MovieChat Forums > Ravenous (1999) Discussion > Horror Western film subgenre is unapprec...

Horror Western film subgenre is unappreciated and underexploited

posted 11 years ago by jeffyoung1
11 replies | jump to latest

Combining traditional American old-West movie backdrops and themes with supernatural/monster horror (not sci-fi) is not new but rare. Perhaps it is because blending the two is a challenge. But it's been done on a few occasions.

THE BURROWERS (2010)

Sorry...I just can't recall the titles of the others right now but will come back and edit this when I do.

Western horror, or, horror western, often provides an interesting respite from either genre by offering something different. Now Western horror can be limited because, well, the time period and the location are limiting factors. Still a lot can be created with the proper width of imagination.

I thought RAVENOUS did a splendid job of representing western horror. Perhaps that's where much of the criticism originates. Viewers don't know what to make of the concept and so are bewildered.

[–] Kurtz_jungle 11 years ago

I would call It more of an american psychological horror dark comedy spaghetti western, but thats a little wordy.

I agree with you though, I don't much like horror movies. Not that I'm scared of them, its just that 98% of them are all the same cheap shock-horror fests, which I find more comedic than scary.

much of the direction and cinematography made me feel like it was a modern day Sergio Leone. Rather enjoyed its aesthetics quite a bit. Felt like a 60's or 70's film, which is a compliment.

[–] jeffyoung1 11 years ago

The special effects are a different matter, too. In RAVENOUS, a lot of money must have been spent to create a full-scale version of an American old west frontier army post. I was impressed by the special effects to depict the landscape as the time between late winter and the onset of spring. I only saw it by chance. One of the characters is walking through the woods next to the river when his foot kicks one of the many, scattered, 'snow piles'. The 'snow pile' turns out to be a heap of white cloth bunched up to look like a mound of late winter/early spring snow on the ground. Using white cloth to depict snow was very effective in giving the movie it's 'cold' beginning spring feeling. Anyone who has lived in northern climates is used to seeing small and large mounds of still-unmelted snow ice scattered on the ground in late February and early March.

[–] melissaowczarzak 11 years ago

Ginger snaps is set in the 1800s as well

[–] Mtaco 11 years ago

The third Ginger Snaps.

[–] Floyd_Pinkerton 11 years ago

Does Tremors count (in spite of potential anachronism)?

[–] tl2055 10 years ago

Yes, Tremors 4
From Dusk til Dawn 3
Dead Birds
Jonah Hex
Cowboys and Aliens
Gallowwalkers
Wild, Wild West
High Plains Invaders
High Plains Drifter
The Burrowers (of course)
Grim Prairie Tales
and a bunch more..

Just look up Weird West on wikipedia, theres a great comprehensive list of books, movies, and comics.

Weird Westerns are one of my favorite genres, Ive seen as many films as I can and unfortunately a lot of them are crap. There are many gems, but I think the Weird Western is looked down on because its a bit of a slummy genre. They tend to be done as cheapo money grabs. I hope that changes, films like this, the Burrowers, Cowboys and Aliens, and Bone Tomahawk are trying so hopfule Weird Western can emerge like Westerns are as a viable genre.

[–] Rena_Mahone 10 years ago

Thank you for your post.
Dead Birds is definitely one interesting horror western.
I don't see what Cowboy & Aliens and Wild Wild West have to do with that list though, they are most certainly not horrors.

🐺 Boycott movies that involve real animal violence (& their directors) 🐾

[–] mr_mcbeevee 10 years ago

I recommend "Eyes of Fire", an ambitious, well-made 1983 horror film set in the American frontier during colonial days.

[–] chicago85 9 years ago

I saw Curse of the Undead where a mysterious gunfighter comes to town dressed in black. He avoids sunlight and women begin dying. He is a vampire and goes up against a preacher played by Eric Fleming (Gil Favor from Rawhide).

I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

[–] Li-1 9 years ago

I enthusiastically recommend Bone Tomahawk, which I consider now to be the finest horror western I've ever seen and one of the best movies of 2015. Prior to that, Ravenous held that title for me. There are no supernatural elements in Bone Tomahawk, though its overall premise is similar to The Burrowers. The antagonists in BT are a tribe of cannibalistic troglodytes.

The film runs a long, but consistently compelling 132 minutes. For about 80 minutes, the film is mostly a straightforward adventure western (excepting a tense 5-minute prologue where a criminal meets his gory fate at the hands of the troglodytes and a brutal murder about a half-hour in) complete with great acting, characterizations, and dialogue. The last fifty minutes, where our protagonists step foot onto the troglodytes' territory, is as tense, suspenseful, and joltingly violent as any film I've seen in recent memory and the troglodytes were genuinely frightening villains, both in their visual appearance and the eerie way in which they communicate (you have to hear it for yourself to understand; it's probably the most bone-chilling sound since the tripod horn in Spielberg's War of the Worlds).

[–] klondike99 9 years ago

You cant tell me Bone Tomahawk wasn't influenced by both Ravenous and The Hills Have Eyes.