Although there are many standardized traits and tropes that unify the countless Westerns that have ever been made, the tried-and-true genre is more diverse than many non-aficionados realize. Take, for instance, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and compare it to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; both films are built upon the typical foundations of the Western, but one is classical in its cinematic approach and political in theme, while the other is wildly stylized and operatic. Both films are, nevertheless, Western masterpieces.
Given that the Western is defined by its stories of heroic cowboys and gunslinging outlaws, the genre is inherently violent. That said, another way to distinguish one Western from another is the way in which the filmmakers portray said violence. While many Westerns are quite tame and could fall into the category of “kid-friendly,” the ones collected in the list below are anything but. The following Westerns are defined by their boundary-pushing violence, bloody gunfights, and, in some cases, flirtations with the horror genre. These are the bloodiest Westerns of all time!
13 Keoma (1976)
Keoma is a late-era Spaghetti Western starring genre mainstay Franco Nero as a half-Native American ex-Union soldier who finds that his hometown has been taken over by his three sadistic brothers. Loaded down with awesome Sam Peckinpah-inspired slo-mo shootouts, an insane amount of horse falls and other stunts, bloody squibs, and torture, Keoma is easily one of the most violent films of its kind. The action is near ceaseless, and it's all set to an incredible, haunting soundtrack of vocal ballads that make it a memorable though downbeat good time.
12 Django (1966)
The original 1966 Django is one of the most influential Spaghetti Westerns of all time, and not just because it inspired countless copycats and gave a name and a catchy theme song to Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained; the film revolutionized the genre with its unrelenting violence, blurring the line between Western and exploitation film, and setting the standard for Westerns that would follow in its wake. The film made a star out of Franco Nero, and gave director Sergio Corbucci a reputation for cinematic bloodletting that he’d never live down. Bloody shootouts, brutal beatings, and a famously grotesque ear-removal scene are just a few of the gory delights that await in Django.
11 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a Western from Hollywood iconoclast Sam Peckinpah, and follows Sheriff Pat Garrett’s ill-fated mission to put his old buddy Billy the Kid behind bars. Known for his signature brand of violence, Peckinpah imbues the many-times-told tragedy with a fresh, visceral air. The back-stabbings and pistol duels are frequent and rendered in bloody detail, making them hit harder than in any other film version of the Billy the Kid story.
10 Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
One of the best yet lesser-known Spaghetti Westerns, Four of the Apocalypse is horror maestro Lucio Fulci’s dark take on the Wild West. The story tracks a band of lovable small-time criminals as they try to make their way across the frontier, all the while dodging the attacks of a vicious bandit named Chaco. With Fulci – an Italian director best-known for his brutal zombie flicks – at the helm, the bullet-impacts are gratuitously depicted, and the bad guys are some of the most sadistic in the genre. This movie is also decidedly unconventional in more ways than one, and is one to check out if you fancy the subgenre of “Weird” or “Acid Westerns.”
9 High Plains Drifter (1973)
One of Clint Eastwood’s most iconic films, High Plains Drifter is a violent tale of revenge that pits Eastwood’s nameless stranger against a town full of dastardly bandits and mean-spirited townsfolk. The film is overwhelmingly eerie for a Western, playing with themes of ghostly vengeance and the dead’s hold over the living. Complimenting the horror-adjacent themes are many shocking scenes of over-the-top violence, all set to a haunting score by Dee Barton. The film actually boasts such bloody carnage that it famously prompted John Wayne to write to Eastwood explaining why he’d never want to work alongside him. Brutal criticism, sure, but nowhere near as brutal as the cinematic death-dealing found within the picture.
8 The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Wild Bunch is another rugged Western from Sam Peckinpah. The movie is frequently touted as being Peckinpah’s masterpiece, and follows a gang of aging outlaws and their attempt to pull off one last heist. The heist goes wrong, and results in a fearsome battle for survival on the desolate frontier. Taken by many to be an allegory for the then-dying Western genre, the film deconstructs the mythical heroism of Western past with its raw violence that takes the lives of its ambivalent participants seemingly at random (and always in blood-spewing fashion).
7 The Great Silence (1968)
The Great Silence is one of the greatest spaghetti westerns of all time. It follows a mute man named Silence who stands up to a band of evil bounty hunters on a frozen frontier. Like most of Segio Corbucci's films, this one is vicious, political, and unflinching in its dedication to demystifying the Western genre. The film is harrowing and brutal from start to finish, and is filled with graphic gun battles that spill far more blood than is typical for films of the era.
6 Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Bone Tomahawk is a Western-horror hybrid that follows a rag-tag group of heroes on a mission to save three townspeople from a cannibalistic tribe in the hills. Part The Searchers and part The Hills Have Eyes, this genre mash-up works surprisingly well and delivers all the cowboy adventure fun you’d want from a Western, plus more nauseating gore than most modern horror flicks. A slow-burn for most of its runtime, the bloody final act comes as a highly unexpected jolt to the system that is impossible to fully prepare for.
5 El Topo (1970)
El Topo is the archetypal “Acid Western,” and follows a mysterious gunfighter on a parabolic journey through the relentless desert. It’s a psychedelic trip through the wild imagination of Alejandro Jodorowsky, as well as a supremely violent picture dripping in neon-red blood. El Topo is not just one of the bloodiest Westerns of all time, but one of the most truly unique films ever made.
4 The Proposition (2005)
The Proposition is a brutal Australian Western about a sheriff who offers an outlaw the chance to save his younger sibling from hanging by killing his older, murderous brother. The film is beautifully shot and, of course, extraordinarily violent, making its portrayal of a complex moral dilemma all the more powerful and memorable. Like the aforementioned The Wild Bunch, The Proposition is a sort of grim anti-Western. As Game Rant explains, as soon as the opening credits roll, “the unforgiving hellscape that the frontier actually was, myth making aside, suddenly comes crashing down.”
3 Django Unchained (2012)
Django Unchained is Quentin Tarantino’s joyously violent ode to the Spaghetti Western, and follows an ex-slave-turned-bounty-hunter’s quest to free his wife from a sadistic plantation owner. As Screen Rant reminds us, “Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking has always been heavily influenced by the spaghetti western genre, particularly the works of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci.” Indeed, this film’s title and theme song are lifted right out of the aforementioned Corbucci-directed Django, though the violence here is notched up way beyond that of its spiritual predecessor. In fact, the film features a number of wildly violent scenes, including one of the bloodiest shootouts in movie history. Django Unchained is truly one of the bloodiest Westerns ever made.
2 Cut-Throats Nine (1972)
The under-seen Spanish “paella western” Cut-Throats Nine is a bleak and nihilistic trip through a snowy western hellscape. It follows a chain gang made up of sadistic outlaws who are set free when their armed transport is ambushed by thieves. Turned loose in the mountains, the bloodthirsty gang resorts to savage acts of cruelty to survive the frozen frontier. Unrelenting in its depiction of gory violence, Cut-Throats Nine is more of a horror film disguised as a western than your standard gunslinging cowboy flick, and makes for a fantastic though downbeat double feature when paired with the next film on our list.
1 The Hateful Eight (2015)
The Hateful Eight is Quentin Tarantino’s second Western, and takes the gory violence of Django Unchained to a snow-swept mountain frontier. It follows an eclectic group of people who become trapped in an isolated lodge during a snowstorm. The film has more than just Kurt Russell and a creepy Ennio Morricone score in common with John Carpenter’s horror masterpiece The Thing, as it also shares a similar snowbound premise, eerie paranoid aura, and bouts of horrifying graphic violence. As such, The Hateful Eight is a blood-drenched delight that is sure to appease fans of splatter horror just as well as it does Western fans.