10 Best Horror Westerns

Now admittedly, this one isn’t always classed as a horror.

Neither High Plains Drifter nor Pale Rider are typically considered to be horror films, as both Clint Eastwood vehicles mostly follows the genre beats of a standard Western to a tee. Our hero rides in on horseback, uncovers the corruption beneath a small town's facade, and shoots his way through the wrongdoers to save the day.

But—and fair warning, this is a pretty big spoiler for both films here—in both movies, Clint Eastwood’s heroic leading man is heavily implied to have been a ghost all along. It's made more explicit in 1973's High Plains Drifter, where the hero's quest for vengeance is told through drip fed flashbacks.

In contrast, the later 1985 hit Pale Rider only allows the viewer a brief glimpse of a half dozen bullet holes riddling the back of its hero and lets the viewer draw their own conclusions.

Now admittedly people have survived worse with the help of modern medical intervention, but given the old timey setting of these two flicks, it's probably fair to guess their heroes are no longer residing in the world of living.