Seven Frightful Western Tales to Scare the Boots Off You
Guest blogger John Carey
The Wild West was so much more than six-shooters and whiskey shots at the saloon. The wide-open plains carried an unsettling silence and isolation, with danger lurking around every corner. Outlaws wanted your money, your land, your family—or just your life—and sheriffs were few and far between. With death so willy-nilly for pioneers, the night sky seemed heavy with ill omens.
Folklore and old wives’ tales quickly spread of phantom riders, haunted mines, and ghost lights flickering across the plains. Europe’s tradition of medieval castles and restless spirits found a new home in the cabins and wind-whipped towns of the American West.
By the time dime novels and pulp magazines hit the shelves, the fusion was complete. The “weird western” genre was born, where lawmen and outlaws faced not only desperadoes shooting bullets, but also curses, creatures, and the supernatural.
Some trace this genre to Robert E. Howard’s 1932 vampire tale The Horror from the Mound, in which a pioneer farmer’s greed leads him to open an old Indian burial mound. Later pulp thrillers, such as L. Ron Hubbard’s Devil’s Manhunt (1950), continued to fuse Western grit with psychological horror—and the style evolved from there.
The Horror from the Mound
by Robert E. Howard (1932)
Published in Weird Tales in May 1932, this is often cited as one of the first “weird western” horror stories. A West Texas farmer is warned not to open an old Indian burial mound—but when has a tale of terror ever allowed a character to heed life-or-death advice? The opening paragraph sets the tone:
“Steve Brill did not believe in ghosts or demons. Juan Lopez did. But neither the caution of the one nor the sturdy skepticism of the other was shield against the horror that fell upon them—the horror forgotten by men for more than three hundred years—a screaming fear monstrously resurrected from the black lost ages.”
The complete story can be read here: Project Gutenberg Australia.
The Devil’s Manhunt
by L. Ron Hubbard (1950)
Though classified as a western, this tale reads like a survival horror story. A hard-working miner strikes it rich in the middle of nowhere, but his fortune quickly turns to dread when two violent strangers stumble upon his gold. Tim manages to escape with his life, but with no weapons, no food, and no way out of the desert, things worsen when the men begin hunting him.
The story becomes even more chilling as the hunters themselves fall prey to an unknown force. Mr. Hubbard’s knack for psychological suspense shines in a line that captures Tim’s sheer will to live after running out of bullets to hunt deer:
“He had lived on venison until his cartridges had all been used. Then he had kept his soul encased with body by snaring rabbits and birds. He had worked and wandered alone in this virgin desert-isolated fastness for eight months before he had found the rich placer. He had no salt and no flour. His clothing was a ruin of faded ribbons and he needed many things to work a claim.”
This relentless tale will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.
Shadow on the Sun
by Richard Matheson (written 1950s, published 1998)
Even if you don’t recognize Richard Matheson’s name, you likely know his work: the Twilight Zone classic “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” Steven Spielberg’s first feature film Duel, the teleplay The Night Stalker (which inspired the TV series Kolchak), and his novel I Am Legend, adapted into film three times.
In Shadow on the Sun, the gruesome murder of two white men threatens a fragile treaty with the Apache. Indian agent Billjohn Finley investigates, only to discover that the killer may not be human at all.
“It came at them with such speed that they had no chance to move. One second they were scuffling down the slope toward their horses, the next, they were paralyzed in their steps, faces frozen into masks of dumb horror. Jim was quick enough to fling an arm up, but neither of them had the time to scream.”
The Totem
by David Morrell (1980)
David Morrell, best known for creating Rambo in First Blood, turns his hand to horror in The Totem. In a small Wyoming town called Potter’s Field, mutilated cattle, savage animals, and children driven insane herald the outbreak of a horrific disease. Victims transform into uncontrollable murderers as the police chief races to uncover the cause.
“So he stumbled toward the carcass.… There were three facts that he needed to learn right away. Whether the steer had been dead before the animal had gotten at it. Whether the organs were all there. Whether the predator had left some sign of what it was.”
John Carey paid the bills working as a programmer and IT project manager while he honed his writing skills at night and on the weekends. John has just published his second book, 
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