Treehouse of Horror (series)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Cultural references
References to films, novels, plays, television shows and other media are commonly featured, and many segments have been parodies of a specific work in the horror, science fiction or fantasy genre. Many segments are spoofs of episodes of The Twilight Zone and entire segments will be based on a single episode. Some of the Twilight Zone episodes parodied include "To Serve Man", "A Small Talent for War", "Living Doll", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "Little Girl Lost", and "The Little People". The "The Bart Zone" segment of "Treehouse of Horror II" parodies the episode "It's a Good Life" and is even presented in a format similar to an episode of The Twilight Zone. The Halloween episodes also regularly parody horror films such as The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, King Kong, Night of the Living Dead, The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Fly. Robert Englund, who portrays Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elmstreet franchise, had a cameo appearance in "Treehouse of Horror IX" as the character. Science fiction films have also occasionally been used as inspiration for segments, and in later episodes many of the segments were based more on science fiction than horror. Science fiction works parodied include The Omega Man, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds radio broadcast. In "Treehouse of Horror", Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" is read by James Earl Jones while the parts are acted by various characters. Recent parodies have included films and television specials in more varied genres, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Transformers.
