History Main / NewWeird

%%* Johanna Sinisalo does this genre among other fantasy

* Creator/DavidLynch has had massive and undeniable influence over the genre, and his later works such as ''Film/InlandEmpire'' and ''Series/TwinPeaks: The Return'' certainly fall under the New Weird umbrella.

* The ''Literature/{{Ambergris}}'' by
Creator / Jeff VanderMeery stories are a mix of horror, ScienceFiction and, later, police procedural set after an invasion by [[PlantAliens fungus aliens]], the Fanaarcensitii (aka Gray Cap). Once our mushroom overlords take over, society and law enforcement change.

%%* ''Literature/TheWeirdness''

%%* ''Literature/LookingForJake''

* Jeffery Thomas's ''Literature/{{Punktown}}'' books are an odd mix of sci-fi and horror. Set in the future on another planet, often featuring {{Mutant}} private-eye Jeremy Stake, to deal with the fall-out by crazy Lovecraftian technology gone wrong.

* John Meaney's ''Literature/{{Tristopolis}}'' aka ''Donal Riordan'' police stories are set on a planet of another reality (the Earth of our reality only features as an "What If"-type comic book) which feels TwentyMinutesInTheFuture and has magic, biotech zombies, wraiths, hellhounds and other supernatural beings as part of everyday life. So it's FilmNoir with near {{Cyberpunk}} technology and a healthy dose of ScienceFantasy rather than the standard UrbanFantasy tropes usually prevalent in stories with a similar premise.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' campaign setting Golarion has shades of this with source-books now including things like interplanetary travel (and the requisite aliens), a crashed high-tech alien ship guarded by barbarian hordes, spellcasters who can turn themselves into AI, "occult" monsters more common to GothicHorror, etc. added to a HighFantasy world that initially only stood out for avoiding FantasyGunControl.

* ''Literature/MirrorWorld'' has a bizarre, DarkFantasy world on the other side of the titular mirror in which those trapped within slowly lose their humanity within the gaze of an EldritchAbomination and became not-quite-human beings engaged in a war of conspiracies. The more the protagonist goes in, the stranger, more disturbing, and ''weirder'' it gets.
* The Website/RPCAuthority is along the same lines as the SCP Foundation, and was even created by some the Foundation’s original members who wished to revisit its horror based roots.

* Ann and Jeff [=VanderMeer=] (authors of ''Literature/TheSouthernReachTrilogy'') have an online magazine ''[[http://weirdfictionreview.com Weird Fiction Review]]'' that only reviews works of this genre.

* The ''Literature/{{Ambergris}}'' stories are a horror/sci-fi and later police procedural mix from after an invasion by [[PlantAliens fungus aliens]], the Fanaarcensitii (aka Gray Cap). Once our mushroom overlords take over, society and law enforcement change.
* ''Literature/{{Atlan}}'': The series can be considered the TropeMaker. While not exactly postmodern, these 1960s novels[[note]]The last book, ''Some Summer Lands'', was published in 1977.[[/note]] paint a Theosophically derived setting with a Gothic brush, resulting in a perilous journey through a [[EldritchLocation truly otherworldly]] LostWorld.

** ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'': Perhaps the most famous New Weird story ever. A bird-man, whose wings have been removed, goes to a notorious alchemist (who's in relationship with a beetle-headed woman) to get his wings regrown. This will lead to an invasion of New Crobuzon by soul-sucking giant insects.

* ''Literature/{{Borne}}'' and its prequel comic ''The Situation'' by Creator/JeffVanderMeer are set in a city where the tropes of CyberPunk are given an organic twist with animal- and insect-based BioTech, such as censor slugs that filter their wearer's perceptions, rabbits that serve as employee files, and memory beetles.

* ''Literature/EncryptionStraffe'' is a {{Cyberpunk}} novel with stream-of-consciousness narration. The highly surreal second and third arcs depicted the feats of cognition technology as indistinguishable from magic for people immersed in it, while a major character is a digitalized vengeful spirit.

* ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' can be considered the UrExample, featuring no magic or fantastical creatures, just a sprawling castle filled with grotesque characters following increasingly arcane rules. The books are never stated to be taking place on our world or not, but Gormenghast can be considered a ConstructedWorld onto itself due to the amount of thought and detail Peak expounded upon it.

* Jay Lake's ''Literature/{{Mainspring}}'' and subsequent novels in the ''Clockwork Earth'' setting, takes place on a ClockPunk Earth where God and his angels exist and have created the Earth as a giant clock that needs a bit of rewinding and other maintenance issues.

* Creator/ThomasLigotti's ''Literature/TheRedTower'' is about the hostile conflict between [[GeniusLoci a factory of unnatural kitsch, and the desolate wasteland surround it]] - or at least about an UnreliableNarrator who insists that everyone is talking about them and [[MindScrew just don't realise it]].
* ''Literature/{{Rollerskater}}'' borrows tropes from SliceOfLife, UrbanFantasy, ScienceFiction and {{Horror}}, set in a world very similar to our own, but for the presence of chaotic powers, magical robots, talking motorcycles, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, all while taking various aesthetic influences from {{Surrealism}}, {{Postmodernism}} and [[EsotericMotifs Western esotericism]].

%%* ''Literature/{{Vurt}}''
* David Edison's ''Literature/TheWakingEngine'' features a city of deities and alien lifeforms, where every person who has ever died gets reborn there.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** On the surface, the series seems like a fairly generic [[/index]]HighFantasy[[index]] series, but if you start digging into the lore (especially anything written by Creator/MichaelKirkbride) you find things like a [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] {{cyborg}} who is the [[GodInHumanForm manifestation of the spirit]] of a [[GodIsDead dead god]]; a DepravedBisexual {{hermaphrodite}} PhysicalGod who may be aware that [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall the true nature of the world that he's in is a video game]]; a HumongousMecha powered by the heart of a dead god with an alarming tendency to [[TimeCrash break time]] and [[RealityWarper warp reality]]; and an AI from the far future who got caught in the crossfire of a war, was driven insane and sent back to the late Merethic era where she then acted as a soothsayer for a while; a ''[[SomethingNauts space race]]'' between two rival empires who, respectively, used ships ''made of the sun'' and [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant]], hollowed-out ''[[LivingShip moths]]'' to explore the void outside the physical world, and much, ''much'' more...
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' in particular provides an excellent example of this style, with plentiful {{Bizarrchitecture}}, including an entire city district within a hollowed-out [[GiantEnemyCrab giant crab shell]] and a feudal [[TheMagocracy Magocracy]] who grow [[FungusHumongous giant mushroom]] {{Mage Tower}}s to [[MushroomHouse live in]]; an [[BeneficialDisease incurable disease]] that makes you TheAgeless; and [[OrganicTechnology giant arthropods]] as the main form of overland travel.
** Other typical fantasy elements are also twisted in strange directions. For example, both the Orcs (Orsimer) and Dwarves (Dwemer) are actually types of Elves. The former are the followers of the elven god Trinimac who were transformed when Trinimac was consumed and excreted by the Daedric Prince Boethia. The latter are elves who preferred to live underground and devoted themselves to logic and reason, and eventually vanished when they built and activated their own Brass God, named Numidium.

* Creator/BrandonSanderson. His works in ''Literature/TheCosmere'', especially, use races and magic systems that have only tenuous ties to traditional fantasy. Most of his races were [[WasOnceAMan once human]], and his magic has more in common with superpowers than Tolkien-style magic.

* ''Webcomic/{{Floraverse}}'' takes place in a bizarre UrbanFantasy setting where there are no StandardFantasyRaces, the majority of the species are inexplicably themed after everyday objects, the aesthetic varies wildly, occasionally almost resembling science fiction, and the other side of the world is constantly under attack from [[OurAngelsAreDifferent "angels"]] with [[MindScrew confusing symbolism]] and [[CosmicHorrorStory cosmic horror implications.]]

%%* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''

* Creator/ChinaMieville purposefully avoids writing [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien-style]] fantasy, preferring to [[DeconstructorFleet invent his own sorts of worlds and fantasy creatures]] (along with a heavy [[AuthorTract Marxist]] bent). This has made him a leading figure in the NewWeird movement.

* The ''Literature/BasLagCycle'' by Creator/ChinaMieville is seen as the TropeCodifier for NewWeird, establishing NewWeird's often heavy use of {{Steampunk}} or {{Clockpunk}}. The world of Bas-Lag is a setting where opening other dimensions is a common thing, alien creatures roam about, magic exists, humans can be made into steam-powered cyborgs and the tyrannical steampunk city of New Crobuzon looms over everything.
** ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'': Perhaps the most famous NewWeird story ever. A bird-man, whose wings have been removed, goes to a notorious alchemist (who's in relationship with a beetle-headed woman) to get his wings regrown. This will lead to an invasion of New Crobuzon by soul-sucking giant insects.

The ''New Weird'' movement is a post-modernist take on certain kinds of literary genre fiction. In a nutshell, it's a specific genre of Scifi/Fantasy/Horror literature that does not follow the conventions of derivative SciFi, {{Fantasy}} or {{Horror}}, without being an [[DeconstructorFleet outright parody or deconstruction]]. Similar to the NewWaveScienceFiction movement of TheSixties, but it took off in the [[TheNineties mid-nineties]], and was at its peak in the early-to-mid TurnOfTheMillennium.

* ''ComicBook/TheDepartmentOfTruth'' is a Supernatural-{{Thriller}} with elements of {{Cosmic Horror|Story}} thrown in. Set in a world where [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve if enough people believe something, it makes it so that it's true]], with UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories being the most prevalent danger to the Earth due to the sheer number of horrible things people believe exists or is happening. The titular Department is tasked with lessening the chances of this happening, as well as hunting down monsters and anomalies this creates.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' campaign setting Golarion has shades of this with source-books now including things like interplanetary travel, a crashed high-tech alien ship guarded by barbarian hordes, spellcasters who can turn themselves into AI, "occult" monsters more common to GothicHorror, etc. added to a HighFantasy world that initially only stood out for avoiding FantasyGunControl.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]
* ''Film/Annihilation2018'' is loosely based on the 1st book of the New Weird ''[[Literature/TheSouthernReachTrilogy Southern Reach Trilogy]]'' and while it still features the alien altered "Area X", mutated life and strange phenomenon - there were elements missing from the novel such as the team needing to use obsolete equipment.
%%* ''Film/DaveMadeAMaze''
%%* ''Film/Mandy2018''
* ''Film/SorryToBotherYou'' is an {{afrofuturis|m}}t take on New Weird cinema. It's a movie predominantly about union agitation with socialist and racial themes and features a few elements from {{Cyberpunk}} and PostCyberpunk, overdubbed "white voices" that are [[MindScrew never explained]], and [[spoiler:horse mutants]]. Its GenreBusting, transgressive nature places it along an {{afrofuturis|m}}t axis of the New Weird.
* Creator/DavidLynch has had massive and undeniable influence over the genre, and his later works such as ''Film/InlandEmpire'' and ''Series/TwinPeaks: The Return'' certainly fall under the New Weird umbrella.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literary Authors]]

[[folder:Podcast]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WelcomeToTheWayne'': The series is about Ansi Molina and his best friends the Timbers siblings Olly and Saraline and their adventures in The Wayne, an apartment building in New York with all kind of supernatural phenomena from standard (like vampires and werewolves but with unusual traits like the [[FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire vampires]] being [[AbsurdPhobia afraid of spoons]] and having contact with werewolf saliva can turn someone into one and using a specific lip gloss trademark on the lips to cure them) to some even stranger (like a [[HiddenElfVillage hidden village of living pipes and their washing machine pharaoh]], [[BatOutOfHell bat-like]] monsters with enormous heads afraid of their own reflection and hidden mechanical [[TubeTravel portals]] that go throughout the building that can lead anywhere). They protect The Wayne building and its residents from the strange phenomena that is InvisibleToNormals and can inflict GoMadFromTheRevelation on them and also a NebulousEvilOrganisation trying to use those secrets to control the world, with help from their friends they were [[TheChosenMany chosen]] to protect The Wayne and the world.

* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' is a SurrealHumor/[[SurrealHorror Horror]] {{Podcast}}/RadioDrama done in the format of a radio-news station for the fictional town of Night Vale. Its host Cecil reports the news in Night Vale, such news including government helicopters and agents doing suspicious, authoritarian things, doomsday cults, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, angels that live with Old Woman Josie, various {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and portals to unseen horrors that spontaneously manifest, ominous flashing lights in the sky, imaginary corn crops, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a white-guy claiming to be Native America while wearing a racist feathered-hat]]. [[AndThatsTerrible What an asshole.]] Cecil and the rest of the town don't seem to find the supernatural stuff happening in the town all that strange, the only exception being the out-of-town scientist that Cecil has a crush on Carlos.

* The Wiki/RPCAuthority is along the same lines as the SCP Foundation, and was even created by some the Foundation’s original members who wished to revisit its horror based roots.

** The series started in pretty typical UrbanFantasy spaces, but by the time of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', the plots truly fell into this genre. From the opening sequence, where the main cast watches the world end, to it's ending, wherein the demonic main character fights the godly force of pure creation at the center of the bubbled Vortex world in order to bring Reason into existence, New Weird barely covers it.

* ''TabletopGame/ElectricBastionland'' doesn't fit comfortably in any established speculative fiction genre. Like many touchstones of New Weird its focus is placed into titular [[{{MegaCity}} Mega City]] - Bastion - which is meant to invoke aesthetic and technology level of early XX century, but couldn't be reduced to it. Underground is run by sentient machines which defy laws of spacetime. Deep Country represents the past and can be place of rural horror. Living Stars - last part of the setting is not described explicitly in any way, but invoked by bizzare aliens and mindbending ways to travel there through physics-defying routes of Underground.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' involves twin siblings, Dipper and Mabel Pines spending their summer vacation in the titular town. During their stay, the twins stumble upon various supernatural occurrences. Such as [[OurGnomesAreWeirder Living Lawn Gnomes]], [[OurMinotaursAreDifferent Manotaurs]], Ghosts, cursed wax statues, time travelers, and [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Dinosaurs]]. However, Dipper and Mabel also have to deal with a bizarre triangle demon named Bill Cipher. Adding to this, they also confront both family secrets and growing up, making it a ComingOfAgeStory as well.

%%* ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' can be considered the UrExample

* Creator/ChinaMieville purposefully avoids writing [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien-style]] fantasy, preferring to [[DeconstructorFleet invent his own sorts of worlds and fantasy creatures]]. This has made him a leading figure in the NewWeird movement.

%%* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': While it certainly pays homage to 80's ScienceFiction and {{Horror}}, the series has a lot of unique trappings not found in typical SciFi. Among them are: a monster that can smell blood across dimensions and hunts by melting holes in walls, a shadow realm that forms a twisted version of reality, and a 100-ft tall monster made of whirlwinds that can [[DemonicPossession possess]] people and create [[BodyOfBodies living weapons]] out of melted bodies. And all of this is somehow connected to a [[GovernmentConspiracy shady laboratory]] and [[SpyFiction a plot by]] [[DirtyCommunists Dirty Russian Communists]] to infiltrate Middle America and open a portal into the aforementioned shadow realm. And as of Season 3, ''none'' of it has explained, allowing the series to maintain an air of mystery and incomprehensibility. Season 4 has given some explanation as to why the Upside Down is connected to Hawkins, Indiana specifically, but even then the characters - and the audience - still don't have all the answers.

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' by Creator/MarkZDanielewski

* Thomas Ligotti's ''Literature/TheRedTower'' is about the hostile conflict between [[GeniusLoci a factory of unnatural kitsch, and the desolate wasteland surround it]] - or at least about an UnreliableNarrator who insists that everyone is talking about them and [[MindScrew just don't realise it]].

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' by Creator/NeilGaiman: A fantasy comic set no so much in any specific setting of fantasy, but within the realm of fantasy itself. The gods and fantasy races are bit players and the protagonist is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of dreams and stories themselves. The malleability of what we understand as 'reality' is a recurring theme.

** ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'': Perhaps the most famous NewWeird story ever. A bird-man, who's wings have been removed, goes to a notorious alchemist (who's in relationship with a beetle-headed woman) to get his wings regrown. This will lead to an invasion of New Crobuzon by soul-sucking giant insects.
** ''Literature/TheScar'': A rebel against New Crobuzon ends up with pirates on a sailing city dragged by an otherdimensional sea monster