If it overlaps with Canadian Western, expect to see a Grim Up North where Evil Is Deathly Cold.Ĭompare and contrast with Cattle Punk and Space Western, which take more of a sci-fi approach to the Old West although there is some occasional overlap. If the story is set in the backdrop of historical military conflicts (such as the American Indian Wars, Mexican-American War, American Civil War, or the Mexican Revolution), then it becomes a Weird Historical War. The Weird West genre and settings tend to heavily overlap with Alternate History, Fantasy Americana, and Historical Fantasy (or Urban Fantasy if it's a Weird version of the New Old West). If the setting is more like a modernized New Old West, then expect to see more relatively recent cryptids such as chupacabras, or Urban Legends such as the Roswell UFO and aliens hidden at Area 51. Indian Burial Grounds, Magical Native Americans, and various entities from Native American Mythology (such as skinwalkers and wendigos note even though wendigos actually originated from the Great Lakes region) also tend to show up as sources of supernatural strangeness. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are common elements.

Weird West works often invoke horror tropes. Daylight Horror and Light Is Not Good are common elements in these tales in a region where the dry season resembles the Thirsty Desert trope, it is shade that is sacred. Many smaller frontier settlements were gradually abandoned over time, becoming (literally haunted) Ghost Towns. The lawless setting also meant plenty of violent deaths and unfinished business, fuel for ghostly tales. The frontier as a whole was traditionally viewed (and still is viewed, to some extent) as the meeting place of civilization and the unknown. The Wild West is, if you think about it, a logical choice for the Speculative Fiction treatment.

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