I know it’s pointless to argue semantics about genre definitions but I do enjoy discussing the boundaries of where one genre ends and another begins.
While I won’t argue Valley of Gwangi is Weird West since it has dinosaurs, do you think subverting Western tropes is enough to make something Weird West? I mean, The Quick and The Dead plays pretty loose with the laws of physics just to make for some fun shots:
Or there’s Western comedies like Blazing Saddles and Maverick that subvert a lot of Western tropes. I guess I’d almost define Weird West as whether or not something could happen in the West (even though it obviously didn’t). So inclusion of vampires, monsters, dinosaurs are “obviously” Weird West but a Western where the “monsters” are simply cannibals isn’t Weird West to me. Of course, there’s also the sub-genre of Acid Western where things might get super weird but not in a supernatural way. And this is why I like making these posts, to discuss the fringes of the genre.
Awesome, thanks so much for explaining that to me! And it happens to be on sale on steam right now too, guess I’ll be getting it! 😁