Screenshot from the episode.
"Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" is a Halloween-themed episode of the long-running American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was first shown on the Fox network in the United States on Sunday October 22, 2017. It features the guest voices of Ben Daniels, Neil Gaiman and Mario Batali.
In common with most Halloween episodes of The Simpsons, the program is made up of an opening sequence and three self-contained stories. The first story is called "The Exor-Sis" and is a parody of the 1973 film The Exorcist and the 2016 TV series of the same name. The second story is called "Coralisa" and is a parody of the 2009 animated film Coraline. The third and final story is called "Mmm... Homer" and is a tale of self cannibalism.
Unusually for a Halloween episode of The Simpsons, the aliens Kang and Kodos do not appear in "Trehouse of Horror XXVIII".
Plot[]
Opening sequence: "The Sweets Hereafter"[]
The computer generated animation opening sequence portrays the Simpson family as foodstuffs that are left in a bowl on Halloween night to be taken by trick-or-treaters. Grampa Simpson is a box of stale raisins, Lisa Simpson is an apple, the other members of the family are pieces of candy. Although Lisa is offended that nobody wants to take her, the other members of the family are afraid of being taken and eaten.
Lisa, Maggie, Bart, Marge and Homer make it through the night without being eaten. The following morning, the bowl containing them is taken inside and placed on a high shelf. Also on the shelf is a chocolate Easter bunny. The bunny says the Simpsons are doomed to be forgotten like he is. The bunny moans that he longs to die. The Simpsons grant his wish by eating him.
"The Exor-Sis"[]
The segment opens at an archaeological dig at a temple in northern Iraq. A statue of the demon Pazuzu is unearthed. It is immediately put in a box and mailed to Homer Simpson, who had mistakenly ordered ir from Amazon thinking it was pizza.
The statue is left in the bedroom of the baby Maggie Simpson while her parents Marge and Homer go downstairs to have a cocktail party. Before going downstairs, Homer Simpson looks into the glowing red eyes of the demon's statue. He briefly becomes possessed and sings a lullaby to Maggie, to the tune of "When Irish Eyes are Smiling", which tells Maggie that Pazuzu will get inside her mind and cause her to kill everybody.
The cocktail party is interrupted when Maggie appears at the top of the stairs. Speaking in a deep voice, Maggie says, "No one leaves here alive!" Homer and Marge are delighted that Maggie has said her first words. Helen Lovejoy, the wife of the local minister, recognizes Maggie as being possessed by a demon from Hell. Maggie kills her by using telekinesis to drive a poker into her head. The Simpsons' religious neighbor Ned Flanders says that Maggie is in need of an exorcism. The Reverend Lovejoy says that he did not learn how to perform exorcisms at his seminary. A Catholic priest is called for.
While waiting for the priest to arrive, Ned Flanders uses Bible ribbons to tie Maggie to her crib. Maggie uses telekinesis to hit Ned about the head with a Bible and make him swallow a toy police car.
The priest (voiced by Ben Daniels) arrives. He orders that Maggie's ribbons be cut, causing her to levitate. The priest holds up a crucifix. He orders the Devil to leave Maggie's body, to no effect. Maggie says, "I am Pazuzu, demon of the south-west wind." Maggie's eight-year-old sister Lisa and ten-year-old brother Bart enter the room. Lisa says that, as a demon of the south-west window, Pazuz cannot be as powerful as one of the south wind or the west wind. Pazuzu is offended that his importance has been called into question. It is then possible for the priest to drive the demon out of Maggie's body.
Pazuz enters the body of Bart Simpson. He soon begs to be allowed to leave it, however, saying that Bart has the darkest soul he has ever seen.
"Coralisa"[]
At breakfast, Lisa Simpson asks her family if they would like to help her pick up litter in the park. Knowing that nobody else in the family would be interested, Lisa asks her baby sister Maggie if she would like to join her. Marge says Maggie is still suffering a little from the effects of being possessed by Pazuzu. Homer comments, "At least she never threw up." At that point, Maggie vomits copiously all over the kitchen.
Lisa sadly says that she thinks she was born into the wrong family. Snowball, the Simpsons' pet black cat, shows Lisa that there is a small secret door in her bedroom. The cat goes through the door and then speaks in the voice of Neil Gaiman (the author of the 2002 children's novel Coraline). He gets Lisa to follow him and takes her to another reality that is rendered in computer animation. The cat tells Lisa that she has a perfect family in the other reality. Lisa is horrified to see that all the members of the Other Family have buttons sewn on their eyes. She is, however, delighted to be offered a selection of vegetarian foods for breakfast. The Other Marge then asks Lisa if she would like to jam with them. Lisa is overjoyed that all the members of the Other Family like jazz and play well, although not as well as her. She says that she does not leave. She is told that she can stay on the condition that she has buttons sewn on her eyes also. Lisa flees in horror.
When Lisa arrives back in her own reality, Homer tells her that he has used her saxophone to kill a snake and that he needs to clean the blood off it. Lisa willing goes back to the other reality and voluntarily has buttons sewn on her eyes.
A few days later, Homer gives up Lisa as lost for ever. He says that Maggie can have Lisa's room and clothes and that Bart will have to do Lisa's homework. To avoid doing that, Bart follows the cat through the secret door into the other reality. He readily gets buttons sewn onto his eyes.
In search of her children, Marge goes through the secret door. Homer follows soon afterwards. He finds that Marge likes the other reality and wants to stay there. The Other Marge asks Homer if he would like to have two wives. She says that she and Marge can talk to each other while Homer watches TV. The Other Bart quips that Homer does not need an excuse to become even lazier. This angers Homer. He strangles the Other Bart, causing his head to fall off. The Other Homer is angry that Homer has killed his son. He goes to attack Homer but, since he has buttons sewn on his eyes, he cannot see very well. He trips over the Other Bart's head and gets impaled on a pair of scissors that are lying on the kitchen table.
Enraged at the death of her husband, the Other Marge transforms herself into a spider-like creature. Homer, however, decides that he is happy to have two wives (one with extra limbs), one dead son and two daughters with buttons sewn on their eyes. He exclaims, "This marriage has finally gotten out of its rut!"
The segment ends with the Simpsons and the Other Simpsons (including the Other Homer, who is still alive in spite of having a pair of scissors impaled in his chest) all living happily together in the Simpsons' reality.
"Mmm... Homer"[]
The segment opens with Lisa Simpson standing in front of a red curtain, in a parody of the opening to the 1931 film Frankenstein. She warns the audience that they may find the following story disgusting.
The story begins with Homer being left alone at home while the rest of his family go on vacation with his sisters-in-law Patty and Selma. Homer is delighted to have the house to himself. He immediately strips to his underwear, starts drinking large quantities of beer and eating large amounts of junk food. He soon finds that he has eaten all of the food in the house, apart a large supply of fruit and vegetables that he will not eat. Homer finds a single frozen hot dog and goes to cook it on an outside barbecue. While trying to split the sausage in half, Homer accidentally cuts off one of his fingers. The finger falls onto the barbecue and starts to cook. Homer likes the smell and eats the finger.
Homer loses the taste for all other foods and only wants to eat his own body parts. By the time that his family come home, he is looking considerably thinner than he did before. Marge discovers his secret and is appalled. Homer and Marge go to marriage guidance counselling. The counselling is unsuccessful and they separate. Marge and the children go to live in a residential complex for separated people.
Homer teams up with the celebrity chef Mario Batali. The Simpsons' old home is converted into a restaurant called Chez Homer. At that restaurant and at several other restaurants, food made from the remaining body parts of the now dead Homer is served. While drinking from Homer's skull, Carl Carlson explains that it was possible to get so much food out of Homer because his meat was mixed with meat from Comic Book Guy and horse meat.
As an angel, Homer looks down from heaven and sees people enjoying the food made from his body. He takes off one his angel's wings and begins eating it. Jesus tells him that he will not get replacement wings.