This year’s Treehouse of Horror opens in a Springfield built entirely by hand. “Treehouse of Horror XXXVII,” the 37th edition of The Simpsons‘ Halloween tradition, premieres Sunday, October 25 at 8/7c on Fox, and the episode begins with a stop-motion sequence that rebuilds Springfield as Halloween Town from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The sneak peek opens on a handmade Springfield after dark, its town square sitting under a full moon with the nuclear plant silhouetted in the distance. The camera then finds the townsfolk remade as stop-motion puppets. Bart Simpson leads the way as Jack Skellington, his face painted skull white, his thin arms ending in skeleton fingers and a bat bow tie at his neck. Homer Simpson appears as the Mayor of Halloween Town, tall hat on his head and a wide grin under one spiral eye.
The clip is worth every one of its 22 seconds. Marge Simpson joins the transformation as Sally, with Santa’s Little Helper floating along as the ghost dog Zero, and the whole sequence plays like a love letter to the 1993 film.
The opening was animated by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the stop-motion team behind Robot Chicken, and their fingerprints are all over it. Every figure has the slightly wobbly, handmade charm that has made the studio the go-to name in television stop-motion, and the mashup casting is exact: Bart’s troublemaker energy fits Jack, Marge’s stitched-together patience fits Sally, Homer’s two-faced cheer fits the Mayor, and Santa’s Little Helper was always one glowing nose away from Zero.
The stop-motion is only the opening. The episode itself follows the usual three-segment format. In the first, Marge’s shed keeps producing different husbands for her, a story inspired by Holly Gramazio’s novel The Husbands, with Tiffany Haddish guest starring. In the second, Bart and Santa’s Little Helper die, come back, and find they have swapped bodies, a blend of Pet Sematary and Freaky Friday. The third sends a teenage Bart and Lisa after Homer, who is trapped inside endless murderous driver’s ed films by witch versions of Patty and Selma. The episode also works in a nod to Hereditary along the way.
The Treehouse of Horror specials have been a Halloween fixture since 1990, and this year’s edition is clearly aiming to be one of the memorable ones. “Treehouse of Horror XXXVII” airs Sunday, October 25 at 8/7c on Fox.