Top 5 Simpsons Tree House Of Horror Episodes

I really am a terrible person

So here's what went down. I got sick, I went to post some stuff and I have no idea how I managed it but I deleted a lot of my posts. I hate myself for this but what I don't hate myself for is binge-watching every episode of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror and considering it is the month of Halloween, these are Halloween themed episodes and The Simpsons just flat out refuses to die, it only seems fitting that that's something I can talk about. So in today's rushed out post, I'm gonna be listing off my top ten favourite Treehouse of Horror episodes.

There isn't any particular order to this list, it's just my personal favourite episodes and you're more than welcome to disagree with me on this.

1. The Simpsons Halloween Special. The first in the extremely long line of Simpsons episodes and easily one of the best. The episode begins with the children, Bart, Lisa & Maggie telling scary stories up in the treehouse. The stories in the episode were Bad Dream House, Hungry Are The Damned and probably the best and most Simpsons parody of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Honestly, this is probably the best as it's kicked off a series of episodes that is most likely the only thing keeping The Simpsons alive. Everyone gets excited for these episodes every year and this was a great jumping off point.
2. Treehouse Of Horror XXVI. The episode in which Sideshow Bob finally kills Bart Simpson. If you're not familiar with the (too) long-running series, Sideshow Bob Roberts was once Krusty The Clown's sidekick on his kids tv show, Bob eventually tired of being the punchline to almost all of Krusty's jokes and decided to frame him for armed robbery at the local shop in order to take over the Krusty The Clown show. Luckily, Bart believed in his idol and did everything he could until he was able to foil his evil plan and since then, Sideshow Bob has had a drive in him to murder the boy and he eventually did. I mean it did take him a good 27 seasons and didn't even manage to do it in the canonical series, he did it in the anthology series which both does and doesn't count. Either way, it's a definite fan pleaser, especially when The Simpsons was pretty much dead, it brought a little bit of traffic back to them. The other two stories in this anthology are alright, them being Homerzilla and Telepaths Of Glory. With the whole of the 27th season being boring at best, this was a good one to get you through Halloween.
3. Treehouse Of Horror V. The very first Halloween episode of The Simpsons that I ever saw and it scared the hell out of me as a kid. My mum told me that this one would freak me out and it really did, put me off of watching regular Simpsons episodes in the dark, and that's thanks to the segment known as The Shinning. "Don't you mean The Shining?" No, what do you wanna get sued? (That's my favourite joke of the whole episode). The Shinning is, of course, a parody of the Stephen King hated version of his own work, The Shining by director Stanley Kubrick and oh my God if this isn't on a lot of fans lists for favourite Halloween episodes. The other segments are great too. Time And Punishment being about Homer trying to fix the toaster and managing to change history in doing so. Following the rule of "if you ever travel back in time, don't step on anything" it results in some pretty fun outcomes every time Homer tries to fix time. And finally, there's Nightmare Cafeteria in which the school faces an overcrowding situation and finds that cannibalism is the best way to sort that out, owing to the classic 200 Miles To Oregon for its inspiration.
4. Treehouse Of Horror XXV. Easily my favourite one, outside of the first one. In this episode, we see current Simpsons meet their very original Tracy Ulman versions of themselves in a segment called The Others. I love this idea of old meeting new and seeing really how far everything has come since the very early days of these characters and their life. It all ends in tradgedy however but I won't spoil that here. There is also a pretty...bleh but not so bleh parody of one of my all-time favourite stories and films, A Clockwork Orange. It doesn't follow the exact story yet there are a couple of funny jokes playing with the films iconic moments and the language of the book. The other story which is pretty forgettable School Is Hell, yet it still manages to be better than a lot of previous seasons. 
5. Treehouse Of Horror XI. The one with the dolphins. I remember watching this one as a kid and for some reason, it was on really late at night, like 10 or 11pm. Which, for a 9-year-old, is pretty late, hell it's late for a 20-year-old, that's beside the point. I remember getting to stay up late this one night and the only thing on tv was this and I had this weird thing about dolphins that just freaked me out. As I've gotten older I've watched this over and over again, and the plot to the segment Night Of The Dolphin is both fun and interesting. The other stories in the episode, G-G-Ghost Dad, a parody of the Bill Cosby crap fest of a similar name (Ghost Dad) in which Homer eats a piece of broccoli and dies has a really funny ending, despite it not being a great part of the episode, and Scary Tales Can Come True in which Bart & Lisa are Hansel & Gretel and go through that story in the only way they can. The Simpsons way, which is very hit and miss but still good.

Alrighty well that's it for this one, stay tuned for another couple of posts to finish up you're Halloween. Not like you'll be reading these on the day as you'll probably be enjoying getting wasted or something. Either way, stay hydrated and stay safe out there. You know there's a lot of crazies out there this time of year.

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about the films listed. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like the films listed then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.

Top 5 worst films I've ever seen

I did the best now for the worst.

I love bad films, I really do, the worse the better in my opinion, however, that's not what this list is. This list is just the absolute worst, not so bad it's good films, just flat out terrible so unfortunately, you won't be seeing Birdemic or The Room here, those would go on another list. All genres are up to be shamed, no sequels, again that would be an entirely different list, only one Disney film because as much as I like to bash them most of their terrible work is in the sequels so...y'know, nothing that's so bad it's good as I said before, and...that's it, everything else is down to be talked about.

Here we go.

• Smiley. I've already talked about this one and I don't really have much to say on it, it's just a terrible film that just makes no sense and has such a stupid twist. I don't know exactly what's good about it...It's got Shane Dawson in it? Honestly, this is just such a terrible film but it's not the worst offender on the list. It's probably something fun to watch if you're into really bad horror and can't be bothered looking for the good bad horror films. 

• The Good Dinosaur. It's not Disney, it's Pixar so I can put it on here and have my Disney bashing fetish fulfilled. Again, I've already talked about this one so I'll keep it short. This film had serious potential to be great, maybe even one of the best but...it's on this list and for good reason, It's predictable, the character design is butt ugly, the story is terrible, the only redeeming factor in this film is the gorgeous animation on the nature is genuinely amazing like...I really believe that was real water and not animation. It's a shame you get some horrifically ugly characters wandering through it. I hope someone takes this idea of "what if the comet didn't hit Earth and humans and dinosaurs evolved together" and runs with it and takes it to its full potential. There's nothing especially harmful in this for kids or anything but there are a couple of genuinely horrific scenes which, if you're going to put this on for your kid(s), please stay in the room with them to see whether they can handle those scenes. 

• Suicide Squad. Once again, I've already talked about it. Why DC feels the need to copy Marvel is beyond me, they have some of the most iconic comic book characters around and the idea of Suicide Squad actually sounds pretty solid, we almost never get a film about the bad guys. As I said when I talked about it I was really excited to see this and it was such a letdown. Recently I watched the Nostalgia Critic's review and he made some point's I didn't even pick up on, like the fact the reason the events in the film happen is because of Waller (Viola Davis). It's a pretty funny review and I'll leave a link at the end of the list.

• Son Of The Mask. This is the last one that I've already talked about, I promise, I was looking back on what I said about it and I while I do stand by it, maybe I didn't give it enough credit for being on a similar wavelength to the original Mask comic book which was very graphic. And that's just what this film is, just a graphic assault to every single person involved, you might think it's a harmless sequel to the amazingly funny Jim Carrey film but it's not. I promise it is not. The CGI is scary, the close-up wide angles are scary, the idea that this is even a film is scary. Don't watch the film, read my review.

• Inspector Gadget. Here we go, the Disney film that I haven't yet talked about on this blog. I don't want to ramble on about it so I'll just give you the basics of why it's terrible. The live-action film starring Matthew Broderick of all people is based on a cartoon of the same name. Inspector Gadget is just that, a police inspector who has all this cool hardware in his body which helps him solve cases along with his niece Penny and her talking dog Brain. The film is not what the cartoon was. It's not funny, Penny barely does anything, Broderick is his familiar bland self, Brain doesn't talk and it's just...it hits every single wrong nerve in the body. The transitions between scenes are similar to what you'd get in Austin Powers but...it worked in those films, it doesn't work here. Everything that tries to be funny in this film just falls flat on its face and pretty much nothing works. If you have a little kid and want to keep them entertained for a bit I'd say put it on for them, there's nothing all that bad for kids in it from what I remember but as an adult, you'll suffer. 

So that was my list of the top 5 worst films I've ever seen. Again while I was writing this I was thinking of others so I might do another one at some point but y'know. Please keep in mind that this is all opinion based and if you like any of these films then fab, I'm glad you liked them and maybe we can discuss them. Anyway, that's it for this week, I'll see you next week.

Links for reviews

Smiley

Son of the Mask

Suicide Squad 

The Good Dinosaur

Nostalgia Critic's review of Suicide Squad

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about the films listed. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like the films listed then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.

Top 5 best films I've ever seen.

Because a top 5 list is definitely not a lazy thing to do.

I'm sorely lacking in any sort of motivation to even do anything lately and I apologise for that, but I'm just trying my best so I'm sorry if this sucks but y'know, we're all gonna have to deal with it for now.

With that out of the way, this is a list of the top 5 best films I've ever seen in my painfully long 19 years of being. This list includes all genre's of film and I've limited it down to only one Disney film because...hell if I picked all my favourites including all the Disney films then they'd take up the whole list and I might as well just name it "Top 5 best Disney films I've ever seen". Maybe I could do a list of those one day...It might have to be more than 5 but I might still do it. I also won't be giving sequels their own slot on the list, however, if I did like the film and its sequel then I'll put the sequel on the list. The films listed are in no particular order. Keep in mind that this is my own opinion and the best films I have ever seen will probably be different to the best you've seen.

With that said, onto the list.

• Fantasia. Alright, let's get this Disney one out of the way. This is such a gorgeous film and to me, it's the peak of Disney animation. Fantasia is an experiment in art which is just so interesting in its background. Originally intended to be a Micky Mouse short to bring the irritating Mouse back into the limelight with the short titled The Sorcerers Apprentice, which is also where you see that cute little wizard's hat first appear. Apparently, the budget for that short just kept growing and growing until eventually, they decided "fuck it" and made a feature length film about it. This entire film is just amazing and you really do see the artistic expression that, honestly, you very rarely ever get with an animated film with a structured story that's meant to suck you in. I'm not saying you don't get sucked into these films, I'm just saying that you see an animated story and while there is artistic expression involved, the animators have to go with the actor's performances rather than letting themselves lose y'know? If you haven't seen it yet I definitely recommend it because it's a beautiful film and as far as "underrated Disney films" go, this is definitely among them. 

• The Exorcist. I would like to clarify right now, that I haven't seen this recently, nor have I seen it in the past 10 years. I saw this once when I was a child and it scared the hell out of me. I was 9 years old and had to sleep in my parent's bed for two weeks. I would also like to clarify that my parents were not the ones who showed me this film, they were good to me like that. I was shown this film by some girl I was apparently friends with who was the same age as me, we were at her mother's friends house or something which was about an hour or more away from where I lived so I couldn't just leave, I had to sit and watch it and deal with the trauma as a young girl is very convincingly possessed by a Demon, not the Devil. I understand that's a massive misconception considering Regan herself says Quote: "And I'm the Devil, now kindly undo these straps." How do I know she's not possessed by the Devil considering she's said it? I did some research. It seems as though the demon (Pazuzu) has a fairly heightened sense of self. 

     So with that said, you're probably wondering why I this is one of the best films I've ever seen. I saw it when I was 9, how can I possibly even remember what it's like? How can I say it's one of the best films I've seen if it scared me to the point I had to sleep in parents bed for a couple of weeks? Well...that's why. It's scary as hell and incredibly well done. The makeup for example in this film is insanely good, Max Von Sydow was, at the time, 44-years-old and was made up to look like an elderly man and only recently did I learn this. I always thought the guy was like 80 or something when he played Father Merrin. Of course, the makeup for the possessed Regan was also incredible and horrific but Sydow's makeup genuinely blows my mind anytime I see a clip or picture of him from the film. Mercedes McCambridge also does a great job with the voice of the possessed child and honestly, I can't praise this film enough. I respect the fact that it scared me, I respect that even going near my dad's VHS copy of it or even the extended DVD edition with the crab walk scene - makes me incredibly uncomfortable and tense. I find myself constantly thinking "I should watch this again, I'm a grown up, I can handle it. Hell, horror films barely scare me so why should this?" But I'd have to watch it during the day and with someone willing to watch it and hold my hand and then stay up with me the whole night after. (And also let me cry because I cry a lot apparently). I do think people should watch this but only if you're willing to go to church to get the DVD blessed or something. Maybe I'll do a full review on it and the impact it had on me...I don't know. Maybe I'll do it for Halloween....

• Face/Off. Onto something a lot less scary, this film is definitely one of my favourite films ever. But this isn't a list of my favourites, this is a list of the best I've seen and the reason it's on here is because it has one of the best concepts a film can ever have. Over actor Nicolas Cage playing over actor John Travolta in a film that practically encourages them to overact and take advantage of our favourite American cop cliches. The film also comes with some perfectly stupid lines of dialogue that you can just throw into the conversation and either get a laugh out of the quote or just some weird looks. I've already written about this so I'll leave a link at the end of the list and you can read more about what I thought of it there.

• A Clockwork Orange. Again, I've already talked about this one before so I'll keep this short. This film ignited my love for both Kubrick films and Malcolm Mcdowell. I love the book, in fact, I own about 3 or 4 copies of it, two have a sort of dictionary so people can understand the language used and the other(s) don't. The film centres on a "boy" who is just besotted with violence of all kinds and ends up in prison where he is conditioned to do no wrong going against his natural urges. Being a Kubrick it's obviously amazing to look at, you can just watch this with the sound off and just admire every shot in the film, it's beautiful and very clearly the result of a perfectionist's hard work. I definitely recommend this film too because damn, it's amazing.

• Hot Fuzz. From amazing art to possession to over acting and brainwashing to...a Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedy? Yeah but you see, this is one of the best comedies in years. I watched it last night and pretty much every joke works, nearly every line of dialogue comes back as an awesome one-liner, even something as mundane as Aaron A Aaronson comes back as a throwaway joke at the end but it shows the level of attention the writers gave to this. They looked at nearly every trope in police action films and just played with them. There are even two very plausible reasons for the events in the film but of course, the silly route is the one the characters take making the joke even funnier. The best part of the film? It accurately portrays life as a police officer, specifically one aspect, and it's that there is a lot of paperwork involved which is something big budget blockbusters seem to neglect a lot of the time. I don't know what else to say other than you should see it, at the time I'm writing this it's on Netflix so head there if you want to try it for yourself before buying a copy of it. 

So that's the list, the top 5 best films I've ever seen. As I was writing this I thought of a few more films but they were fairly recent, only being out for a year at most so I didn't put them on the list for that reason. I might do another list of those at some point but this will have to do for now. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have a different opinion than me on these films then I'm open to discussing it with you.

Links to reviews
A Clockwork Orange
Face/Off

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about the films listed. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like the films listed then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.