Review: The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening”
Overview (Spoilers Below):
All hell breaks loose on Halloween when a killer comes to Springfield and hacks their way through town.
Our Take:
This year brings another round of “Treehouse of Horror” madness for the Simpson family to endure, but with a catch. For the show’s 38th season, it’s delivering not one “Treehouse of Horror” special, but two, to bring twice the laughs and twice the fears, mostly the former. Its thirty-seventh “Treehouse of Horror” event isn’t until next week, but we have its first anthology “spin-off” to keep us occupied until then. In a way, it’s copying what “Star Wars: Visions” did with the “Presents” spin-off for “The Ninth Jedi”, but with a spookier, more satirical edge.
Its first attempt at the Halloween special’s spin-off anthology sees the show taking a “stab” at the overused slasher genre. In this case, “The Revengening” parodies the 90s slasher film “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, with Homer and the others facing a dose of karma from a killer dressed as a knock-off Daft Punk member. The special includes everything you love about the slasher genre: the Halloween setting, the masked killer, the works. The only difference is that the victims are adults instead of teens. But even with these tropes, this “Treehouse of Horror” spin-off utilized them effectively to deliver a spookily fun, violently amusing “I Know What You Did Last Halloween” scenario that parodies people’s negligence. What makes it even more entertaining is that the special brings back several nostalgic characters and elements from earlier seasons, notably those on a remote island. One major example is the surprise return of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, who has been appearing speechless since Hank Azaria’s resignation and is now voiced by Indian actor Sunil Malhotra.
The “Treehouse of Horror” specials usually bring laughs and frights with a series of short spooky tales that parody several horror classics. “The Revengening” proves that the concept can also work with just one 23-minute ghost story. The jokes, including its satire of people’s negligence in admitting their mistakes, complement its goofy scares well. But the best part of the episode is Apu’s return after years of voiceless cameos, a welcome surprise given the plot, which has the residents not remembering him for years. Since I haven’t seen much of Apu in a long time, I was impressed that the episode used this opportunity to give him the return he deserves. “The Revengening” is more along the lines of “The Returning”, mainly for a long-forgotten character who was once plagued by controversy.
