I’m currently working on a horror western short film, working title Phantom of the Prairie, inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s work, like No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian. The film is told as a campfire story as a cowboy tells the horrific tale of a creature that stalks the desert, killing and eating lone travellers and leaving towns and communities abandoned. The storyteller reveals this story to be nothing more than a legend until the creature is sitting right across from him, waiting for the fire to die.

I want to make this film atmospheric and slow, with a focus on visuals like most Western films. The film is dialogue-heavy, with narration provided by the main storyteller. I love the idea of having an open-ended ending so the audience can theorise about this creature and its relationship with the storyteller. With a strong script and engaging visuals, I’m hoping to create something mysterious and heavy in a genre that I feel is unrepresented.

These are my rough thumbnails and boards for the project, as this is a work in progress. I plan to develop this concept more with artwork, character designs and hopefully a fully animated short in the future.