Film and literature may have romanticized the Old West and reimagined it as a fantastical era filled with gunslinging heroes and epic struggles between man and nature, but the reality of frontier living was much darker – and a hell of a lot weirder. For instance, did you know that the West used to be plagued by a severe opioid crisis, and that the lack of proper law enforcement led to many towns enacting surprisingly strict gun control?

These idiosyncratic details are precisely why I love Weird West movies so much, as I think strange stories about folks living in the aftermath of the Civil War and being confronted with speculative threats can often tell us more about the reality of those days than the familiar shootouts and train robberies that we’re used to.

In honor of Primitive War director Luke Sparke teasing the launch of a Kickstarter campaign meant to finance a unique Western that takes place in an alternate universe where humanity evolved alongside dinosaurs, I’ve decided to compile a list recommending six of the best Weird West movies for your viewing pleasure!

For the purposes of this list, “Weird West” is defined as stories taking place within the North American frontier from the Civil War to the early 1900s that also happen to deal with genre tropes like supernatural creatures and serial-killing boogeymen.

As usual, don’t forget to comment below if you think a particularly entertaining example of this extremely underrated genre was missed.

With that out of the way, onto the list!

6. Death Rider in The House of Vampires (2021)

Regardless of your stance on the existence of cinematic “guilty pleasures” and “so bad it’s good” movies, I think we can all agree that you need to be in a particular headspace in order to enjoy Glenn Danzig’s bizarre filmography. While the rock-star-turned-director may not boast the same filmmaking know-how as folks like Rob Zombie, there’s still plenty of entertainment to be had with films like Death Rider in The House of Vampires.

A horror-western as baffling as it is captivating, I’d only recommend this highly stylized romp to genre fans who don’t mind a fair amount of camp (and plenty of unmotivated zooms) with their vampire stories.

5. The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

Jim O’Connolly’s fantasy western opus may not be particularly scary, but this Ray Harryhausen-fueled romp is still one of the most entertaining monster movies on this list, despite (or perhaps because of) its marvelously lo-fi effects work.

Telling the story of an ensemble of cowboys and stuntmen who discover a Forbidden Valley populated by extinct creatures, The Valley of Gwangi was originally meant to be produced by stop-motion maestro Willis O’Brien (of King Kong fame) before the project was eventually passed down to his star pupil.

If the “cowboys versus dinosaurs” setup isn’t enough to hook you in, the film is also notable for being a major influence on Steven Spielberg’sJurassic Park!

4. The Burrowers (2008)

The small screen may not be the ideal way to watch movies, but there’s something to be said about the strange experience of stumbling into a late-night broadcast and being unsure of exactly what it is that you’re watching. I had the pleasure of first experiencing J.T. Perry’s The Burrowers in this fashion, and the added uncertainty made it all the more surprising when this dark western suddenly turned into a grisly creature feature.

Part Tremors and part forgotten John Wayne flick, The Burrowers may not reinvent the wheel for either westerns or horror movies, but there’s no denying that this atmospheric period piece is way better than it has any right to be – especially when Clancy Brown is onscreen!

3. Ghost Town (1988)

Following a 1980s deputy whose search for a missing woman leads to an abandoned settlement haunted by undead apparitions, Ghost Town may not be remembered as one of the best ghostly thrillers of the 80s (mostly due to its slow pace and some questionable effects work), but it’s still way more fun than most critics would have you believe.

In fact, it’s a miracle that the film turned out as well as it did, with the original director being fired halfway through production and the “final cut” of the flick actually being a temporary workprint that was never meant for public consumption. While it’s a shame that we’ll never get to see a “finished” version of Ghost Town, the movie we got is still worth revisiting nearly four decades later.

2. Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Bone Tomahawk is the most gruesome flick on this list by a wide margin, but it’s also – paradoxically – the most grounded. Playing out like an 1890s retelling of The Hills Have Eyes (albeit with a star-studded cast including the likes of Kurt Russel, Patrick Wilson, Sid Haig and even David Arquette), this gory debut feature doesn’t really deal with any of the supernatural elements that tend to define Weird West stories.

However, the extreme violence and overall terror behind the film’s premise place it firmly within the realm of western-inspired genre fiction. After all, I’d rather face ghosts, vampires and dinosaurs than the cannibals that populate this deeply unsettling feature.

1. Ravenous (1999)

Set in the 1840s Sierra Nevada, Antonia Bird’s Ravenous is one of my all-time favorite movies and a perfect example of a project becoming more than the sum of its parts despite a chaotic production.

On paper, a horror-comedy that reinvents the Wendigo myth as an allegory for manifest destiny while also indulging in homo-erotic subtext (and boasting a one-of-a-kind soundtrack co-developed by Gorillaz/Blur frontman Damon Albarn alongside award-winning composer Michael Laurence Nyman) absolutely should not work. And yet, Ravenous lives on as the gold standard for Weird Westerns precisely because of how weird it is!