Are there any alien invasion movies set out west during the 1800s? I’d like to see cowboys fending off aliens.
Tremors 4 is cowboys vs monters. From Dusk Til Dawn 3 is cowboys vs vampires.
And how could I forget that The Valley of the Gwangi is cowboys vs dinosaurs.
I can’t think of any alien invasions in the old west, but in the same vein as the Dusk to Dawn movie we have Billy the Kid versus Dracula.
Don’t forget Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter. Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966) - IMDb
For the OP, not a hostile alien visitation, but a sweet & creepy film from 1985 called The Aurora Encounter. The Aurora Encounter (1986) - IMDb (Creepy because the boy playing the alien had progeria. Now, he wanted to do it & got the chance from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but still…)
There was a TV show in the late 70s called Cliff Hangers. The show has three serial parts and one was called Secret Empire about advanced technical civilization underground during the time of the old west. I think they were of extraterrestrial origin but I am not sure. I do remember one episode with cowboys in an armored wagon and gatalin gun fighting off the empire people with ray guns.
Might not be aliens, but they do have ray-guns
http://www.otrnow.com/store/dvd/GeneAutry_PhantomEmpireSerial_01.htm
The “Secret Empire” segment of Cliffhangers was a re-make of an old matinee serial called The Phantom Empire.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. sort of (sort of) involves aliens in the Wild West. I’ve only seen an episode or two, so I’m not sure what the significance of aliens is in the show, but they’re in there. Somewhere.
A mysterious Orb figures heavily in the one & only season of Brisco County Jr. It’s actually from the future–but it’s pretty weird.
Gene Autry also dealt with denizens of The Phantom Empire. Again–not from space. But plenty weird. I have vague memories of seeing this on TV; think I need to see it again.
Did Cliff Hangers ever end any of the segments except the Dracula one?
They made a special TV movie to wrap up the Dracula storyline, but if they did that for the others, I missed them.
Men in Black in the Wild, Wild West–Starring (who else?) Will Smith as James Darrell Edwards West III
Well, there was that one Star Trek episode…
I seem to recall that a couple of Outer Limit/Twilight Zone episodes were set in the Old West.
That’s all I’ve got…
As is The Beast of Hollow Mountain ( 1956 )
Some of the mid-1960s Lone Ranger cartoons might fit that description – they were full of monsters, mad science and anachronistic technology.
How about this:
The cover’s really a swindle, though – there aren’t any alien invaders within. It was just a come-on to get jaded SF fanboys to buy an issue full of 1950s Western comics.
It didn’t matter t me – I was at that time getting all the issues as a matter of course. But I would’ve loved to have read a story based on that cover.
Here’s another site with it:
For an actual comic with aliens in the Wild West, you could try DC’s “Justice Riders” one-shot. It has a lot of inside references (the main conceit is that the characters are all variants of existing Justice League characters), but it is in that vein.
Another really good cowboys and spacemen comic is Iron West, by Doug TenNapel. Gold miners unearth an alien artifact, that starts making robots to conquer the Earth. It’s up to a cowardly card cheat, a gnomic indian shaman, and a sasquatch to stop them.
Cowboys and Aliens is scheduled for release in 2010, starring Robert Downey Jr and produced by Steven Spielberg.