Latin American Gothic

Off-kilter humor on “Los Espookys” and “Alternatino.”

- Emily Nussbaum

“That one is cursed,” a salesman re-marks, breezily, as he finalizes the sale of a stone-framed mirror topped by a brooding gargoyle. “I’m just letting you know, because some people don’t like that.”

His customer, the magnificently fey Andrés ( Julio Torres)—an orphan who was abandoned at a convent, then adopted by wealthy chocolatiers, and who wears an air of moody entitlement so aggressive that it might make a Romanov insecure—seems unconcerned. Andrés is, after all, a proud member of Los Espookys, the entrepreneurial “horror group” at the heart of the silly and satisfying new HBO show of the same name, created by and starring Fred Armisen, the comedian Ana Fabrega, and Torres, a “Saturday Night Live” writer. As far as the group is concerned, a curse may be value added.

Performed in a blend of Spanish and English (with subtitles translating each to the other), and set in an unnamed Latin-American city, the series follows four layabout horror fans—Andrés; the goth makeup artist Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco); and two sisters, the coolly pragmatic Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) and the odd Tati (Fabrega)—who launch a business staging supernatural events. Using special effects, they rig up a fake exorcism, to boost the reputation of an insecure priest; stage a “standard inheritance scare,” involving a haunted house; and pose as space aliens, to help a scientist. Their artistry is a source of shared pride and passionate debate. “Let’s keep it simple and do something classic,” Renaldo says, after Andrés pitches a risky plan for the haunted house. “Like hands under the bed or blood dripping from the walls.”