Weird West discussion

The think the two genres go together like peanut butter and jelly. Horror tales are good vs. evil stories. Westerns are black hat—okay, sometimes grey hat black hat--stories. There is a sense of archetypal confrontation built into both genres. Both are visceral action storytelling forms. Both are bigger than life. Both are pure audience stories.

The time period of westerns, and the isolation of people out in the frontier make it ideal for horror: no smartphones, no 911, and no safe haven to run to.

The isolation and suspense of something dangerous out there you can't see was terrifyingly exploited in the scene in Alan LeMay's novel THE SEARCHERS where the homesteaders sense the Commanches closing silently in on their desert farmhouse even through they can't see them, right before they get massacred.

There was so much violence out west, even many straight westerns contain moments of horror and terror.

I agree, they do fit together quite nicely. With a Western you get that grit, gunslinger and Wild west era style and you mix it with blood, guts, Gore and an overall sinister scary theme and you've truly got an interest all around good story that delivers in all aspects.

To add something else that ties into my comment above from January in a much simpler way, they are two gruesomely bad ass genres that stand alone and speak volumes. However when you put the two together they just mesh so well and they really branch off one another quite nicely.

Pardon me for this ridiculous analogy but they're sort of like a Reeses. You have your chocolate and your peanut butter and when you put the two together it's bliss, it just feels right.