treehouse of Horror'. With the HD era having been very on & off regarding the quality of the Halloween episodes, with only some being any good and the rest either bad or supremely bland & dull, I didn't have very high hopes for this one and I'll right away say that yes, my lofty expectations were met accordingly. This was not one of the better modern 'Treehouses' but really quite bland, kinda boring, uninspired & unfunny, yet all without being bottom of the barrel horrible. It's just another flat 'Treehouse' (the opposite of last year's (2020) which felt more inspired, lively and fun) and there's not really much to say about it.
'Bambi' (surprised they didn't go with 'Bartbi' or 'Bart-mbi', considering Bart had the title role) was the opening (well, technically a segment as they say such, but I rarely count the pre-credits scene as a segment as they are so brief and often just a build up to the title) and it was really meh. There was not much to it other than the expected dark Disney parody (with the mock song about the dark content of many Disney movies, which was very lame and too obvious with the lyrics) with the typical violence (but bloodless compared to 'A-Gobble-ypto' in 'Thanksgiving Of Horror) and it wasn't really funny. I guess I'll give it a compliment for the neat, expressive Disney style animation, the twist not being what I expected and the lame "stag party" pun gave me a slight chuckle, but that's about it.
'This Side of Parasite' was the parody of 'Parasite' and while I haven't seen the movie yet, I understood it. Decent spoof premise with the Simpsons becoming tutors for a rich family to be "parasites" but it was overall bland, unfunny and a mess. The twist with Kirk & his family and the discussion on what "parasite" really means was alright, but then it got messy with everyone turning out to being squatting in the basement, begin to kill each other and rich people (what was Burns & Smithers doing in the Wolfcastle home?) until only the Simpsons are left alive (but Bart & Lisa have both disappeared). I liked seeing Rainier & Greta Wolfcastle again (and the first appearance of the mother?), the Itchy & Scratchy bit was pointless but okay, Bart slamming Homer for losing his breath running down stairs and the former's ensuing fall was funny & I enjoyed the subversion of "Lisa's speech solves all", but I didn't care for it at all.
'Nightmare On Elm Tree' might just be one of the most uninspired segments in a while. I liked the opening with Bart reading Milhouse, Lisa & Maggie a scary story in the treehouse (neatwith a callback to the first TOH episode) but then when it heads on to Homer being fed up with the tree and start chopping it down, cue magic and the tree turning alive, it heads into reused territory, with the rampage through town, making other trees come alive & they all fight the townspeople for domain. It really was like a combination of 'Attack of The 50 Ft. Eyesores' (stationary objects coming alive), 'Night Of The Dolphin' (creatures turning on mankind and humanity losing. There's even Kent Brockman being killed on air!) & with a dash of the first segment of 'The Futurama Holiday Spectacular'. The jokes were mostly lame, but there were some okay ones (even though pretty much all were kinda lame) but it was all still too familiar and rehashed.
Then there was the 'Interlude' with Vincent Price and to Maggie he reads a story of Bart whose pranks and deeds turn all the more serious and it was, well, just there. it sure wasn't funny, interesting nor memorable, but I did quite like the stylistic gothic art style (felt kinda Tim Burton-ish) and I thought Maurice LaMarche did a nice impression of the late Vincent Price (he pretty much got the voice down) & Maggie killing him in the end (stranging him with the speak-and-spell) was a little amusing, though yeah, this really was disposable and could have been cut completely in favor of expanding another segment). It really was a big bunch of nothing.
'Dead Ringer', the final segment of this overstuffed 'Treehouse', was also its (technical) best and an okay little short story, not only being a fairly obvious parody of The Ring/Ringu horror movies, but also a spoof on the TikTok app & its popularity among children with Bart and Lisa finding out classmates are dying after they've used the app. The story was told somewhat well, had some nice visuals, decent jokes (like a terrified Chief Wiggum hiding Ralph's bed) & also a nice creep factor (balanced well with humor) & an okay end (Lisa confronting the ghost/zombie girl and becoming her friend, until the girl get tired of her and jumps back down the well, which was nicely minimalistic as opposted to the uninspired, dull violence prior in the episode), but it was still forgettable, had plot holes and the ending got dragged out with a reprise of the horrid Disney spoof, but still alright (I guess). Best part was the villain's backstory.
So overall, what we have here is another weak modern 'Treehouse Of Horror' to throw on the pile. It did have some good premises and opportunity to go good with a few of the premises but it all sunk down into some really bland, ill paced and generic stuff that either felt underwritten, uninspired or both (also having a lot of random nonsense & horrid continuity errors as if the writer just forgot about things or made them up on the spot), even when the segments looked decently promising. It wasn't anything that bad, just dull, fairly unfunny and forgettable for the most part, but at least it was well directed with some really neat and expressive animation, the four... sorry, five segment approach was not as terrible as I thought & ended well with a relatively strong segment that could have belonged in one of the better 'Treehouses' of the HD era, I think, but it wasn't enough to help it out in the end. This was seriously weak.
This episode screams 2/5 (almost like a banshee, if you will. It is October and Halloween month after all). Not quite as bad as it could have been and with some good or decent moments, but it was not even mediocre so definitely what I'd call weak and disappointing and unfortunately, it being almost absurdly forgettable, cookie cutter and often boring (and those continuity errors like Burns suddenly owning Rainier's house were so sloppy) and not even the spoof on modern technology (TikTok) was any good, really, so this one will hold up very poorly. I wish I was watching last year's 'Treehouse Of Horror' instead as that one at least felt inspired and was well constructed with nice pacing and enthusiasm. This felt assembly line produced with a bunch of ill-executed ideas.