While decorating their house as "742 Everscream Terrors" the family finds their old plastic skeletons melted together by the furnace. Homer goes to Apu's Official Halloween Headquarters to buy a replacement. When Apu's seasonal employees offer him a deal they can only afford to give because they're stealing from Apu, Homer cluelessly tells Apu about it and gets them fired. The three swear revenge.
Lisa, for her part, is excited about going to Krustyland's Halloween Horror Night. When they go, she finds the animatronic and costumed horrors too real and Homer's chaperoning too lax and suffers from PTSD. With Lisa traumatized, the Simpsons remove all signs of Halloween from their house. Marge tries to make it up to Bart by taking him to an exclusive Halloween party, then trick-or-treating, failing at both. Meanwhile, Homer's new enemies show up while he's staying home with Lisa.
Tropes
- Actor Allusion: Kang and Kodos appear to show up at the end, only for it to really be Lenny and Carl in full-body Kang and Kodos suits. Carl compliments Lenny's spot-on "alien voice" for Kang, to which Lenny says in the voice he had been practicing it for a while, but then loses it. Both Kang and Lenny are voiced by Harry Shearer.
- Big Damn Heroes: All of Springfield arrives to save Homer and Lisa from the seasonal temps upon receiving their call for help.
- Call-Back: The Lovejoys wear the goth costumes from last season's episode "Sky Police".
- Chekhov's Gun: The mariachi skeletons Homer bought from the seasonal temps end up tipping them off to his and Lisa's hiding in the attic when they are accidentally activated.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the seasonal temps vow to get revenge on Homer for inadvertently getting them fired:Temp 1: (quietly and menacingly) You're going to be real sorry for getting us fired.
Homer: I'm sorry now.
Temp 1: Yeah. You're gonna be.
Homer: I said I'm sorry now.
Temp 2: We said, You're. Gonna. Be.
Homer: I know when I'm sorry, and I'm sorry now! (hurt) You guys don't know me at all. - The Dreaded: Tailee, Lisa's Security Blanket, in that Homer and Marge are beyond horrified when they realize Lisa's so frightened she's taken it from Marge's scrapbook of family photos. When it spontaneously regenerates at the end of the episode, it's implied they've got a good reason to be scared of the thing.
- Face Your Fears: Lisa is forced to confront her fear of Halloween when the temps invade the house wearing Halloween costumes.
- Halloween Episode: The first one that isn't a Treehouse of Horror.
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: Lisa encounters three performers armed with chainsaws in Krustyland. One accurately has a human skin mask, but the other two have hockey masks.
- Internal Deconstruction: With the opportunity to really explore a Halloween Episode for the show, the scary costumes and fake gore is legitimately traumatizing for Lisa, a reminder that despite acting much older she is still just eight years old and such things can be scary. Marge finds a similar issue trying to find a good neighborhood for Bart to Trick-Or-Treat in before the adult partiers show up.
- It's All About Me: Marge lampshades this while comforting Bart:Marge: Honey, I knew you'd be upset and think only of yourself.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Homer’s Halloween tradition is to tell 3 scary stories in the treehouse. In a later scene, Apu gives himself a "scary name" for his Halloween store (Referencing the show's habit of using horror themed puns on the names in the credits of the Treehouse of Horror episodes).
- Literary Agent Hypothesis: Ned talks to Homer about their "Scary Stories in the Treehouse" Halloween tradition. Homer mumbles they still have one planned and had multiple stories lined up (which was the next episode, though it had different premises). That suggests the Framing Device from the first couple "Treehouse of Horror" episodes remained intact, just not revealed to the audience.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The laid-off seasonal temps break in while wearing masks and are seriously scary at some points.
- Never My Fault: The three seasonal temps swear revenge on Homer for getting them fired, never minding the fact that the reason Apu fired them was because they were trying to swindle him and steal his merchandise. Sure, Homer was the one who (unintentionally) told Apu about the "deal" but their inevitable firing was their own fault. Even after Homer apologizes to them, they still make it clear they want revenge on him.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Both Homer and Marge when they see that Lisa has taken Tailee from the scrapbook, because of her PTSD.
- Homer when he sees that the three seasonal temps have come to their home to get even. He and Lisa have a bigger one when they encounter the three right inside the house.
- Marge as all the houses in the neighborhood turn off their lights and Grown-Up Halloween begins.
- Papa Wolf: Homer does his best to protect Lisa from the three men.
- Protect This House: Homer's and Lisa's plot is a (somewhat comedic) home invasion thriller played straight.
- Security Blanket: Lisa has "Tailee", a tail that fell off some stuffed animal or other.
- Self-Deprecation: Homer and Ned discuss the Simpsons' "tradition" of telling horror stories in the treehouse, which Homer seems less than enthused about, completely with an unflattering description of what they currently have planned ("Psycho with Skinner and his mom, Muppet Wizard of Oz—I'm Scarecrow-Fozzie—and then, uh, one where furniture gets smart and takes over the world or something").Ned: Mmm! Sounds chilling!Homer: Eh, people love it.
- Sexy Whatever Outfit: A musical number in the style of The Rocky Horror Picture Show comments on how the adult Halloween Party that happens after the kids go to bed have much more risque costumes. Luanne Van Houten sings about how she never gets the chance to put on a corset and flaunt her breasts.
- Shout-Out:
- The "NC-17 Halloween" song most of Springfield's grown-ups sing is In the Style of the big numbers from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- Lisa gets attacked by classic horror icons such as Jason, Leatherface and a Xenomorph at Krustyland. You can also see Cthulhu roaming behind Homer. (Specifically, its the same design used in Treehouse of Horror 24's opening, the one headed by Guillermo del Toro.)
- Apu's shop has a box of fake skulls saying Bulk Skulls.
- Superintendent Chalmers dresses as Zed from Zardoz.
- The "happy tune" Homer whistles while attempting to lock the house to keep the seasonal temps from getting in is the main theme from Halloween. Becomes a Brick Joke when the actual theme plays in the end credits, with Maggie holding Tailee, apparantly being possessed by the tail.
- Spoof Aesop: The home invaders after Homer were kicked out of a seasonal Halloween store because of him. As they get arrested at the end the morality of pop-up stores gets tossed out, before Wiggum implies he can help them get work at a 99 Cents Store, which is treated like a dream job. "Those stores are open year round!"
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: An example with wall writing, rather than a tape. After the seasonal temps invade the Simpson home, Homer sees ‘Trick or treat’ written on the wall in blood or a blood-like substance. He worriedly asks out loud how it got there, only to turn and see more writing, this reading ‘We’re in the house, stupid!’.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Lisa assures her parents that she can handle a haunted theme park attraction, but finds herself much more skittish than she expected. Then she gets separated from Homer and wanders into a crowd of zombies, eventually freaking out and going into the fetal position until Homer finds her. Upon returning home the Halloween decorations almost incite another panic attack.
