History Main / WeirdWest

* The setting for several tracks by the Music/BlueOysterCult. '"Then Came The Last Days Of May" on ''Music/BlueOysterCult1972'' sees three buddies die on a trip into the desert border with Mexico. "The Golden Age of Leather" on ''Music/{{Spectres}}'' sees the shifting Western desert sands obligingly bury any trace that Hell's Angels fought a battle to the death here. And the video to "Take Me Away" from ''Music/TheRevolutionByNight'' moves the action of AlienAbduction and TheMenInBlack to a deserted dude ranch out in the mid-west.

* The setting for several tracks by the Music/BlueOysterCult. '"Then Came The Last Days Of May" on ''Music/BlueOysterCult1972'' sees three buddies die on a trip into the desert border with Mexico. "The Golden Age of Leather" on ''Music/{{Spectres}}'' sees the shifting Western desert sands obligingly bury any trace that Hell's Angels fought a battle to the death here. And the video to ''Take Me Away'' from ''Music/TheRevolutionByNight'' moves the action of AlienAbduction and TheMenInBlack to a deserted dude ranch out in the mid-west.

Weird West works often invoke horror tropes. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are common elements. {{Indian Burial Ground}}s, {{Magical Native American}}s, and various entities from Myth/NativeAmericanMythology (such as {{skinwalker}}s and {{wendigo}}s[[note]]even though [[TipisAndTotemPoles wendigos actually originated from the Great Lakes region]][[/note]]) also tend to show up as sources of supernatural strangeness. If the setting is more like a modernized NewOldWest, then expect to see more relatively recent [[OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious cryptids]] such as {{chupacabra}}s, or UrbanLegends such as the [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell UFO and aliens]] hidden at Area51. Expect the [[TallTale Tall Tales]] to be just a little bit taller in these parts.

Weird West works often invoke horror tropes. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are common elements. {{Indian Burial Ground}}s, {{Magical Native American}}s, and various entities from Myth/NativeAmericanMythology (such as {{skinwalker}}s and {{wendigo}}s[[note]]even though [[TipisAndTotemPoles wendigos actually originated from the Great Lakes region]][[/note]]) also tend to show up as sources of supernatural strangeness. If the setting is more like a modernized NewOldWest, then expect to see more relatively recent [[OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious cryptids]] such as {{chupacabra}}s, or UrbanLegends such as the [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell UFO and aliens]] hidden at Area51. Expect the TallTales to be just a little bit taller in these parts.

Weird West works often invoke horror tropes. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are common elements. {{Indian Burial Ground}}s, {{Magical Native American}}s, and various entities from Myth/NativeAmericanMythology (such as {{skinwalker}}s and {{wendigo}}s[[note]]even though [[TipisAndTotemPoles wendigos actually originated from the Great Lakes region]][[/note]]) also tend to show up as sources of supernatural strangeness. If the setting is more like a modernized NewOldWest, then expect to see more relatively recent [[OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious cryptids]] such as {{chupacabra}}s, or UrbanLegends such as the [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell UFO and aliens]] hidden at Area51.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun''. A cross country race to the finish line where any and every dirty trick is allowed becomes more than just that when [[DismantledMacGuffin mysterious corpse parts]] lead back to [[spoiler: The President of the United States]]. And even before that is revelaed, this is after all ''[=JoJo=]'s Bizarre Adventure'', and thus "every dirty trick" in the race includes the trademark [[FightingSpirit weird Stand powers]], along with the all-new weird supernatural power of [[SpectacularSpinning Spin]].

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Literature/AgeOfSteam'' by Creator/DevonMonk.
* World Fantasy and Nebula award-winning author Cat Rambo's collection of Steampunk and CattlePunk stories, ''Altered America'', includes a few WeirdWest stories.

* Eric Scott Fischl has a pair of Weird West/dark fantasy novels ''Dr. Potter's Medicine Show'' and ''The Trials of Solomon Parker''. The first involves a group of travelling entertainer's led by the sadistic body-swapping Lyman, this troupe hawks a snake-oil cureall known as Chock-a-Saw Sagwa Tonic which is actually a flawed alchemical elixir that can heal or mutate those who imbibe it. The second book follows some of the survivors from the first book, a few decades later, the broken main character meets a medicine man who offers to change his past if he beats the medicine man in a dice game.

* Diane Morrison also edited and published an anthology, ''Gunsmoke & Dragonfire'', featuring Weird West, CattlePunk, SpaceWestern and FantasyAmericana [[TheWestern Western]] stories, including ''Riders of the Rainbow Ridge'' by Diana L. Paxson, and the seventh of her own ''Wyrd West Chronicles'' stories.

* Lots and lots of stories by Creator/JoeRLansdale. Even some of his stories that ''aren't'' weird west still [[Film/BubbaHoTep borrow elements.]]
* Creator/RobertEHoward's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard_bibliography#Weird_West Weird West stories]]. Most of these stories are included in the collection ''Trails in Darkness''.

* "Ghost Town At Sundown" from ''Literature/TheMagicTreeHouse'' series.

* Appalachia rather than the West, but the ''Literature/SilverJohn'' stories by Creator/ManlyWadeWellman are if not this trope, related.

* The ''Literature/TheTalesOfAlvinMaker'' stories by Creator/OrsonScottCard are all about this.
* Creator/EmmaBull's ''Territory'' is a {{Weird West}} exploration of the Tombstone mythos, and the events surrounding the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral.

* Some episodes of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr''.

* Xbox is reviving the setting of the ''Deadlands'' RPG (see Tabletop Games, below) for a new live-action TV series.

* Used as a challenge in seasons 2 and 4 of ''Series/{{Dragula}}'', with the challenge in the latter season explicitly being named "Weird West."
* In ''Series/TheElectricCompany1971'', at least two {{Western}} parodies are this: the "galloping saddle" and "My Name is Kathy" sketches.

* ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' also frequently dabbled in Weird Western territory.

* ''Film/JonahHex'': After being brought back from the dead, but leaving part of his soul behind, Jonah acquired the ability to, as long as he maintains physical contact with the corpse, temporarily resurrect and communicate with the dead, bringing the corpse physically and mentally back to its condition prior to death.

* ''VideoGame/BrawlStars'' began in a desert setting with gunslingers, [[SkeletalMusician a guitar-playing mariachi skeleton]], [[CactusPerson a living cactus]], [[BirdPeople a crow man]], and a vampire. However, the game quickly expanded in setting to AnachronismStew levels. Then comes TheReveal that [[spoiler:the whole game takes place in an AmusementParkOfDoom]].

* ''Manhwa/{{Priest}}'': In contrast to the [[InNameOnly movie]], the main story line takes place in the American West, with the protagonist battling fallen angels and zombies with blessed silver weapons, voodoo, and demonically-enhanced strength.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_Land_%28manga%29 No Man's Land]]'', an OELManga by Jason [=DeAngelis=], throws TheLegionsOfHell in TheWildWest, and TheHero is a [[TheGunslinger gunslinging]] [[DemonSlaying demon hunter]]. How this works out, we can't tell however, as the series was [[{{Cancellation}} cancelled]] after the second book.

* ''Legend of Oz: The Wicked West'' gives the Land of Oz this treatment, with a cowgirl Dorothy wielding Ruby Spurs and pistols riding across the land on her loyal steed Toto accompanied by the grizzled sheriff Tin Man, a silent Native American woman Scarecrow, and a Cowardly Lion freed from enslavement as the piano player at a Winged Monkey controlled tavern. Also featured are the disfigured outlaw Jack Pumpkinhead, the Patchwork Girl as a lonely FarmersDaughter, and the underground mining community that is the Emerald City.

* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark3'' is set in a GhostTown in Mojave desert populated by [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead cowboys and outlaws]].

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* The setting for several tracks by the Music/BlueOysterCult. '"Then Came The Last Days Of May" on ''Music/BlueOysterCult1972'' sees three buddies die on a trip into the desert border with Mexico. "The Golden Age of Leather" on ''Music/{{Spectres}}'' sees the shifting Western desert sands obligingly bury any trace that Hell's Angels fought a battle to the death here. And the video to ''Take Me Away'' from ''Music/RevolutionByNight'' moves the action of AlienAbduction and TheMenInBlack to a deserted dude ranch out in the mid-west.

TheWildWest is, if you think about it, a logical choice for the SpeculativeFiction treatment. The frontier as a whole was traditionally viewed (and still is viewed, to some extent) as [[LiminalTime the meeting place of civilization and the unknown]]. The lawless setting also meant plenty of violent deaths and unfinished business, [[GhostlyGoals fuel for ghostly tales]]. Many smaller frontier settlements were gradually abandoned over time, becoming (literally haunted) {{Ghost Town}}s. DaylightHorror and LightIsNotGood are common elements in these tales; in a region where the dry season resembles the ThirstyDesert trope, it is [[TheSacredDarkness shade that is sacred]].

-->--Stan Jones, '''"Ghost Riders in the Sky"'''

->''"The desert is a circle. To find them, we must travel in a spiral."''
-->-- '''El Topo''', ''Film/ElTopo''

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[[caption-width-right:250:[[IncrediblyLamePun He's got a bone to pick with you.]]]]

* The CreepyPasta ''Home on Derranged'' is about a cowboy who gets lost on his ranch one day, and chased back to his house by an undead horse.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had a CowboyEpisode about {{Franchise/Batman}} trying to unravel one of Comicbook/RasAlGhul's plots by investigating its roots in the Old West, when ComicBook/JonahHex (who was also in the JLU episode mentioned below) ran afoul of Ra's' son.
** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' had a {{Time Travel|Episode}}ing CowboyEpisode in which {{Franchise/Batman}}, Franchise/GreenLantern, and Franchise/WonderWoman were all [[TimeTravel sent back in time]] to the Wild West, teamed up with a bunch of Western-era DC characters (including ComicBook/JonahHex); and encountered, among other things, a laser gun that split into six smaller parts, android exoskeletons, and [[MechanicalAnimals robot dinosaurs]]. This is all because a {{villain|OfTheWeek}} stole [[TimeMaster Chronos]]' time belt and had been [[TimeTravelForFunAndProfit messing around with time travel]], [[GivingRadioToTheRomans introducong a lot of anachronistic technology to this setting]].

* ''Film/{{Nope}}'' is a SciFiHorror film set on a ranch breeding horses for use in Hollywood films located next to a Wild West amusement park that comes under siege from what appears to be an alien spacecraft.

* The ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD'' light-novel series by Creator/HideyukiKikuchi is heavily Western-based, even taking place in what is known as "The Frontier".

* ''Series/OuterRange'': A mysterious portal appears, like the sinkhole from Hell, in a ranch in Colorado.

%%* ''Series/OuterRange''