Treehouse of Horror XXXV

"Treehouse of Horror XXXV"
The Simpsons episode
Promotional poster for the episode
Episode no.	Season 36 Episode 5
Directed by	Timothy Bailey
Written by	Rob LaZebnik ("The Information Rage") Dan Vebber ("The Fall of the House of Monty") Matt Selman ("Denim")
Production code	35ABF13
Original air date	November 3, 2024 (2024-11-03)
Running time	23 minutes

"Treehouse of Horror XXXV" is the fifth episode of the thirty-sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The 773rd episode overall, it aired in the United States on the Fox Network on November 3, 2024. It is the 35th Treehouse of Horror special, and, like the others, consists of three Halloween-themed self-contained segments, one of each being written by Matt Selman, Dan Vebber, and Rob LaZebnik. The entire episode was directed by Timothy Bailey.

The series follows the dysfunctional Simpson family, consisting of patriarch Homer (Dan Castellaneta), matriarch Marge (Julie Kavner), son Bart (Nancy Cartwright), oldest daughter Lisa (Yeardley Smith), and youngest Maggie, as they live out their misadventures in the town of Springfield. The first segment of the episode deals with kaiju monsters attacking the politically split Springfield, the second follows Mr. Burns as he is haunted by the hungry ghosts of his workers, and the third focuses on a sentient pair of denim jeans that help Homer attract his crush, Marge.

Before the first segment, a short intro by Jorge R. Gutierrez is played, inspired by his 2014 film The Book of Life. Gutierrez was given free rein with the short, and asserted that he was a fan of The Simpsons. Despite not usually going for political humor, LaZebnik was still interested in exploring how social media affected people's views for the first segment, and Vebber was inspired by his enjoyment of 1950s horror films for the second segment. The final segment, "Denim", was animated by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, and came from a concept Selman pitched years prior. Upon release, the episode received generally positive reviews from critics, with "The Fall of the House of Monty" being the most acclaimed segment.

Plot

"The Information Rage"

The people of Springfield are given free LED lightbulbs due to young Lisa Simpson's advocacy. The residents are initially happy, but the conservative half of town becomes enraged when they learn this is idea is progressive. Soon, two kaiju monsters rise from the sea, attacking the liberal and conservative parts of Springfield. Scientist Professor Frink creates a large robot to stop them, and Lisa and her brother Bart operate it, but fail. As more kaiju representing different political figures and platforms appear, Bart and Lisa work together and chase them away. They warn the town to embrace commonality and not give in to the kaiju, but it soon becomes more powerful and destroys the town.

"The Fall of the House of Monty"

In the Victorian era, tycoon Mr. Burns invites his factory workers over for Thanksgiving dinner. He allows them to dine if anyone defeats him in pulling a wishbone. Despite Groundskeeper Willie succeeding, Mr. Burns still prevents them from eating, and is warned by his housekeeper that he will be cursed for not fulfilling his promise. The next day at the factory, employee Homer Simpson falls into a vat of boiling syrup, flooding the factory and killing everyone. The next Friday, Mr. Burns is visited by the workers' hungry ghosts. They chase him and reveal they came for his soul. Mr. Burns pours oil on himself and jumps into the fireplace, burning down his mansion, and goes to Hell. Later, Waylon Smithers investigates the fire with Sideshow Mel, who proclaims that every Friday after Thanksgiving shall be known as Black Friday.

"Denim"

Homer tries to impress his crush Marge, who works in a diner. Later, a pair of mysterious jeans fall onto Earth, and Homer tries them on. He visits Marge just as the diner is robbed. The jeans, controlling Homer's legs, subdue the robber, impressing Marge. The jeans introduce itself as Denim, a symbiote from another planet that requires a host. In exchange for Homer wearing him, Denim helps him seduce Marge, but Homer finds that Denim refuses to come off. As they grow closer, Denim prevents Homer from telling Marge the truth because he thinks Homer will dispose of him. They are soon able to remove the jeans, and Denim tries to kill Marge, but Homer stops him, reluctantly choosing to break up with Marge and spare her life. Denim soon reveals to Homer that his kind is invading the planet, as more jeans begin to arrive on Earth.

Production

"Treehouse of Horror XXXV" was directed by Timothy Bailey. Prior to the first segment, there is an introduction short, created by animator Jorge R. Gutierrez. With a different animation style, it features The Simpsons characters in the style of the 2014 film The Book of Life. Characters from the movie—La Muerte and Xibalba—also appear in the segment, which is portrayed as a lucha libre video game being played by aliens Kang and Kodos. A punk rock version of the music of Jarabe Tapatío composed by Juan Carlos Enriquez is played over the segment, with lyrics sung by Gutierrez, Enriquez, and segment producer Tim Yoon. Gutierrez was a fan of the The Simpsons since the episode "Kamp Krusty", and was happy to contribute to the segment. He was given free rein to do anything he wanted to with the segment, and was only restricted to a minute. In July 2024, at San Diego Comic-Con, Selman recorded the screaming of the large The Simpsons panel audience to be used at an undisclosed point in the episode. The screams were played over the Gracie Films logo during the end credits.

Instead of giving one political side more weight in "The Information Rage", it was decided to focus on the anger generated by both conservatives and liberals, according to executive producer Matt Selman. Rob LaZebnik, who wrote the segment and co-ran the episode, wished to have a concept where "both sides [would] be offended". The series usually does not strive to do explicitly political humor, according to LaZebnik, but he was interested by the idea of how social media and the news drive the anger between political sides, particularly because the episode was set to air close to the 2024 United States presidential election. When he approached Selman with the pitch, kaiju monsters were quickly added to the script, per his suggestion, and led them to make the segment a parody of the film Pacific Rim. The writers did not spend a lot of time deciding who was on which political side, since the ways the characters are written allows for each of them to quickly switch between democratic and republican. They specifically chose not to include Homer or Marge on either side, notably for the former, who often works as a "mouthpiece" for the writers to express many different opinions.

"The Fall of the House of Monty" was originally pitched as a segment for the 2019 episode "Thanksgiving of Horror", but it was too long to fit into the episode. The concept came from the desire to someday do a segment that had a lot of jump scares. However, the crew soon realized that scaring people through 2D animation is hard, and so they sought out to satirize the concept of jump scares rather than actually go for one. For inspiration, the animators looked at videos of famous jump scares in fiction to parody. Written by Dan Vebber, the segment was inspired by his admiration for 1950s horror movies, such as ones from Hammer Studios.

Homer, wearing Denim, the sentient pair of jeans. The idea for the segment came from Matt Selman, and the animation was handled by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

The idea for "Denim" came from Selman, who pitched an idea to the other writers years prior of a parody of the 2018 film Venom entitled "Denim"; the crew noted the idea for a future episode. Following the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, it was decided to start brainstorming the concept, since they needed to put an episode together quickly without as many writers as usual helping them. When writing it, Selman also suggested that the pants should be in stop motion animation, to make it look like real denim material, which LaZebnik was worried would look off when layered on the regular animation; he later asserted that it ended up working. Because of the way it was animated, the script had to be completely finished quicker than usual to allow the team time to properly work on the animation.

The animation for "Denim" was handled by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, with the pair of jeans being done through puppets. It took a few months to film, with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios co-founders Seth Green and John Harvatine getting to keep some of the puppets used. To create the jeans, 20 different models were created from real denim—which the crew were allowed to pick, opting for a darker material to be "scarier"—and those were animated on top of animatics that they sent to the studio, who layered it on top frame-by-frame. Selman described the segment as "really funny [and] silly". The pair of jeans were voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. Initially, the idea of the segment was not fully set in stone, as they felt it was too "silly" and relied too much on puns, causing the crew to have some resistance. However, they soon grew attached to the idea of Homer having a genuine bond with his jeans, and it became a "funny idea". After Homer and Marge attempt to have sex while Homer wears Denim, Marge was supposed to comment that it was "the best dry humping of my life"; Selman stated that producers were required to change the line by the censors, and the phrase "dry humping" was changed to "outer course".

Release and reception

"Treehouse of Horror XXXV" first aired on the Fox Network at 8:00 p.m. ET on November 3, 2024. In the United States, the episode was watched by a total of 3.18 million viewers during its original broadcast, making it the most-watched show on the channel that night. Airing directly after an NFL doubleheader, it garnered a 0.93% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 0.94% of all households in that demographic. It marked an increase in viewership of over two million from the previous episode, "Shoddy Heat", which had earned a 0.26% rating and drew in 0.98 million viewers. The episode, along with "Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes", lead the ratings for the season, continuing a trend of the series' annual Treehouse of Horror episodes garnering more viewers than usual. The only episode of the season to outperform both of these was "Bottle Episode", which attracted a higher audience for airing near the holiday season on December 29, 2024. After the episode was released for streaming on Disney+, a continuous stream playing each Treehouse of Horror episode in order on repeat was released in September 2025 on the service, created to promote the episode's premiere.

"The Fall of the House of Monty" was the most celebrated segment of the episode, and was noted for its connections to "The Fall of the House of Usher", along with other Edgar Allan Poe works.

MediaPost reviewer Adam Buckman labeled "The Information Rage" as "timely", highlighting it as the most noteworthy of the three segments. Daniel Kurland of Bloody Disgusting called it "lively", enjoying the way it handled its satire and how it was able to comment on the state of politics by criticizing both extremes. Kurland also enjoyed how the parody was of a "benign" issue, and not anything serious enough that could disinterest the viewer. He compared it to Nacho Vigalondo's film Colossal (2016) for its theming of commonality behind heated political arguments. ComicBook.com reviewer Nick Valdez found the segment to be a "bad" opening to the episode, asserting that it was out of place for a series of episodes that usually strive to scare rather than give commentary, which he felt was better suited for a regular episode.

Kurland thought the "Fall of the House of Monty" segment was the best of the three, highlighting the gore and the animation style of the old film stock. He highlighted its satirical take on "The Fall of the House of Usher", as well as the other horror works it parodied to a lesser extent, such as the various works of Mike Flanagan. In another article, Valdez listed the entire episode 12th on his ranking of the entire season. He praised the animation, the opening, and "The Fall of the House of Monty", describing the latter as the "standout" aspect of the episode. ScreenRant's Cathal Gunning hailed the segment as one of the best parts of the season, commending its unique parody of "The Fall of the House of Usher", among several other stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Gunning called it a "triumph" that made good use of its format and parodies of Poe's writings, also feeling that it worked as a genuine horror story at times, notably in the scene where Homer falls into the vat. /Film writer Rafael Motamayor listed "The Fall of the House of Monty" as the fifth best Thanksgiving-themed story from The Simpsons, enjoying the "fun" humor of the segment and its commentary on how people treat each other.

Writing for Collider, Thomas Butt praised "Denim", finding the parody of the Venom movies to be better than the subject matter itself, enjoying how it captured the feel of the older seasons of the series while employing the humor of the newer seasons. Butt also considered the design of Denim to be a good sight gag, ending his review by writing, "The "Denim" [segment] crystallizes the silliness of Venom and the level of seriousness we ought to grant it". Kurland was much more negative towards "Denim", finding it reliant on a single pun about "Venom" and "Denom" sounding similar with a "shallow story". Despite enjoying the stop motion animation, he said that the segment was only a "fun" watch instead of anything well-executed. Nick Valdez criticized the "lackluster" narrative of "Denim" for not taking advantage of the parody, but still lauded the visuals and animation as "special".

External links

• "Treehouse of Horror XXXV" at IMDb