 The episode received positive reviews . Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B , praising the cinematic quality of the first two segments while concluding that the third was the poorest . He was impressed by how the Kubrick references in the second segment used originality rather than being a " perfunctory checklist " , and how the director 's " ow " at the end had " comic aplomb " . Writing for the New York Daily News , Don Kaplan gave the episode four stars out of five , singling the third segment out as the best , and deeming the Kubrick homage " smart and silly " . A more mixed review came from Alex Strachan on Postmedia News ' Canada.com , who found the second segment to be the best and the other two to be average , although he admitted that the Kubrick references were " occasionally a little too inside or self @-@ indulgent for their own good " . He concluded that " there ’ s something in Treehouse of Horror XXV for everyone . A little like a Halloween bag of candy " . 
