As exciting as the communal experience, early access to anticipated titles, and rubbing elbows with filmmakers can be, the most rewarding film festival screenings often involve the discovery of a new movie that you can’t wait to share with others. I was not at all familiar with HeBGB TV — I didn’t even know how to pronounce its tongue-twisting title (Heebie-Jeebie TV) — prior to my Salem Horror Fest 2023 coverage, but I left eager to proselytize.

A frenetic, Halloween-set horror-comedy anthology of sorts, HeBGB TV concerns the titular, Cronenbergian device that pulsates with multidimensional programming. As Purple Guy, a Willy Wonka-esque mascot that walks the line between affable and sinister, explains to a pair of apathetic siblings, “This isn’t your ordinary cable box, you see. It’s got anything and everything you could possibly ever want to watch in your lifetime, all squeezed down teeny tiny and then jammed up inside of it.”

As soon as HeBGB TV mysteriously shows up in stores, people start losing their minds over it — literally. Occasional interstitial segments with various viewers using the device serve as gateways into its content: bizarre snippets of TV shows, commercials, movies, music videos, infomercials, awkward news stories (including a cameo from Andrew Bowser as his viral internet character, Onyx the Fortuitous), and more. In addition to live action, the film employs puppetry, stop-motion, and animation.

HeBGB TV is a collaborative effort between Lancaster, PA-based creatives Eric Griffin, Adam Lenhart, and Jake “Knucklehead” McClellan. Beyond sharing writing and directing duties, their collective responsibilities on the production include — but are not limited to — producing, acting, cinematography, editing, special effects, production design, wardrobe, music, sound design, puppetry, and animation. (As they facetiously note in the end credits, “…Yeah, we did a lot.”)

From Frank’s Franks, a blood-spewing Frankenstein puppet hawking hot dogs that brings to mind Mandy‘s Cheddar Goblin, and Dr. Knucklehead’s DNA Splicer, a send-up to spooky toy ads like Creepy Crawlers, to a monstrous phone sex hotline (“for dudes with a blue twat kink”), there’s plenty to enjoy without a clear-cut standout among them. Like I Think You Should Leave — which embraces a similar breed of absurdity — a valid argument could be made for any one of the segments being the best.

Not every sketch lands, but the next one is always just moments away — with the exception of The Night Snacker, a comparatively monotonous film-within-the-film. While not inherently dull, it’s a curious choice to dedicate 10 minutes of the 79-minute runtime to, particularly since it’s the last segment before the wraparound concludes. Perhaps the filmmakers thought the movie’s unconventional format couldn’t sustain itself without a centerpiece, but I found myself longing for the variety that made the rest of the film so stimulating.

HeBGB TV is a high-camp blend of the wistful glow of WNUF Halloween Special, the uninhibited hyperactivity of Rick and Morty‘s “Interdimensional Cable” episodes, and the absurd unpredictability of Adult Swim’s Too Many Cooks. Like those efforts, HeBGB TV is destined for cult status. Genre fans who grew up in the ’90s on a healthy diet of Goosebumps, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and Saturday morning cartoons will be delighted by the rush of nostalgia from another dimension.

HeBGB TV screens this weekend at the Salem Horror Fest.