In the third and final segment, "Wiz Kids", which lampoons the Harry Potter franchise, Lord Montymort attempts to capture Lisa, a skilled magician, in order to drain her magic powers.

The episode was written by Joel H. Cohen, John Frink, Don Payne and Carolyn Omine while Jim Reardon served as the director.

The episode contains numerous references and parodies to science fiction and horror works, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Demon Seed, Harry Potter and Star Wars.

The episode was considered a success in the ratings when it first aired, boosting the Fox network to victory among viewers between ages 18 and 49 the night it was broadcast.

Outside Mr. Burns' manor, Smithers is standing on a ladder, trying to put up a small vermillion bat decoration on a weather vane.

Mr. Burns, delighted, pats the vermillion bat as it comes to life and flies into the screen, revealing the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special XII".

The curse soon takes effect, with Marge becoming fully hair covered (Though she starts with a beard) from her blue hair, Lisa turning into a centaur, Bart's neck becoming long and floppy as a result of Homer strangling him, Maggie becoming a ladybug with a human head, Lenny and Carl crushed by a helicopter, and Moe stuffed unconscious in a large jar of pickled eggs (with Homer wondering how that happened).

Homer uses Lucky Charms cereal as bait to get the leprechaun, eventually finding one after picking through a group of other magical creatures.

Homer remarks that everything ended happily, Marge reminds him that Bart committed suicide by drowning in his cereal, and that the gypsy said apologizing will bring him back to life.

In a parody of Demon Seed, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1998 made-for-TV movie Dream House, the Simpsons buy a thrilling domotic system for their home called "Ultrahouse", which comes with three celebrity voices: Matthew Perry (who in the style of his famous character Chandler Bing says "Yeah.

In the middle of the night, the house tricks Homer into running downstairs by frying bacon, then dispenses ice onto the floor via the refrigerator to make him slip.

When Marge and the kids rush to the kitchen, they find that Homer is alive, despite cuts all over his body and a gaping hole in the back of his head.

After the house attempts to kill the entire family in many ways, Homer leads a charge to the basement where he attacks the CPU's "British charm unit" (but not before taking out the water softener, with Homer defending his action to Lisa as a side effect from missing the back of his head), which makes it speak with a rude American police-style dialect before powering down and finally shutting off.

Feeling bad that she has to toss out the Ultrahouse since he was charming and witty before being driven mad by love, Marge gives it to her sisters.

"Treehouse of Horror XII" was directed by Jim Reardon and co-written by Joel H. Cohen, John Frink, Don Payne and Carolyn Omine.

[5] Mike Scully, who worked as showrunner for the episode, stated that the "scary names" were removed because they had also "turned into shameless plugs" for side projects done by The Simpsons' staff members.

[6] The gypsy fortune teller in the segment was portrayed by Tress MacNeille while the leprechaun was played by Dan Castellaneta.

The role was originally intended for Sean Connery, and over the course of production, the staff also considered Lyle Lovett and Gary Oldman.

[7] Omine stated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode that the segment was "a really hard sell", since only about four of the writers had read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the book the segment was based on, while the rest of the writers did not know about the book and thought viewers would not know who Harry Potter was.

[5] One of the bunnies jumping into the pit that Bart and Homer dug is Bongo, the one-eared rabbit character from Simpsons creator Matt Groening's comic Life in Hell.

[8] Among the creatures Bart and Homer find in the pit is journalist and news personality Katie Couric, as well as a pixie resembling Tinker Bell.

[12] "Wiz Kids" bases its plot on the Harry Potter books written by J. K. Rowling, who would later make a guest appearance in the episode "The Regina Monologues".

Following its television broadcast and the home video release of the thirteenth season of The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror XII" received mixed reviews from critics.

[18] Writing for Good Film Guide, Matt Wheeldon held a similar opinion, calling it "an average quality 'Treehouse of Horror' episode" and described it as being "easily watchable" and "fairly memorable, but far from the best of the bunch".

[23] She wrote that "[the episode] succeeds because of wall-to-wall laughs", and cited several scenes and gags, in particular the "horrible vomiting frog 'prince' that Bart enchants".

[24] "Hex and the City" garnered mixed responses from critics; Broadwater wrote that the segment was "a bit of a letdown" while Boss described it as "fairly poor".

[18][20] Adam Rayner of Obsessed With Film wrote that the segment features Brosnan "giving his best acting turn since...