What with the grim specter of everything, Halloween just wasn’t enough to contain all the frights and chills! Simpsons writer Dan Vebber joins the podcast to extend the spooky season by walking us through his award-winning episode “Thanksgiving of Horror” (S31E8) and its parody of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece, Alien (1979).

Also in this episode:

• Why Martin Prince is the perfect stand-in for the android Ash

• Alien’s connection to H.P. Lovecraft

• Adam and Dan’s defense of Alien³

• The story of Dan’s son’s first word… while watching Apocalypto 

Plus, check out our show notes for a complete list of Simpsons references, double feature suggestions, and further reading

Next time, film critic and horror aficionado Dede Crimmins returns to reanimate Frankenstein (1931), and its double parody in “Treehouse of Horror II” (S3E7).

For more of Dan’s work, tune in to new episodes of The Simpsons Sundays at 8pm (EST) on Fox and the day after on Hulu.

For more Simpsons movie parody content, check out SpringfieldGoogolplex.com, or follow us at @simpsonsfilmpod on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Letterboxd. Discover more great podcasts on the That Shelf Podcast Network.