Marge warns viewers that this Halloween special may be too scary for young viewers.

“The Shinning”: The Simpsons are employed as caretakers at Mr. Burns’ remote estate. Groundskeeper Willie realizes that he and Bart share a form of telepathy called “the shinning,” and he tells the boy to contact him if his father should lose his mind. Before leaving the estate, Burns and Smithers cut the cable television signal and remove all beer from the premises. Deprived of the two most important things in his life, Homer slowly goes insane. While threatening Marge, he falls down a flight of stairs and is knocked unconscious. Marge locks Homer inside a pantry, but he finds an axe and chops his way out. Using “the shinning,” Bart contacts Willie. Willie arrives at the estate to help but is promptly killed by Homer. While chasing his family through the snow with an axe, Homer discovers Willie’s Watchman. His urge to kill subsides.

“Time and Punishment”: While fixing a toaster, Homer is sucked into a vortex and whisked backward in time to a prehistoric jungle. He accidentally squashes a mosquito, and in doing so alters time. When Homer returns to the present day he is horrified to discover that Ned Flanders rules the world. Homer travels back through time and again changes history. Panicked, Homer travels back and forth through time trying to find the world he knew. He settles for a universe where his family eats with frog-like tongues.

“Nightmare Cafeteria”: Skinner sentences Bart to serve detention in the school cafeteria. When Bart’s fellow students begin disappearing one by one, he and Lisa suspect that Skinner and Lunchlady Doris are cooking kids and serving them as cafeteria food. With the student population dwindling, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse try to escape. But they are cornered by Skinner and Lunchlady Doris, who slowly back them into a giant food processor. Bart suddenly wakes up from his nightmare. But he and his family are turned inside out by a mysterious fog.