For a good time on Halloween, enter the Scare Zone!

It’s official. I found a new favorite horror comedy to watch at Halloween time. I can’t believe this little slice of indie fun from 2009, about a bunch of kids running a Halloween horror house attraction, hasn’t gotten more buzz.

Scare Zone is a goofy college kid movie and a good cheesy-good slasher rolled into one. There’s nonstop horror spirit. The cast delivers all the stereotypes but keeps them from being the usual cliché extremes; these kids are all likable and they all get along, which adds to the appeal of the fun time they’re having creating their scary tour. There are big babe boobs. There are shirtless hunks. There’s funny banter. There’s great gore and suspenseful kills. And there’s one of the most unlikely but adorable couples ever in a horror movie.

And don’t forget the montages. Scare Zone goes crazy with the montages, mostly set to pop punk songs and with plenty of humor. It totally adds to the laid back, party feel of the movie. We get a costume fitting montage. We get montages of the characters going out to promote the attraction with flyers. We get montages of the zaniness outside as guests wait on line and party it up. And we get plenty of tours of the haunted attraction, with montages showing guests reacting to the scares and the staff struggling to keep things running smoothly, usually with comic mishaps.

The cast of the film is clearly having fun making a movie with the dedication of a haunted attraction crew who just wants everyone to have a good time. Cool camera work sweeps us through the haunted house. The line between fact and fantasy is blurred because the fake horror attraction gore is just as good as the real kill gore—which makes for several intense scenes of guests thinking actual kills are fake. Plus, there’s a whodunit plot. And a love story!

And of course, there are plenty of guys to go around. The simple lead guy is a total charmer in his innocence; his name is Chris Burns and he also appeared in the gay horror film Scab.

Neil Brown Jr. you may recognize from The Walking Dead­—he’s a great comic actor and absolutely loveable (he does a great Michael Jackson “Thriller” impersonation).

A hunk with bundles of thick wavy hair has a body of death.

There’s a mega-hot plumber bear who is in the film way too briefly.

And we even get a flash of a cute Latin handyman’s booty (sorry, no pic of it).

The kills totally deliver, as do the chase scenes. There’s puke gross out humor. And the director, Jon Binkowski, even succeeds in making the haunted house attraction tense and creepy when the lights go ON. Finally, make sure to watch the tag after the end credits. It perfectly encapsulates the funny horror tone of the entire movie. Scare Zone is a joyride through a house of horror comedy!