A Taxonomy of Weird Westerns
THE HAUNTED MINE MOVIE
Films in which desperadoes cover for illegal activities by pretending a place (often a mine or ranch) is haunted.
Examples:
- Haunted Gold (1932)
- Vanishing Riders (1935)
- Border Phantom (1937)
- Haunted Ranch (1943)
- Ghost of Hidden Valley (1946)
THE FRONTIER CANNIBALISM MOVIE
Films about murderous cannibals in the Old West.
Examples:
THE SUPERNATURAL REVENGER FILM
Films about ghostly gunfighters come back to exact revenge.
Examples:
- The Rawhide Terror (1934)
- And God Said to Cain (1970)
- His Name Was Holy Ghost (1972)
- High Plains Drifter (1973)
- The Hanged Man (1974)
- Pale Rider (1985)
- The Lone Ranger (2013)
- Dead in Tombstone (2013)
THE SCIENCE FICTION WESTERN
Films set in the Old West but with elements drawn from science fiction.
Examples:
- Phantom Empire (1935)
- Ghost Patrol (1936)
- La Nave de los Monstruos (Ship of Monsters) (1960)
- Westworld (1973)
- Alien Outlaw (1985)
- Back to the Future Part III (1990)
- Pet Shop (1994)
- Oblivion (1994)
- Wild Wild West (1999)
- The American Astronaut (2001)
- Jonah Hex (2010)
- Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
- The Dark Tower (2017)
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
THE WESTERN MONSTER FILM
Films about cowboys coming in contact with monsters.
Examples:
- Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)
- Teenage Monster (1958)
- Curse of the Undead (1959)
- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
- Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966)
- Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)
- The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
- White Buffalo (1977)
- House II: The Second Story (1987)
- Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)
- Grim Prairie Tales (1990)
- Phantom Town (1999)
- From Dusk Till Dawn III: The Hangman's Daughter (2000)
- Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
- The Burrowers (2008)
- BloodRayne 2: Deliverance (2009)
- Survival of the Dead (2009)
- Gallowwalkers (2012)
- Blood Moon (2014)
- Cowboys vs. Dinosaurs (2015)
THE DESERT CULT FILM
Films that feature a murderous supernatural cult in the Old West.
Examples:
THE COWBOY PSYCHOPATH FILM
Films that feature psychotic killers stalking victims in the West.
Examples:
THE POST-APOCALYPTIC WESTERN
Films set is a post-apocalyptic world that has reverted back to the Wild West in significant ways.
Examples:
BONUS TAXONOMY: BACK TO THE OLD WEST
Sequels to non-Western films that inexplicably place their characters back in time to the Old West.
Examples:- House II: The Second Story (1987)
- Back to the Future Part III (1990)
- From Dusk Till Dawn III: The Hangman's Daughter (2000)
- Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
- BloodRayne 2: Deliverance (2009)
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