The Spectral West by Keith McDonald

This book considers the presence of the supernatural and Gothic elements of the Western on screen. These dark and sinister undertones often exist in Western narratives to draw attention to the ever-present issue of death and its haunting resonance and at times as terrifying entities which characters encounter. This book examines this through key historic moments in Western film and its contemporary incarnations. The book detects imposing correlations in themes and currents between the Gothic and the Western tradition as much as Greek tragedy. These themes are the tensions between the old and the new, the deranged insistence on civility and order in a chaotic landscape, disillusionment and the shattering of faith in the natural order, and even order itself. The Western, just like the Gothic tale, reminds us that new frontiers are mired in the past; optimism and survival are hunted down by the guilt-ridden anxieties of that past.

Dr Keith McDonald is an Associate Professor in Film Studies and Media at York St John University. He is the co-author of Guillermo del Toro: Film as Alchemic Art (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Contemporary Gothic and Horror Film: Transnational Perspectives (Anthem Press, 2021).

Dr Wayne Johnson is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at York St. John University. He received his PhD from Keele University. He is the co-author of Contemporary Gothic and Horror Film: Transnational Perspectives (Anthem Press, 2021) and co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Folk Horror (Routledge, 2024).