10 Best Horror Westerns

4. Dead Birds

Bone Tomahawk Skull
Sony Pictures

Another underrated Western horror, Dead Birds is the sort of creepy and blackly comic period horror that could have come from the pen of Stephen King. Starring ET’s Henry Thomas (of all people), the film's threadbare plot sees a brood of on-the-lam highwaymen stumble across all manner of deep south nastiness when they hole up in an abandoned farmhouse.

Well, “abandoned” is a stretch, since although there are no living inhabitants of said spooky empty farmhouse, viewers soon learn alongside our ostensible hero outlaws that there are all manner of spooky undead ghouls prowling the grounds.

This underrated 2004 chiller never got the love it deserved, probably because its thin plot is mostly an excuse for some stellar suspense sequences, some killer scares, and a surprisingly thoughtful commentary on the US Civil War.

The farmhouse is a former plantation, and the ending reveals the psychic scars that pockmark America's soul thanks to the country's history of slavery. Despite some poorly aged CGI, this is an under seen indie well worth seeking out.

Contributor

Cathal Gunning hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.