Editorials
The Weird, Wild West: 10 Great Horror Westerns
Of all the many subsets and genre mashups of horror, the horror western seems like a match made in heaven. Or hell, depending on your perspective. The isolation, the ever-present danger of starvation or brutal conditions, and the general rougher way of life in westerns make for a great foundation for horror stories. And both the western and horror genres are fond of exploring unknown frontiers. On Friday, IFC Midnight is releasing Emmi Tammi’s The Wind, a western frontier set horror film in which its lead might be dealing with a demonic presence. This makes for a perfect time to look back at some of the best horror westerns that have come before. Frontier living is harsh, but throwing horror into the mix makes it downright brutal. These 10 films are a perfect primer into the world of horror westerns.
Dead Birds
Set during the Civil War, a group of Confederate army deserters seek refuge in an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank and fleeing from the law. But this plantation is deserted for a reason- it’s home to bizarre, near Lovecraftian supernatural forces. Madness, chaos, and death ensues. Written by Simon Barrett (The Guest, You’re Next), this modest budget horror film is a hidden gem. Featuring a cast of notable actors like Patrick Fugit, Henry Thomas, Isaiah Washington, Nicky Cox, and Michael Shannon, it’s a shame Dead Birds went straight to home release as it deserves a bigger audience. Lucky for you, it’s currently streaming on Tubi, Kanopy, and Prime Video.
Eyes of Fire
This one is a deep cut that’s still stuck on VHS. Low budget and full of surrealistic imagery, Eyes of Fire is a unique entry in the horror western. Set in 1750, a preacher is accused and persecuted for polygamy and adultery, so he and a group of followers, including his mistresses, escape death by fleeing town. Their journey takes them into Shawnee territory, a hostile tribe very unhappy about the trespass. It further sets them on a collision course with witchcraft and one very haunted forest. Atypical, weird, and dreamlike, Eyes of Fire feels like a folk tale. Its super low budget shows, though.
The Burrowers
Before video game writer J.T. Petty scared the pants off gamers with the Outlast series, he helmed this 2008 horror western set in 1879. With a cast full of names like Clancy Brown, Doug Hutchison, Jocelin Donahue, and more, The Burrowers follows a rescue party in search of a family that went missing under strange circumstances from a still unexplored territory. It’s not hostile Native Americans behind the disappearances, though, but a species of monstrous underground dwelling creatures. This is the perfect merging of the two genres; the mounting tension between American soldiers and Native Americans makes for a great backdrop to the unique monster mythology that provides the supernatural terror. Too bad this never launched more sequels.
Ghost Town
If you have a soft spot for schlocky ‘80s horror, this is for you. Sheriff Langley stumbles upon a missing woman’s car on the side of the road, and in his quest to find her, he finds a nearby old ghost town literally haunted by the ghosts of its past. He’s then whisked back in time and forced to square off against the zombie-like Devlin, an outlaw who made a pact with the Devil and forever trapped the town in purgatory. Based on a story by David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap), Ghost Town is a fun Western movie that takes a literal interpretation to the ghost town.
Grim Prairie Tales
A prairie set anthology with a wraparound that features James Earl Jones as a grizzled bounty hunter with a body in tow and Brad Dourif as a man in route to meet his wife. The unlikely pair gather around the campfire to tell each other four tales of terror. Tales of revenge for desecrated burial grounds, pregnant drifters, haunted gunslingers, and a family man forced to participate in a lynch mob. Not all horror is of the supernatural kind. Like pretty much all anthologies, it’s a mixed bag. But the interactions between Dourif and Jones are amazing.
Tremors
Sure, this isn’t a western in the traditional sense, but the setting, motifs, and structure is there. Taking place in the desert town of Perfection, Nevada, the ex-mining settlement makes for an isolated setting. The town residents feel like modern cowboys, namely plucky heroes Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward). Perfection is becoming a bit of a ghost town itself, in part thanks to giant underground worm creatures dubbed “graboids.” So, essentially, this is one fun-filled horror-western-comedy creature feature, but set in a modern era. It counts.
Vampires
Another neo-western horror movie, this time by John Carpenter. One of the most common recurring themes in western movies is that of revenge. In Vampires, vampire hunter Jack Crow is hellbent on revenge against the vampires that wiped out his entire team in an ambush. That he’s a killer for hire checks off another box of common western tropes. Oh, and it’s set in the southwest. This was Carpenter’s way of tackling a western disguised as a horror movie, and its better for it. At least in the sense that it’s gritty action and a major departure from the gothic vampires we’d grown accustomed to. It’s fast-paced, entertaining, and it has bite.
Ravenous
Bearing similarities to the case of the Donner Party and set during the 1840s at a military outpost in California, Antonia Bird’s quirky tale of cannibalism is an all-timer. The arrival of a mysterious, frostbitten stranger arrives at the outpost with tales of how his travel party were stranded by snow. When the outpost dispatches a rescue party, well, they find themselves prey to a sadistic cannibal instead. Quirky humor with an equally quirky score to match, Ravenous charms with its eccentricities and unique spin on Wendigo folklore. The cast is absolutely stacked, too; Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Neal McDonough and more star.
Bone Tomahawk
The bold feature debut by S. Craig Zahler spends its time lulling audiences into forgetting there’s any horror at all in this western. When unseen attackers swoop in one night and steal horses and a few town residents, the town sheriff (Kurt Russell) sets off with a small search party to rescue them. The journey getting there is filled with injury, harsh conditions, and ruthless raiders. None of it prepares them for the vicious troglodyte clan they’ll have to battle for their lives and the lives of the townsfolk they’ve come to save. Zahler uses violence and gore like an art form, and if you thought you were desensitized to it all Bone Tomahawk proves otherwise.
Near Dark
“Howdy. I’m gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don’t mind none.” Severen (Bill Paxton) is one mean, scene-stealing vampire. So is the rest of his nomadic clan. Poor midwestern cowboy Caleb, he had no idea the beautiful drifter that came into his life was a vampire. After being turned by her, he’s reluctantly forced to join her bloodthirsty family as they travel across the country in an RV, leaving a path of destruction and dead bodies in their wake. Katheryn Bigelow’s neo-western blends horror with western and biker movies, and the result is one of the most savage vampire movies of all time.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
Looking for New Episodes of “Chucky” on Peacock? Here’s What Changed
‘Mountain Man’ – Joe Manganiello Will Battle Zombies in Upcoming Horror Movie
‘The Blair Witch Project’ – Original Stars Release a Statement Asking Lionsgate for Residuals & Recognition
‘Trap’ – Official Trailer Previews a Wild New Horror Experience from M. Night Shyamalan
‘The Exorcism’ – Russell Crowe Stars in Horror Movie Formerly Titled ‘The Georgetown Project’
You must be logged in to post a comment.