Presented are short films found on YouTube set in the West.
If I learned anything by watching these it is that good Western horror is much harder to do than one would think. I’m not saying all are a complete lost cause but the executions of some could be better. Maybe you’ll find something to enjoy.
Check them out!
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Fresh Flesh Fruit
- June 28, 2025
The story of a man, his guillotine, and a head. Sounds better than it is.
Not sure what I expected going into when watching Fresh Flesh Fruit but at about five minutes or so I wasn’t expecting too much. I was thinking maybe it would be all set up to a punchline, but weird and kind of dumb yet entertaining
An individual has a guillotine and they get the idea to cut some fruit with it and it climaxes with the head of somebody they executed before the beginning of the movie wanting some fruit and they give it to them and that’s it. Not much in the way of humorous or darkly comedic. Dumb but not entertaining.
I think the closest you might get to a dark joke is the removal of an ear from the guillotine. Reminded me of one of those bad and overly gory 80s horror movies. But it’s not actually a laugh. It is just odd. Comedy should make you at the minimum smile. Horror comedy should have stuff that could be scary under different circumstances.
Billed as a comedy, Fresh Flesh Fruit is just not funny. I watched this for free and wanted my money back!
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The Bad Taste Better
- Written and Directed by Dylan Volker
- August 31, 2025
Three dangerous men confront a much more threatening force.
The Bad Taste Better opens with a song called Wagons Rolling Westward sung by Chuck Carson that sounds like it was performed by Johnny Cash. Excellent bit of music I must props for.
What I have trouble giving props for is some of the rest of the film. At 14 minutes plus they have to move quickly but effectively and they don’t really do that with the explanation of the mystery that set up the presence of the monster. It feels poorly defined like they were almost winging it. There is a haphazard nature present.
I expected scares (or an attempt at such) but nothing felt like they were aiming for that. Writer/director Dylan Volker aims for atmosphere over attempts at fright. The creature is seen only in shadowy outline with a campfire at its back.
Acting is weak. The only one who puts in serious effort (or who shows it) is the character that explains the whole myth. That’s the backbone of this short film but like I said earlier it’s poorly explained. This may have been mostly improvised rather than people performing a script.
The Bad Taste Better is okay idea, but it just doesn’t quite come together mostly because of acting.
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Unbeaten Path
- Written and Directed by John Holowach
- June 1, 2016
On a cold winter’s night, two murderous outlaws find themselves facing something far more dangerous. Sounds like the previous one.
Unbeaten Path is a short 11 minutes that’s entertaining. Less a horror film set in the Old West and more a monster encounter taking place in the same you can look at it as containing two types of monsters: the killer outlaws and the killer creature. Sometimes that can be more like piling on than it is entertaining. This manages to make both satisfying.
Perhaps it is because the introductions of Chester (Adam Hunter) and Bertrand (Mark McClain Wilson) are initially portrayed as maybe generic cowboys before the reveal of them not only as outlaws but recent murders arrives. Not only is it a surprise but there is some creative camera work done to show the victims while also revealing one of them (Nikki McCauley) is still alive.
This takes place on a cold night so her breathing should have been seen. I have trouble believing that experienced killers missed her being alive or failed to notice her breath reflecting the light of the fire.
The dialogue and acting is fine. Wisely you never actually see the monster. You see its hand and its outline. This is not a major production so they don’t have the resources for a very good costume. Writer/director John Holowach gives enough visually to draw conclusion so the viewer’s mind fills in the details.
There’s no great character development. What is different is that the female mostly plays it smart but cannot escape her fate. The creature? All we know is it kills those that it crosses in its territory. It neither killed everyone nor let the woman get away in some fashion. This may have been an attempt to subvert expectations, but it made the creature’s presence little more than a way to keep things short. No way could a wounded person take out two men quickly if at all.
That aside I enjoyed Unbeaten Path. It’s a monster story that may not scare but certainly entertains.
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The first was by far the weakest with the third being the strongest. The second entry is a touch on the mid-tier side and certainly needed some more effort. I can’t say the other two would be re-watchable to me but the third one I could see viewing again.
