The Shinning

**The Shinning** is a parody of the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation of the 1977 Stephen King novel *The Shining*.

## Acquiring

*The Shinning* was created for an episode of *The Simpsons*. It can be found on the *Treehouse of Horror V* anthology.

## Plot

In a parody of the late Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic The Shining, the family is hired as caretakers of Mr. Burns' summer estate. On the way, Homer is forced to drive all the way back home to lock the front door to the house, and on the second drive, he is again forced to turn around to go and lock the back door to the house. On the third drive, Lisa points out that they left Grampa behind—Homer ignores her and keeps driving. Upon arriving, Burns takes them on a tour of the house. He tells them the long, colorful history of the house. It was built on an ancient Indian Burial Ground (like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining), and was the setting of Satanic rituals, witch burnings, and five John Denver Christmas specials. An elevator opens up and blood spills out all over the entire floor (like in The Shining), prompting Burns to say, "Hmm, that's odd. Usually, the blood gets off at the second floor." While outside, Bart cuts a shortcut in a hedge maze with a hedge trimmer, and annoys Willie and reads his thoughts. Willie tells him that he has "the shinning", and says he should use it to call him if his dad should go insane.

Mr. Burns and Smithers cut the power cable and confiscate all the beer. Smithers comments that this might have been what caused the previous caretakers to go insane and kill their families, but Burns bets that he owes Smithers a Coke if it happens this time again.

The lack of television and beer causes Homer to go insane. He tries to occupy himself, going to the bar where Moe, as a ghost, says he will only let him have a beer if he murders his family. Homer is at first hesitant to the notion of murdering his family and questions Moe, who responds that they would be much happier as ghosts. Marge goes downstairs looking for Homer, and discovers a typewriter with paper in it. Marge reads it and then lightning lights up the room to reveal that Homer has written "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the lounge. Homer then barges in through a door and tries to attack Marge. She rushes towards a conveniently placed case containing a baseball bat (labeled "Break glass in case of spousal insanity") and swings it at him as he follows her up the stairs. Homer makes a hideous face at her, but then foolishly looks in a nearby mirror and scares himself silly, falling down the stairs and knocking himself unconscious. Marge locks him in the pantry and grabs some chili to make for dinner. Later on in the pantry, Homer has calmed down and happily eats. Moe reminds him of their deal on the other end of the pantry door. When Homer refuses to comply, Moe and the gang of ghouls (including Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and Pinhead) carry him out against his will.

While the family is eating dinner, Homer breaks down a door with an axe ("Heeeere's Johnny!"), only to find the room vacant (a "D'oh!"). He breaks into another room ("Daaavid Letterman!"), only to find Grandpa (another "D'oh"). And finally into the right room with a stopwatch in his hand ("I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Morley Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley! All this and Andy Rooney tonight on 60 Minutes!") and grinning evilly causing Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie to scream in terror and flee to escape the rampaging Homer. After Marge attempts to contact the police to no avail, Bart uses his "shinning" to call Willie to help. Willie immediately rushes to assist, only to get an axe in the back by Homer. Homer grabs another axe from the collection hanging on the wall and pursues the family outside into the snow and is ready to kill them until Lisa discovers Willie's TV radio in the snow. Homer immediately drops the axe to watch Kent Brockman on Channel 6 News. The return of television restores his sanity. He calls his family to sit in the snow with him to "bask in television's warm, glowing, warming glow" and they freeze while watching. However, Bart tells Homer to change the channel when the announcer informs them that the upcoming programming will be The Tony Awards, hosted by Tyne Daily and Hal Linden, Homer replies, "Can't. Frozen." But as a theme plays, they all scream in terror, and Homer says, "Urge to kill. Rising."

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