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HBO’s Los Espookys is a beautiful nightmare of a comedy show. Set in a dreamy Latin American country, it follows four oddball friends — horror nut Renaldo (Bernaldo Velasco), dental assistant Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti), chocolate heir Andrés (Julio Torres), and struggling…someting Tati (Ana Fabrega) — as they launch a business to bring ghoulish scares to everyday life. The results are often more hilarious than horrifying, and overall, the show feels like what would happen if cult classic Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace somehow had a heart. Bizarre and brazenly silly, Los Espookys is a sweet, wacky ode to the strange wrinkles in everyday existence.

Believe me when I say that Los Espookys hit me like a cool blast of refreshing air. Unlike most prestige comedies of the day, which lean hard into existential dread and cinematic gloss, Los Espookys revels in its chintz and camp. Whether it’s the show’s steadfast devotion to the horror genre or its many riffs on telenovela clichés, this is a comedy series that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Because of that, the sharp, careful joke writing of series co-creators Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega takes center stage, making Los Espookys a bonkers comedy gift brimming with weirdness and exploding with creativity.

The show even uses its bilingual cast to amp up the comedy in a way no other American comedy show has yet attempted. Splitting its time between Mexico and Los Angeles, where Renaldo’s sweet uncle Tico (Fred Armisen) is living his dream as a valet driver, Los Espookys features scenes that rely on English as well as Spanish. Ironically, the show never leans on simple language-barrier jokes. By making sure that every single line is subbed (either in English for the Spanish lines, or vice versa), the series highlights how good each joke is. Subtitles can often be the death of comedy writing as they reveal a witty punchline before an actor can deliver it. In Los Espookys, the writing is so odd, so deft, and so original, the subtitles just pump up the impact of Torres and Fabrega’s punchlines.

The series is produced and co-created by Armisen, Torres, and Fabrega, and as such has a bit of each comic’s particular brand of zany energy guiding it. Armisen is obviously the biggest name attached, and as the production’s elder statesmen, he seems to have blessed Los Espookys with his trademark awkward deadpan and wild attention to characterization. Torres is a successful stand up and Saturday Night Live writer who has garnered attention for cerebral sketches like “Papyrus” and “Wells for Boys,” both of which look at everyday objects from an askance point of view. In Los Espookys, reality is sometimes looked at from this titled angle. Fabrega might be the least well known of the trio, but she’s a rising comedy star known for an adorable awkwardness. (She also stole the show in a TV pilot competition I had to judge ages ago, playing a young nun tortured by her own crush on a woman played by Hari Nef.)

Los Espookys is so deliciously ridiculous, so sweetly tender to its characters, and so wonderfully satiric, it has all the makings of a true cult comedy sensation. It reminded me not only of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, but Danger 5, and other high-concept comedies that flout convention in order to embrace camp. It is a hellaciously offbeat wonder that not only waves at the abyss, but laughs along with the monsters lurking in the dark.

Los Espookys premieres on HBO tomorrow, Friday, June 14 at 11 PM

Where to stream Los Espookys