In commmon with all previous "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, it is made up of three self-contained stories; "The Ned Zone", "Four Beheadings and a Funeral" and "In the Belly of the Boss". The first story is a parody of the 1979 Stephen King novel The Dead Zone and its movie and TV adaptations. The second story references the Jack the Ripper murders, which took place in the East End of London in 1888, and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The third story is a parody of the 1966 science-fiction movie Fantastic Voyage.