History Main / SinisterSouthwest

* ''VisualNovel/Echo'''s basic premise is a town in Utah that is an absolute hellhole.

Closer to home, the Southwest edge of California was home to UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his Family; the New Mexico State Penitentiary outside Santa Fe was the site of the bloodiest prison riot in US history in 1980, and cartel violence and political upheaval have become a mainstay along the Texas/Mexico border in the 21st century.

Sinister Southwest works usually involve a mix of several elements: stories of crime or {{Horror}}, a focus on the barren desert landscape, and a more rural setting (although the action can shift to some of the bigger cities, like Albuquerque, Phoenix, or El Paso). Additionally, many works may be influenced by the largely Latin American culture of the region.

* The Creator/RobZombie-directed films ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'' and ''Film/TheDevilsRejects'' take place in the fictional town of Ruggsville, Texas, the home of the murderous Firefly family.

->"''When the last light warms the rocks and the rattlesnakes unfold''
->''Mountain cats will come to drag away your bones''
->''And rise with me forever, across the silent sand''
->''And the stars will be your eyes, and the wind will be my hands."''

* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'': two murderous bank robbers on the lam in the Texas badlands take a family hostage while making a run for the Mexican border. They succeed in crossing and make a clean getaway... only to end up in a strip club full of Aztec vampires.

* ''Film/LastManStanding'': a mysterious gunslinger enters a dying Prohibition-era Texas town, and plays two violent gangs against each other.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is the brutal and violent tale of the Glanton gang, a group of Indian hunters who operated throughout the American Southwest and the Mexican province of Chihuahua from 1849 to 1850. The novel also has a few supernatural elements with Judge Holden himself a SatanicArchetype.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is the brutal and violent tale of the Glanton gang, a group of Indian hunters who operated throughout the American Southwest and the Mexican province of Chihuahua from 1849 to 1850. The story also has a few [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguously supernatural elements]] with Judge Holden being either a SatanicArchetype or even {{Satan}} himself.

* ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'': A poacher in 1980s Southwest Texas finds the aftermath of a drug deal gone bloody in the desert and takes a briefcase full of money, leading to a peculiar hitman violently pursuing him across the state.

* The ''Literature/SheriffJoannaBrady'' series by Creator/JAJance. Joanna is sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona; the jurisdiction with happens to include Tombstone. Jance prefers to call her books 'novels of suspense' rather than 'mysteries', and many of the crimes investigated by Joanna are fairly horrific.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is the brutal and violent tale of a group of Indian hunters known as the Glanton gang who operated throughout the American Southwest and the Mexican province of Chihuahua in the 1840s and 1850s. The story also has a few [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguously supernatural elements]] with Judge Holden being either a SatanicArchetype or even {{Satan}} himself.

* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is the brutal and violent tale of a group of Indian hunters known as the Glanton gang who operated throughout Texas in the 1840s and 1850s. The story also has a few [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguously supernatural elements]] with Judge Holden being either a SatanicArchetype or even {{Satan}} himself.

Probably the most famous RealLife incident of the Southwest happened on July 8, 1947. {{Roswell|ThatEndsWell}} Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The Army quickly retracted the statement and instead said that the crashed object was merely a conventional weather balloon; inevitably the public came to believe that extraterrestrials had crashed on Earth and that they and their vehicle had been taken to Nevada and stored in a little place called Area51. As if that wasn't enough about aliens, the infamous Skinwalker Ranch of Utah has been a hotbed of UFO activity for decades, with dozens of reports of strange creatures and cattle mutilations in the area.

Sinister Southwest works usually involve a mix of several elements: stories of crime or {{Horror}}, a focus on the barren desert landscape, and a more rural setting (although the action can shift to some of the bigger cities, like Albuquerque, Phoenix, or El Paso). Additionally, many works may be influenced by the largely Hispanic/Latin American culture of the region.

Probably the most famous RealLife incident of the Southwest happened on July 8, 1947. Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The Army quickly retracted the statement and instead said that the crashed object was merely a conventional weather balloon; inevitably the public came to believe that extraterrestrials had crashed on Earth and that they and their vehicle had been taken to Nevada and stored in a little place called Area51. As if that wasn't enough about aliens, the infamous Skinwalker Ranch of Utah has been a hotbed of UFO activity for decades, with dozens of reports of strange creatures and cattle mutilations in the area.

Probably the most famous RealLife incident of the Southwest happened on July 8, 1947. Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The Army quickly retracted the statement and instead said that the crashed object was merely a conventional weather balloon; inevitably the public came to believe that extraterrestrials had crashed on Earth, and that they and their vehicle had been taken to Nevada and stored in a little place called Area51. As if that wasn't enough about aliens, the infamous Skinwalker Ranch of Utah has been a hotbed of UFO activity for decades, with dozens of reports of strange creatures and cattle mutilations in the area.

May overlap with WeirdWest (but differs, in that Sinister Southwest works may be set in the modern day and feature no supernatural elements). Compare LovecraftCountry and SouthernGothic, for other American settings with supernatural and/or horror elements. Can often involve DaylightHorror or HillbillyHorrors.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': One of the darkest, most intense dramas in television history, a tale of the methamphetamine trade set in and around Albuquerque NM. The desert landscapes give a heightened sense of tension and are often the setting for bloody violence.

* ''The Books Of Blood'' by Creator/CliveBarker: "Skins Of The Fathers" concerns a young man who encounters a parade of strange monsters on an Arizona highway, and gets stuck in a fierce battle betweem them and a rowdy army of townsfolk.

* The ''Literature/LeeNez'' novels are a VampireDetectiveSeries set in New Mexico. Lee, a New Mexico state trooper, is a "nightwalker" of Navajo heritage who was turned in an encounter with {{Ghostapo}} during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and spends much of his spare time hunting {{skinwalker}}s to protect the Navajo Nation, which leads him to a collision with FBIAgent Diane Lopez when her partner is killed by one of his targets.

May overlap with WeirdWest (but differs, in that Sinister Southwest works may be set in the modern day and feature no supernatural elements). Compare to LovecraftCountry and SouthernGothic, for other American settings with supernatural and/or horror elements. Can often involve DaylightHorror or HillbillyHorrors.

Closer to home, the Southwest edge of California was home to UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his Family; the New Mexico State Penitentary outside Santa Fe NM was site of the bloodiest prison riot in US history in 1980; and cartel violence and political upheaval have become a mainstay along the Texas/Mexico border in the 21st century.

May overlap with WeirdWest (but differs, in that Sinister Southwest works may be set in the modern day and feature no supernatural elements). Compare to LovecraftCountry and SavageSouth. Can often involve DaylightHorror or HillbillyHorrors.

[[Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' follows a bounty hunter named Nadie who decides to become the bodyguard of a young witch named Ellie instead of killing her like her job demanded. As the two slowly move further south through Mexico, they find themselves being chased by other bounty hunters and getting involved in a sinister conspiracy from an ancient witch coven. The setting never strays too far from desert and cactus environments and small towns.

->''"From the dusty mesa, her looming shadow grows''
->''Hidden in the branches of the poisoned creosote.''
->''She twines her spines up slowly towards the boiling sun''
->''And when I touched her skin my fingers ran with blood."''

--> -- The Handsome Family, "Far From Any Road"

* ''Film/BoneTomahawk'': A Western-horror in which a posse led by the local sheriff takes on a CannibalTribe of ContemporaryCavemen.